Blu-ray Review: The Hangover Part II

After the huge success of 2009’s The Hangover, a sequel seemed inevitable. Two years later, The Hangover Part II made over 500 billion at the box office, worldwide. It was no doubt a smash hit, and it is likely a third go round for the Wolf Pack is in the works. It’s unfortunate, with all the success, that The Hangover Part II is such a bad movie. The sequel is simple re-tread, and the worst part is it is not funny. In fact the movie is shockingly unfunny.

The movie begins in the same way as its predecessor. Phil (Bradley Cooper) is on the phone and utters the line “It’s happened again.” He’s exactly right. The trio of Phil, Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) are once again suffering from collective amnesia and are missing a member of their party. However this time they haven’t lost the groom. Instead they have lost Stu’s soon to be brother-in-law who is only sixteen years old. The trio plus Doug, the missing groom from the first movie, have all traveled to Thailand to attend Stu’s wedding. It seems Stu has divorced Jade (Heather Graham), dumped his girlfriend, and has found love with Lauren (Jamie Chung), who is a native of Thailand.

Stu wants to impress Lauren’s father so he agrees to have the wedding in her native country where her parents still live. Lauren’s brother, Teddy (Mason Lee) is a child prodigy attending college in the U.S. He is also the apple of Lauren’s father’s eye. After a relaxed night of drinking beers on the beach with the young Teddy, Phil, Stu, and Alan awaken in a rundown hotel in Bangkok with no memory of the night before. What they do know is that Teddy is missing and they have to find him if Stu hopes to marry his sister the next day.

Basically The Hangover Part II tried to up the ante and outdo the gags in the first one. Instead of Vegas they are in Bangkok, a city where apparently anything can happen. Instead of a baby they find a little monkey wearing a Rolling Stones jacket. They also find Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) who might be able to offer them some clues if he wasn’t high on cocaine. I’m not sure how or why Mr. Chow was in Bangkok, but they had to work him in somehow. They also find a severed finger that they are pretty sure belongs to Teddy, since it is wearing his class ring. Instead of funny, the whole situation is a bit frightening.

Article Author: Sherry Lipp

Sherry writes mostly music and DVD reviews, and on occasion she gets to do an interview. She plays the guitar, loves to read, watch movies, and write. Sherry also is a gluten free food blogger, and enjoys coming up with grain and sugar free recipes.

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