The Hangover Part II. Rated MA15+ (strong sexual references, nudity, coarse language and drug use). 95 minutes. Directed by Todd Phillips. Screenplay by Craig Mazin, Scot Armstrong and Todd Phillips.
As Stu (Ed Helms) finally prepares to marry the beautiful Lauren (Jamie Chung) in Thailand, he wisely avoids having another buck’s party and, instead, settles for a quiet beer (just one) around the fire on the nearby beach with his friends Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifianakis), Doug (Justin Bartha) and Lauren’s younger ‘boy-genius’ brother Teddy (Mason Lee) who have all made the trip to the resort in Thailand for the big event. But their calm and nostalgic seaside reminiscence of their big hangover weekend in Vegas are quickly shattered when they find themselves waking up in a sleazy hotel room in Bangkok – with no sign of the precious young Teddy.
Sequels of any kind are often peculiar beasts – and, at first glance, this follow-up to the box office smash The Hangover (2009) certainly has its share of peculiarities. Phillips and his team have made no effort whatsoever to change the blueprint – with Bangkok replacing Las Vegas and Teddy replacing the hapless Doug. Bewildered girlfriends still wait anxiously by the telephone for updates and the good old ‘race-against-time’ formula kicks in right on cue.
What works undeniably, however, is the simple fact that it’s just nothing less than great fun spending yet another ridiculously high-stakes 24 hours in the company of our impossibly irresponsible friends. Didn’t they learn anything in Vegas?!
Helms, Cooper and Galifianakis throw themselves into the tasks at hand with sheer abandon, but it is the re-introduction of Ken Jeong as the outrageous Mr Chow that absolutely sets the tone for all this movie will be. The Hangover’s unexpected bromance-inspired heart and soul of friends bonding for life in extraordinary circumstances is banished – replaced by a crueller, in-your-face through-line of humiliation that often just seems as though Phillips is more determined to ‘push the envelope’ than understand why we cared as much as we did about his characters the first time around.
But ultimately, we do – thanks in no small way to the big star of this film, Bangkok. Revealing itself to be a city of spectacular contradictions, it instantly rises to the occasion to become more than a match for our fearless, fun-loving friends – who, in some strange way, we hope will never grow up. Which is more than likely the point.
This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.
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