Movie Review: The Hangover Part II

There's every reason in the world for this movie to suck. It was basically the exact same story in the exact same way as the first film just in a different city. It began predictably and ended predictably and, yes, a lot of the sequences were a direct copy of the original. But while this film had a repetitive nature to it, this sequel seriously didn't disappoint one bit.

Sure, it wasn't quite as good as the first one just because the concept wasn't as fresh as it was two years ago, but The Hangover Part II still successfully achieved a rare balance of character and vulgarity that made the original an instant hit. The movie was still raunchy as f*ck, but this time, the vulgarity was more hardcore and offensive - often times more disturbing - that oddly left me with tears of laughter and my jaw stuck to the floor. Indeed, the whole thing was still unbelievably hysterical.

Thanks to the actors who, yet again, succeeded in their roles admirably. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis carried the movie briskly and with real chemistry. I actually thought the hilarious trifecta gave stronger performances compared to the last one. I mean, Bradley Cooper seemed to be a much stronger leader on this film. Ed Helms gave a pretty excellent take on his character, Stu, and I felt like he grounded the film with his descent into insanity with everything Bangkok threw at him. His random reactions throughout the film were beyond hilarious!!

But, yes, it was still Zach Galifianakis who had the biggest share of the film's funniest dialogues. No offense to anyone, but NO ONE plays a weirdo better than Zach. He's certainly far from a versatile actor, but he had this one type of character down to a tee. He had moments where he seemed innocently offensive rather than deliberately offensive, which made things even funnier.

Oh, and I'll just throw it in here: the cinematography, soundtrack, writing and direction were all fantastic the whole way through. No complaints whatsoever.

Ultimately, this sequel was extremely entertaining. I understand why people would criticize this film for lack of originality or just outright laziness and I wouldn't even say that it didn't annoy me to see so much of the same things happen all over again, but who would even go into this film expecting some sort of surprising variation to the story if this exact "formula" actually worked before?

Personally, all it needed was the same level of sustenance the previous one had throughout its running time with it's incredible humor and charm and the film's actually good to go. Just saying.

RATING: 7/10