With the incredible success of The Hangover, writer/director/producer Todd Phillips decided to cash in with the appropriately titled sequel The Hangover Part II . What he ends up giving audiences is a formulaic film that really doesn't steer away in any direction from the first.
If you are a fan of The Hangover, then you will probably really enjoy The Hangover Part II because it's pretty much the exact same movie. I can appreciate when filmmakers attempt to recreate the magic of their original film when they are creating a sequel, but there is a line between keeping true to the original stories and characters, and just re-shooting the same movie. This isn't to say that The Hangover Part II is an exact shot for shot remake, such as Michael Haneke's Funny Games, but many of the jokes and situations are the same as in the original. Think Austin Powers and its sequels.
The basic story is that Stu is getting married in Thailand, and Phil decides to get the boys together for a bachelor party even though Stu is reluctant to do so. They eventually all agree to have the bachelor party, and decide to take Teddy, Stu's 16 year old future brother in law along for the ride. Again, they all wake up hung over and unable to remember any of the events of the previous night, and they also discover that they are missing Teddy. As a team they must retrace the night in order to try to locate their lost companion. Sound familiar?
Overall the comedic talents of Zach Galifianakis, who was really the funniest character in the original, seemed to be squandered away. He had occasional funny moments, but he didn't have any lines that stand out like in the The Hangover. The remaining cast appeared to just run through the motions of trying to track down Teddy, and didn't add much comedic value. Mike Tyson makes another cameo, and it was funny seeing him in the position that he was in.
I can't help but to think that telling the same story, but in a different city is a bad idea. There really is no point in doing this other than to exploit the success of the first, but I guess that was most sequels do anyways. I am sure that many movie goers that loved the first one will find The Hangover Part II to be funny. With that said, I would still recommend to wait for it to come out on DVD instead of going to the theater. There is no sense in paying the ticket price to see a movie that you have already seen.
Perhaps for The Hangover Part III the gang will celebrate the wedding of Alan in Johannesburg, he will slip ruffies into everybody bachelor party Pepsi, they will lose Phil's dog while being unable to remember the night before, have run ins with the Chinese Triads, and Mr. Chow will be nude throughout. There is your set up Mr. Phillips. Let's get to work.
2/5
No comments:
Post a Comment