In the summer of 2009, The Hangover, the story of a Las Vegas bachelor party gone tastelessly awry, was the movie to see. It took in $467 million in worldwide box office — the highest gross ever for an R-rated comedy — and made Zach Galifianakis a star. Now, the ill-fated party boys are back, in Bangkok this time, with The Hangover Part II. Is their Eastern misadventure as much fun as the original Vegas version? (Watch the movie's trailer.)
No, this is just a tired attempt to cash in again: It's "more of the same, and yet less," says Stephanie Zacharek at Movieline. The sequel has the same structure and cast as the first, but none of the untamed charm and "ingenious loopiness." This time around, the contrived, overly tailored "writing and direction smell more like marketing than actual filmmaking."
"REVIEW: The Hangover Part II Is a buddy movie that's nobody's friend"
C'mon, it's appreciably adequate: The Hangover Part II is "a rock-solid mainstream comedy," says Nathan Rabin at The Onion's A.V. Club. Director Todd Phillips has stuck to the "winning formula" and simply inserted his winning cast, with their "rightly vaunted chemistry," into Bangkok. A higher raunch factor makes up for the deja vu and even though the movie aspires to be more darkly dangerous than it is, Phillips "has a lucrative franchise to protect" and had to play it safe.
"The Hangover Part II"
The first film wasn't funny either: I don't find either of the movies all that amusing, says Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. In both, "grown men cast off the shackles of everyday existence, leaving behind girlfriends, wives, parents and jobs in order to play, feel, live." To me, "these nominal comedies... [are] better thought of as tragedies."
"3 men and a monkey-baby"
