Metacritic: 44% (Mixed or Average Reviews)
Rotten Tomatoes: 35% (Rotten)
Almost 2 years after Todd Phillips surprise blockbuster The Hangover, the much anticipated sequel has finally been released. It basically picks up 2 years after the first film, with Stu (Ed Helms) playing the role of the groom-to-be. Stu’s wedding is in Thailand, much to the chagrin of his friends Doug (Justin Bartha), Phil (Bradley Cooper), and Alan (Zach Galafianakis). Tension builds between Alan and the bride’s brother Teddy (Mason Lee), whom Alan believes is getting in the way of the friendship he shares with the “Wolfpack” of Stu, Doug, and Phil. An unanticipated bachelor party bender leads to a night of drunken tomfoolery, and a missing friend they have to find before the wedding!
Sound familiar? It should. The story is very similar to the first film, almost a carbon copy. Does that make it a bad film? Not necessarily. The main criticism of this sequel seems to be that it borrows too much from the original film. However, I do not believe that this precludes it from being a good film. When fans of the first film bought tickets to see this movie, I’m sure they were looking for the same thing I was, more drunken hijinks! With a name like The Hangover, it would be very difficult to make the film about anything other than an all-night bender. It’s pretty clear that fans are enjoying this film much more than the critics (As of now, the film has a 94% “liked” rating by fans on Rotten Tomatoes), and I believe this is because of different expectations between the two groups. The critics are looking for a film that takes the plot further, expands on relationships between characters, and offers something new and exciting. The people who bought $45 million worth of tickets this Memorial Day weekend, however, are happy seeing essentially the same movie as long as it still has the same raunchy, unexpected humor.
Acting: B+
Overall, this is the same brilliant cast that made the first film such an incredible success story. Zach Galafianakis is hilarious as Alan, socially-awkward “stay-at-home son”, and Bradley Cooper brings a needed sense of confidence and charisma to the group. Ed Helms is good as the stuffy dentist Stu, but I believe the film suffers by making him into the “main character”, as he really doesn’t have the skills to carry the whole film.
Supporting Cast: C
Mason Lee, son of director Ang Lee, is absolutely terrible as Teddy, the 16 year old genius brother-in-law of Stu. Honestly, every line he delivered was so forced, wooden, and unnatural. Hopefully he can improve his delivery with age, but he should have never been given such a crucial role in a major film. The supporting cast grade is buoyed by the hilarious performance of Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow.
Script: B-
This was the most difficult portion of the film to judge. I think the script was lazy at times, and relied way to much on conventions from the previous films, but it was not completely unoriginal. There are still many unexpected twists and turns, and may laughs to be had. Also, the writers did a great job including Mr. Chow just enough so that he was funny, but not intolerable. However, the writers missed a huge opportunity to develop Doug as a character, and the script could have branched off a bit more from the original than they chose to.
Overall Rating: B-
