Movie Review: The Hangover Part 2

This week’s film was The Hangover Part 2, when the original Hangover film came out I was not particularly interested as it seemed to be the kind of brainless humour that I really struggle to get into so I decided not to watch it. As everyone I knew then started to watch it and constantly tell me that it was the funniest film they had ever seen I started to become curious, I tried on several occasions to rent it when it was out on DVD but it was always fully booked out which only seemed to further suggest that it really was as good as people had claimed. I was obviously very disappointed then when I finally got hold of a copy only to find out that it was exactly the film I thought it was and with the exceptions of a few scenes was the lowest form of base humour. I therefore made no plans to watch The Hangover Part 2 when I saw it was advertised however there was nothing else on this week so we went to see it.

Now before I start I should say that this film is not bad, but it is not good either, in fact The Hangover Part 2 could quite easily be a far east remake of the original, there is really nothing that would set this film apart from the original and it sticks to nearly the same structure but then as it is a widely acclaimed film it makes sense not to change it. As I left the cinema I would have said that I preferred this film to the original but on reflection I think that this was simply a difference in expectations, in the original I was expecting to laugh the entire time and didn’t – This time I was expecting not to laugh and did (a couple of times). Overall I found the expectation that I would find humour in the idiosyncrasy of two of the characters funny seemed a little too much like bullying for my liking, The main “comedy” character Alan is designed to be the but of the jokes however the fact that he clearly has a special outlook on life is not, for me, enough to laugh at.

As I say the film follows basically the same plot as the original; Alan, Phil and Stu phone Sasha to say they will not make it to the wedding, Then we see the start of the story up to the guys starting to drink before we cut to the “Next Morning” and see the three guys waking up and trying to piece their story back together. The baby from the original is now exchanged for a baby and they are also joined by Leslie Chow the oriental gangster from the original who was also out with them. The majority of the laughs are supposed to come from Zach Galifianakis (Alan) and Ken Jeong (Chow) who are extreme caricatures of their characters with Alan’s simpleness and Chow’s shock value expected to carry the film. But unfortunately for me, it doesn’t. Bradley Cooper (Phil) and Ed Helms (Stu) seem quite incidental to the scenes that are set up although as the uptight victim of a couple of the set pieces Ed Helms does force a few cringes, however the relationship between his fiance and him is beyond comprehension as I doubt there is any woman alive as forgiving. Overall this film is simply a darker more unpleasant version of the first which really didn’t add anything and made some of the characters just a little more unlikable.