Two years ago THE HANGOVER was released globally becoming the biggest grossing R-rated comedy ever, raking in nearly half a billion dollars in the cinema alone. So it wasn’t a huge leap to assume a sequel would be in the works and now its here with THE HANGOVER PART 2.
The film sees the reuniting of the ‘Wolfpack’, this time for a wedding in the palatial Thailand, with Stu (Ed Helms/the one that got his tooth knocked out and married a hooker) getting married to a well to do Thai family. Not wanting a repeat of the Vegas incident, Stu ops for no Stag do but is roped into having one SEALED bottle of beer with Alan (Zack Gaifianakis/The bearded weird one), Phil (Bradley Cooper/The good looking one that doesn’t have much of a personality) and Stu’s young, future brother-in-law, Teddy (Mason Lee). But of course nothing ever goes to plan with these guys and Stu (with a Tyson face tattoo), Alan (now bald) and Phil wake up in a dirty hotel somewhere in Thailand with no memory of the previous nights exploits. In the room they find a monkey and Mr Chow, the little Korean crime lord from the first film, who again likes to get out his very small penis. Of course there is one even bigger problem than the face tattoo and not knowing where they are, which is, where’s Teddy? Which is confounded with the fact that they find Teddy’s finger. So the ‘Wolfpack’ have to retrace their steps to find Teddy and get to the wedding on time.
I had reasonably low expectations walking into the cinema as the trailers weren’t up too much and seemingly showing the best bits of the film. Also I actually couldn’t remember laughing out loud at the original, I remembered enjoying the film but not really laughing. But luckily I was more than pleasantly surprised by the film. It sticks with the very crude humour that made the film a hard R in the first place but does it in a way that doesn’t seem as if it is grossly inappropriate.
The film has an incredibly slow start with the main source of comedy coming from Bradley Cooper, which you can guess, isn’t particularly funny, if at all. It isn’t until Zack Gaifianakis comes into the film that the laughs start to happen and throughout the film he produces the majority of the laughs, which isn’t exactly surprising. His relationship with the monkey and the scene in the strip club are some of the best moments. There are a number of great and surprising laughs in the film, mostly relating to Stu and what he got up too such as the ‘Fuck the Police’ scene. There is also a very good car chase (for a comedy) with Mr Chow driving, and isn’t as annoying as you would think.
There are a couple of issues with the film, stopping it from being mentioned in the same sentence as films like PORKY’S and the early NATIONAL LAPOONS. Number one the film throws too many twists and turns throughout the film such as with the Paul Giamatti’s character which starts to make the film totally ridiculous. Number two, there’s no change in the formula of the film, you could probably watch the new and old film, side-by-side and the jokes and twists would happen at the same time. Number three, the characters haven’t changed in the slightest, which is nice for a spell but begins to feel tired three quarters of the way through.
Overall the film did have some fantastically funny moments but missed the chance to be a real classic. What they can do for a possible third film that the director, Todd Philips, has teased at is a mystery. Of course remember to stay for the credits as the funniest moment in the film is when they have a look over the photos taken over the night.
THE HANGOVER PART 2 is out now.
