The Hangover: Part II - (May 26th, 2011): R
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Opening Weekend Box-Office: #1 with $85,946,294
Domestic Box-Office Gross to-date: $203,800,000
Gross Revenue: $355,300,000
Budget: $80 million
Director: Todd Phillips
The popularity of the original did not necessitate that Warner Bros. engage in an overtly strong marketing campaign for The Hangover: Part II, especially when the film received so much media attention prior to its release due to a number of different conflicts. The most widely-known controversy included the addition of Mel Gibson to the cast as a tattoo artist in a “surprise” cameo…Mike Tyson had revived his career (or at least took it off life-support) by partnering with the Wolfpack in the first installment, so why couldn’t everyone’s favorite disgraced Academy Award winner do the same? After the surprisingly strong uproar from both the cast and crew, director Todd Phillips decided to replace Gibson with undoubted crowd-pleaser Liam Neeson, but even that cameo went up in smoke as conflicted scheduling prevented Neeson from participating in re-shoots and the role ultimately had to be recast and given to Nick Cassavetes (on a side note, a cameo doesn’t really work if nobody recognizes the actor as someone famous). The second, and funnier, conflict included a tattoo lawsuit; one of the most notable scenes from the trailers included Stu waking up with a Mike Tyson tattoo, and the tattoo artist behind the design actually sued Warner Bros. for copyright infringement. Yet, in the “face” of all these setbacks, trailers and promotions were everywhere, and with a Memorial Day weekend opening, The Hangover: Part II was expected to break all kinds of records…I was in Asia when Part II opened, and the international hype was astounding, so despite some speed bumps during production, I still had high hopes for this sequel.
Set two years after the original, The Hangover: Part II starts with Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper), Doug (Justin Bartha), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) traveling to Thailand to celebrate Stu’s upcoming wedding to the beautiful Lauren (Jamie Chung). Though desperate for a quiet bachelor celebration, Stu, accompanied by Lauren’s brother, Teddy (Mason Lee) hesitantly joins the boys for a late-night beer on the beach. Fast forward to the next morning and the Wolfpack awakens from a drunken stupor in a decrepit Bangkok hotel, with no memory of the previous night and suddenly accompanied by gangster Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong). Stu instantaneously begins to panic, especially when they find the now-missing Teddy’s severed finger (identified by his Stanford class ring) in the room. Desperately trying to not only piece together the events from the previous night but also locate Lauren’s little brother, the Wolfpack engages in a number of insane scenarios, which include (but are not limited to) a chain-smoking monkey, violent Buddhist monks, Thai prostitutes, and Interpol agents. In retrospect, the past events in Vegas seem like a cake-walk now that “the three best friends that anyone could have” must recover from a wild night overseas.
Given my overall level of disappointment with this sequel and the fact that the story is my main point of contention, I’m going to break from my traditional review sequencing and discuss the negatives of The Hangover: Part II before I address any positive elements. The most popular early complaints concerning Part II had to do with the fact that the sequel was too much like the original, and, at first, I wouldn’t accept this as a valid criticism…everyone loved The Hangover, so who wouldn’t want to see more of the original magic, right? Wrong…Part II echoes the original so strongly that you cannot help but wonder whether the filmmakers got lazy or just arrogant; I can accept that the Wolfpack messed up again and got drunk in a different city and lost a different friend, but when the group ends up in a police station (again), has to deal with the inexplicable presence of a wild animal (again), finds that Stu drunkenly fell in love with a stripper (again), and then subsequently proceed to sing about their misfortunes (again), things start to feel a little redundant. At one point during the film, Phil tells the group to empty their pockets in effort to piece together the previous night, claiming that everyone “knows the drill”…yeah, so does the audience, and that’s why we don’t need to be shown everything again. I’m sure that if I had seen Part II without having seen the original, I would be singing the praises of a wild comedy, but unfortunately, Todd Phillips already showed me the same wild comedy a few years ago.
Despite my frustration with The Hangover: Part II, I can still acknowledge that the film has some truly funny moments. If there is one noticeable difference between the original and the sequel, I would say that Part II did far more to earn its R-rating, playing with the boundaries in relation to dirty humor. Of the core cast, the only true standout is Ken Jeong, who pushes the Leslie Chow character to its limits for the comedic benefit of the audience. Where both Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis seem to stick to the comedic formula that was strictly established for their characters in the first film with an annoying level of tenacity, Ken Jeong clearly has fun and experiments; the end result is hysterical. If you are a fan of either The Hangover or the cast, I feel that you are most obligated to eventually see Part II and will get some considerable enjoyment out of it, but again, there is absolutely nothing special that you need to rush to the theater to experience.
As I said in my review for Kung Fu Panda 2, a family film didn’t stand a chance at the box-office when put up against the follow-up to the most surprisingly successful R-rated comedy of all time. Earning just under $86 million in ticket sales during the three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend, The Hangover: Part II broke nearly every existing record related to live-action comedy you can think of, and all despite lukewarm early critical reaction. An international presence in 40 countries has helped Warner Bros. earn a worldwide gross of over $350 million, but domestic word-of-mouth is significantly slowing the momentum of this comedy, as the U.S. film gross dropped 64% in the second weekend. The conflict between a strong opening and weak critical reaction didn’t seem to phase Hollywood execs in the least, as talks are already underway for a third Hangover that would see the Wolfpack trying to break Alan out of an insane asylum...let’s hope they don’t get drunk and forget the location of the asylum where he is being held. The Hangover: Part II may be good for a laugh, but if you’re going to the theater this weekend looking for a quality R-rated comedy, your time is clearly better spent seeing Bridesmaids.
Overall Recommendation: Medium
