Director: Todd Phillips (The Hangover, Old School)
Starring: Bradley Cooper (Limitless), Zach Galifianakis (Due Date), Ed Helms ("The Office"), and Justin Bartha (Failure to Launch)
Stu (Helmes), Doug (Bartha), Phil (Cooper), and Alan (Galifianakis) are back after surviving their adventures in Las Vegas for Doug's wedding. This time around Stu is getting married. He will be getting married in Thailand and wants nothing more than a bachelor brunch with Phil and Doug in a Perkins type restaurant. Doug convinces Stu to invite Alan with to Thailand. Stu is pretty skeptical as he blames Alan for all of the crazy mayhem that happened in Vegas. Stu caves in and all four of them are headed to Thailand for Stu's big day.
After an awkward family dinner, the four guys (aka The Wolfpack)and the fiancee's younger brother, Teddy, decide to have one drink by the shore to finish the night off. With this group, one drink is just never enough. Phil and Alan wake up in a random hotel room in the middle of Bangkok not knowing how they got there or what happened the night before. They find Stu passed out in the bathtub. With Alan's shaved head and a Mike Tyson tattoo on Stu's face, they know their Vegas shenanigans happened again. The three of them call Doug to find him safe at the resort, but only to learn that Teddy has gone missing. After finding Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong), a monkey, and Teddy's finger in the hotel room, the Wolfpack must re-trace their steps to find Teddy and get back to the resort for the wedding.
Does the plot sound familiar? Unfortunately, it's almost a carbon copy of the first movie. Replace a cute baby with a monkey and Vegas for Bangkok and you have the formula to the sequel. Even Justin Bartha who went missing in the first one doesn't even get more screen time in this one. There's the infamous phone call from Phil to the fiancee saying they've screwed up again. There's a cell phone of photos that pops up in the end detailing their crazy night.
While the movie has a few chuckles in it, it was nowhere near the laugh quotient of the first movie. To me it just felt tired and that the filmmakers were trying too hard. There are so many ideas and stories that could have been told. It's called "The Hangover" not "The Bachelor Party Gone Wrong". Hangovers happen all of the time due to various circumstances. I just don't understand why the same plot and same laughs were chosen for the sequel. Watch for random cameos by Paul Giamatti and Nick Cassavetes.
RATING: ** (2 out of 5 stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment