The Hangover Part II

Every sequel is haunted by the success of the original and the fear fans have that the new one won't live up to the original. You rarely get The Godfather II and The Empire Strikes Back. Mostly, you get Speed 2, Grease 2, Caddyshack 2 or Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. The Hangover Part II is somewhere in between.

Phil (Bradley "See My Interview With Willie Waffle By Clicking Here" Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) are back and a wedding is in the future, again. Stu's life has turned around for the better. He has fallen in love, become engaged to young hottie Lauren (Jamie Chung), and planned a massive luxury ceremony in her homeland of Thailand. Already not very well liked by his future father-in-law, Stu is walking on eggshells, and refuses to have a bachelor party in an attempt to avoid a repeat of what happened at Doug's bachelor party in The Hangover.

On the other hand, you are buying a ticket with hopes it will happen again, and it does (kinda). In what seems to be a wholesome bonfire celebration on the beach at the majestic resort hotel where the wedding is taking place, the guys calmly celebrate with Lauren's college-aged brother, Teddy (Mason Lee), but wake up the next morning in a flop house in Bangkok. They aren't sure where Teddy went, but they do have his finger.

Did Stu, Phil and Alan do it again?

Where is Teddy?

Can they find him and save the wedding?

Co-writer/director Todd Phillips and the writing team of Scot Armstrong and Craig Mazin have a massive conundrum to work their way out of in The Hangover Part II. While they can't duplicate everything that happened in the first movie, they do need to deliver a similar story and antics to keep the hard core fans satisfied. I don't envy them, but they do find some success (and give you plenty of photos to see during the credits).

Phillips and the gang have come up with a reasonable explanation why the guys have had another crazy night of debauchery, which is all of the excuse we wanted to see the movie. It's plausible and doesn't make Phil, Stu and Alan look like a trio of has-beens who have escaped from Celebrity Rehab on another bender. They aren't pathetic. They are guys who find themselves in some trouble due to actions beyond their control this time. Plus, we get to enjoy the supporting characters just as much as the leads. That monkey is a star!

The Hangover Part II mostly suffers from a slower pace and different tone. It's a more serious movie, yet, the scale of the craziness feels too unreal. The incidents are beyond what we would expect anyone to encounter, while Galifianakis makes Alan almost psychotic at moments, instead of being oblivious or immature like he was in The Hangover.

Go see The Hangover Part II. It might not be great or legendary, but you are going to laugh.

The Hangover Part II is rated R for pervasive language, strong sexual content including graphic nudity, drug use and brief violent images.