I’m going to be totally honest!
There’s no way they could’ve improved on the original HANGOVER which became the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time! Who would’ve foreseen a worldwide theatrical gross of $467 million back in 2009? After all, any follow-up would lose some its freshness, originality and unexpected shock factor.
But I’m here to tell you that HANGOVER PART II comes surprisingly close!
The film’s timeframe picks up two years after Las Vegas. And Stu the dentist (Ed Helms), is about to head to Thailand to wed the beautiful Lauren (Jamie Chung) at an upscale affair arranged by her father, a prominent Thai doctor.
But make no mistake, there’s no love lost between the bride’s father and the groom—especially when dad announces that in his country they don’t recognize dentists as doctors!
Oh, almost forgot. Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and the bride’s 18 year old brother Teddy (Mason Lee) are coming along on the trip to Asia!
But Stu’s taking no chances. The last thing he wants is a repeat of the Vegas experience, opting instead for a simple and subdued, one-beer-only wedding brunch by the campfire on the beach for the final night.
Great Plan!
But somehow things backfire into sex-filled, drug-induced calamity as the boys find themselves waking the next morning in a seedy hotel with a cigarette smoking monkey—in Bangkok! And, of course, the bride’s younger brother is missing.
Worse yet, no one has any memory of how they ended up there.
There IS one clue though. Stu mysteriously is now sporting a fresh Mike Tyson-style facial tattoo. And it’s his wedding day.
What follows is a wild search for the kid through the streets and dumps of Bangkok while trying to figure out what happened last night—all of which turns disturbingly hilarious.
At one very low point Stu even toys with staying permanently in Bangkok and open a little dental practice that offers happy endings…..
Funny and extremely crude throughout as writer, producer and director Todd Phillips tries to out-raunch the raunch factor at every turn.
And if he doesn’t get it all done within the body of the film, he definitely completes it with the still pictures sprinkled throughout the movie’s end-credits, which brought on the loudest laughs from our screening audience!
How did they miss out on an NC-17 rating here?
What happened in Vegas may have stayed there. But what now goes down in Bangkok….is SO WRONG.
Everyone’s back along with a few surprises plus Paul Giamatti and Mike Tyson.
One local industry insider probably summed it up best with the following description of the comedy:
"It’s a toss-up between what you need more after watching this: A Shower—a Confessional—or BOTH!"
The highly anticipated HANGOVER PART II is expected to produce near record breaking (frontloaded) box-office receipts this holiday weekend for which I’m raising 3-1/2 out of 5 rebooted fingers.
Catch JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES On Radio:
Friday mornings on NewsRadio KMBZ AM & FM and on RADIO BACH, Kansas City’s HD Classical Station.
Also Friday afternoon’s on the new 99.7-THE POINT.
And ANYTIME on Time-Warner Cable’s K.C. ON DEMAND and now also on NEBRASKA ON DEMAND!
dicks galore
Haven’t seen that many swinging dicks in a mainstream movie before. Can’t take the chicks with dicks scene. Show me good old fashion pussy anyday.