"The Hangover Part II" Contrived, Forced, Still Dated, Nearly Boring


 

    Yes, I know. Why am I actually following through with my commitment to watching all of The Hangover movies? I don't know, but sadly I am quite underwhelmed to say the least. This movie clearly understands at least a little bit what made the first one decent, if dated. It knows that it was fun the last time around to go backtracking around this city, finding out about all of these crazy, stupid they did the night before. Except this time, they're in Bangkok, and oooh it's so much more exotic. Except it's just all so much more contrived, and the end result is you laugh less, and then basically everything problematic about it just kind of screams in your face. Let's talk about it.

    This film is trying to replicate a formula without putting in the work or dedication to what made it possible for viewers to feel even a little invested in the film. This time around it isn't Doug who is lost and potentially in danger, it's Teddy. And if you're like me you just had to search up what his name was because his character was just that unmemorable. No one cares that Teddy was kidnapped, we just met him and by the end of the film you literally learn nothing about him either, so it's hard to care that they found him, I mean it's not even his wedding.

    And honestly, it's hard to feel like the characters have really come together any closer after this film. I think I disliked Alan even more in this film. He has exactly three contributions to this film: driving a boat that he crashes, remembering that they went to a strip club, and being racist. That's literally it. Look, me personally I would find it hard to forgive someone for drugging me once, but how do you stay friends with someone after drugging you twice, and also nearly getting you killed by inviting some crime lord. The barely-held together strings of disbelief have simply snapped under the weight of just how forced and stupid the film becomes.

    My complaints about Mr. Chow remain the same. He's still so bad. Like it's clearly fake too because they have real Asian people speaking English with an Asian accent in the film too. I just found it so hard to care about this film in any capacity when it just felt like the jokes fell flat, it just felt like they were showing off all of these "cool, new, Asian places," and they made sure to do some callbacks to the first film just for good measure. Nothing about it felt over the top or really shocking, it just felt like someone was making sure it hit the right beats to keep the story moving, and that's the worst thing that could have happened to this film.

Final Score: 45/100

    Even my sister didn't laugh at anything in this film, and we both pretty unanimously agreed this was a clear downgrade from the first one. They've stuck too close to their guns from the first one for this second film to really feel worth overlooking any of it's warts. Nothing about it feels satisfying, even the "aha!" moment where Stu realizes where Teddy has been the entire time. It largely feels like a retread down a tourist path that has become significantly more overtread and beaten than the last time you visited it. At some point you have to say, "I think I'm good on this one."

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