Bradley Cooper Phil
Ed Helms Stu
Zach Galifinakis Alan
Ken Leoung Mr Chow
Directed by Todd Phillips. Written by Todd Phillips, Craig Mazin, and Scot Armstrong.
After seeing The Hangover Part II, I have come to one conclusion; this is a film
franchise with a very limited shelf life. Unless Todd Phillips and crew can come
up with something extraordinary for the third film, this is a series that will simply
continue to repeat itself. Albeit, with plot tweaks and locale changes. Watching
the second Hangover film, I was reminded of one of Todd Phillips' previous films,
Old School. Like Old School, The Hangover Part II has a few laughs but
never quite reaches full altitude. Mind you, The Hangover Part II isn't one
of those torturous sequels that will have you checking your watch. Todd Phillips,
known for his pacing issues, actually moves the film along at a decent clip.
The problem is, the big time laughs just aren't there this time. Zach Galifinakis
provides a few gut busters along the way but the muddled screenplay seems
to be continually searching for any semblance of comedic rhythm. This is
extremely evident during a chase scene through the wilds of Bangkok
involving Chow (Ken Leoung), the wolfpac, a monkey, and some
Russians. There's a ton of screaming and a ton of F bombs are
dropped but like most of the film, it's just a strained sequence that never
fully takes off. I can recount countless sequences where Todd Phillips
seems intent on having his actors turn up the volume to compensate for
the weaker screenplay. This is more than evident during the
sequence where Phil (Bradley Cooper) takes a slug in the arm
during the search for Stu's missing brother in law to be. Instead of
having Stu (Ed Helms) play off of the absurdity of the situation at
hand, director Todd Phillips has Stu (Helms) screaming and flailing
like a mental patient.
Plot: Stu (Ed Helms) has finally found love again and is planning to
wed in Thailand. After initially resisting the pleas of Phil (Bradley Cooper)
and Doug (Justin Bertha) to have yet another pre marriage blowout,
Stu eventually agrees to reunite with the Wolfpac in Thailand. Even
Alan (Zach Galifinakis) is thrown back into the mix. Alhough Stu
still harbors ill will towards Alan regarding the events of the previous
film in Las Vegas. Of course, for the Wolfpac, nothing EVER
goes according to plan. The boys once again wake up in
a stupor and once again, they have some detective work to do.
This time, it's Stu's brother in law to be that ends up MIA
in the wilds of Thailand. I'll stop there, you can decipher
the rest of the plot on your own.
The main problem with The Hangover Part II is how un natural
it seems compared to the first film. Indeed, the second film
seems unable or unwilling to trust the audience at any level.
The only natural element in the film is Zach Galinfiakis and while he gets
big laughs, he simply isn't one of those Belushiesque figures that can
take over a film and carry it to the finish line. I guess my other beef with
this film is the decision to bring back Chow and make him a semi central
character. Chow worked in the first film because he was sprinkled into
the mix in varied intervals. In heavier doses, the Chow character becomes
nothing more than a one dimensional punchline. If there's any one character
who typlifies the need for volume control in the Hangover sequel, it's Chow.
If you saw the trailer for The Hangover Part II and you thought
that it was essentially the same film as the first..... you're right. It's
the same film.... with less laughs and more volume and less
cohesion in terms of the screenplay. Even the endings are somewhat
exact, except that the ending of the second film features a rather
uneven monologue from Stu as he finally confronts his domineering
father in law. I guess this sequence is just typical of the film as
a whole. It's a sequence with huge potential and you keep waiting
and waiting for it to click but it never does.
