The Hangover Part II

Director: Todd Phillips
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zac Galifianakis and Justin Bartha
DVD release: 30 November 2011
Rated: MA 15+

We’ve been there before but the trip still has funny moments. What does it matter if the plot lines are page after page the first The Hangover with a change of location? Sure it’s a rehash, after all many television series repeat the same basic plots most of the time. The four rambunctious ratbags of the The Hangover “Wolf Pack” are extremely likable, and go through their paces well. They endeared themselves the first time round, and the fans will certainly be paying to see them do it all again - and nobody dare say the monkey steals the show.

Todd Phillips hit the success button with the 2009 box office smasher, sees no reason to alter the formula, except to choose another colourful location where anything goes, including a missing student. The Hangover II begins two years after the first adventure.

Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) are reunited to attend Stu’s wedding to Lauren (Jamie Chung), an event to be celebrated in Thailand with her family at an exotic resort. The team players comfortably slip back into the same characters: Phil with leadership qualities but easily waylaid, Stu the anxious dentist, Alan the painful bumbling hanger-on creating most of their problems.

Things don’t get off to an auspicious start when at dinner Lauren’s unctuous father compares Stu to a stodgy rice pudding, and Alan almost has the marriage cancelled with his reply speech. Stu insists there’s to be no bachelor party, that being their downfall in Vegas before Doug’s wedding, but succumbs to joining his mates at a beach bonfire and a round of beers in sealed bottles. They’re joined by Lauren’s polite teenage brother Teddy (Mason Lee) a Stanford student and virtuoso cello player. He’s a pain in the neck to prickly and insecure Alan, who feels he’s muzzling into their Wolf Pack.

Of course things go wildly wrong. Phil, Stu, and Alan wake from an extreme hangover to find themselves in a squalid Bangkok hotel room, miles away from the resort where they sat round the fire on the beach. Alan now sports a shaved head, poor Stu a fresh Mike Tyson tattoo around one eye, there’s a severed finger in a glass of water bearing a Stanford ring, and an aggressive monkey without the organ grinder. There’s another member of the party now, gangsta whack-job Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) but no sign of Teddy or Doug.

Turns out Doug is safely back at the resort, but it seems Bangkok has swallowed Teddy. So the remaining Wolf Pack sets out to (a) work out what happened that fatal night and (b) find the elusive Teddy. Mr. Chow gives little encouragement with his ominous remark, “Bangkok has him”. Unable to return without Lauren’s dad’s only son, the boys search the grottiest streets of the capital crossing paths with a Buddhist monk who’s taken a vow of silence, Russian drug dealers, a seedy tattoo artist (Nick Cassavetes) and crime boss Kingsley (Paul Giamatti). Discovering to their shame, the night of reckless abandon is far more extreme than they ever imagined. Mike Tyson does a cameo.

Todd Phillips (Due Date) directs with self-assurance. He’s on the right rails - it all worked so well before. Bradley Cooper (Limitless), Ed Helms (The Office - US Version) and Zach Galifianakis (Due Date) are cheerfully back in monkey business, but Justin Bartha (New York, I Love You) is less involved, being stuck at the resort. Ken Jeong (All About Steve) plays it so over the top he needs a ladder to get down, while Paul Giamatti (Barney’s Version) seems lost amid the general chaos. Action scenes include a crazy car chase through Bangkok streets which, if real, would have killed dozens. The traffic in that city makes Rome look good.

While there’s a luxury hotel featured, many of the street scenes in Bangkok seem slummed up for the shoot - not sure it would have tourist department approval. You expect raunchy gags in poor taste and they keep coming, however there are a couple of shots in the montage of still photos at the end of the film which seriously stretch the envelope.

Bridesmaids, which might be considered something of a female version of Hangover, actually has a smarter script. Yet no unwise critic will deter sales appeal of the latest boy’s night on the town. It’s not rocket science, but what can you do? One hesitates to think where the next one will lead.

John Bale