“It happened again”. This one quote, said fairly early on in The Hangover Part II, sums up the film perfectly, as it’s almost a carbon copy of the original. Unfortunately it lacks the one all-important element: comedy. Let’s back up a little though, and go back to where it all started. The Hangover was released a couple of years ago and became a bit of a cult hit. Whilst I was never the film’s biggest fan, I found the whole ‘lost and need to get home’ premise to be an enjoyable one, and the characters interesting.
Fast forward to 2011 and we find ourselves staring at the exact same situation, with Stu (Ed Helms) a few days away from getting married in Thailand. Traumatised by the events in The Hangover, Stu forbids any sort of bachelor party, which doesn’t go down well with best friends Phil (Bradley Cooper), Doug (Justin Bartha) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis).
[drop2] Never-the-less the group all arrive in Thailand safely, and a couple of nights before the wedding all decide to have a drink down on the beach with Stu’s 16 year old soon-to-be brother-in-law, Teddy. The scene fades to black. One by one the group wakes up in a run-down motel goodness knows where, with no memory of the events of the night before. Rather more worrying is the fact that most of Teddy is missing. I say “most of”, because his severed finger has been placed in a bowl of water. The group become involved in a bizarre sequence of events as they try to find Teddy and make their way home.I’m going to be blunt: The Hangover Part II thoroughly bored me. Throughout the 1 hour 40 minutes running time I found my mind wandering as I checked for new emails, or flicked through Twitter. The film seemed to lack any sort of spark and, more importantly, was just downright unfunny. All the actors seemed to be on autopilot, although Zach Galifianakis plays a decent crazy guy, and had I not been reviewing it I’d have probably turned the film off about halfway through.
The last time I used the Zune player it streamed the SD content really well, although it was at about half one in the morning. This time I decided to switch on at more of a peak time, 10pm, to see if BT’s wonderful restrictions would affect the performance. I’m pleased to say there were no issues what-so-ever, and I’m actually contemplating whether it’s worth cancelling my other film rental service and just using Zune.
Impressive service, but a shame about the film!
Ouninpohja
Never liked the first one to be honest.
I just thought it was a mix of things that had been done a million times before but not as well.
I mean a movie that’s going to be remembered for things like a retired boxer playing the drums is hardly a good thing is it?
That’s just my opinion though.
skibadee
I liked it liked the first one as well.
seedaripper1973
Oh dear, there is some very poor tastes in film here…Watched the first one, meh…got half way through the second and turned it off..both are shite to be fair (and i think the first only got credit due to Tysons’ atrocious acting)
fattyuk
All personal views, as someone who knows Vegas and has stayed in caesers palace the film is actually funny as fuck simple as lol tyson was just a Easter egg really for the first film anyways as he lives in Vegas, boxed in Vegas etc actually gonna have to crack the first film on now I think! always cheers me up (34 weeks till I fly back out there!)