The Hangover Part 2

Roofie yourself and grab your smoking monkey, we're reviewing The Hangover Part 2!

It's pretty funny, but it's exactly like the first one. I mean, EXACTLY. It's as if someone took the script from the first movie, took out certain words, then put in other words like the most boring mad lib. And also every word is penis. I'm not even going to bother with a summary of the plot. Just take your Hangover mad libs sheet, scratch out "Las Vegas" and put in penis Bangkok.

I can see that they're trying to make nods from the funniest parts of the first film, but instead of taking those ideas and adding to them or switching them around, or making completely different ideas, they just reuse the exact same ones. Stu(Ed Helms) seems to have forgotten the lesson he learned in the first movie and for some reason has to completely relearn it all over again. Alan(Zach Galifianakis) is still a man-baby, Phil(Bradley Cooper) is still a smooth talking womanizer and Doug(Justin Bartha) is still out of the picture(Why not include him this time around?).

They do this interesting thing in the beginning of the movie: First, they set up Alan living with his parents and doing nothing with his life. Then they introduce Teddy, the little brother of Stu's fiance, who's young but a masterful musician and already in Stamford. Then they provide tension between the two of them. Then at the end it's completely resolved for no particular reason. I was really hoping that they would let Alan grow as a character this time around and have him realize that he only feels threatened by Teddy because Teddy's doing so much while he's doing nothing, but no. Same ol' man baby.

Even the ending is similar to the first, except there are at least 5 more this time(Yes, it has Lord of the Rings syndrome). What's annoying is how well everything wraps up nicely. No one, including Stu's fiance, her father, or her kid, brother who went through hell, seem too off put by these guys' grand fuck up. It just gives a feeling like there was truly no other possible reason for this movie's(and the next) creation other than to make more money.

Stepping aside from the cookie cutter script and story, the humor is fairly funny. I found myself laughing and was entertained when I wasn't grossed or awkwarded out. It's more gruesome, darker, bloodier and includes more penises(also boobs), but there are laughable moments. No, it's not nearly as funny as the first one, but if you can forgive the dejavu, you will enjoy it.

Other observations: the soundtrack is very obnoxious. A movie like this may have one or two sequences with no dialogue and popular rap/rock/pop music playing, but this has at least ten. It gets old. On the plus side, there are some nice shots of Thailand with some cool sequences, not that you should see it just for the beautiful landscape.

Overall, only see it if you really liked the first one. Not loved, because then you'll be too hung up on how similar and unoriginal it is. But the humor is funny enough for a viewing. A matinee, that is.