The Hangover 2
Reviewed by James Cheethamjamescheetham.jcc@gmail.com
Like any summer sequel, The Hangover 2 attempts to abide by the three rules of reaping high box office figures; bigger, better and flashier, and it manages to achieve all but the most vital. Unfortunately it is far from better.
Rather than making any effort to rejuvenate the narrative beats of the last film, The Hangover 2 simply devolves into the first film but set in Bangkok. The tiger is replaced with a drug running monkey and the baby is swapped for Mr Chow, Chow being the only plot device that manages to bring in some semblance of hilarity.
Instead of coming across as the light-hearted disaster-com of the first film, The Hangover 2 almost seems to try to approach the genre of dark comedy, minus the comedy. The hung-over patriots are now slugged through a ream of horrific situations involving one getting shot, the dismemberment of fingers and one drunkenly having sex with another man. Any moments that could have allowed for comedy are killed with unintelligent dialogue, one example being the scene that reveals to the horrified Stu that he had sex with a man, the humour being shot down mercilessly with distasteful writing; “I shoot my load into you and you shoot your load onto the floor.” Awkward silence. Any moments of enjoyable word play come from Mr Chow, “Hola! City of Squalor!” but these are few and far between.
Rather than develop what will no doubt become a sequel laden franchise into an unexpected comedy romp, The Hangover 2 makes no effort to switch things up and with it hitting the same beats as the last, the ridiculous surprises that made the first offering so enjoyable are now gone.
2/5
Rather than making any effort to rejuvenate the narrative beats of the last film, The Hangover 2 simply devolves into the first film but set in Bangkok. The tiger is replaced with a drug running monkey and the baby is swapped for Mr Chow, Chow being the only plot device that manages to bring in some semblance of hilarity.
Instead of coming across as the light-hearted disaster-com of the first film, The Hangover 2 almost seems to try to approach the genre of dark comedy, minus the comedy. The hung-over patriots are now slugged through a ream of horrific situations involving one getting shot, the dismemberment of fingers and one drunkenly having sex with another man. Any moments that could have allowed for comedy are killed with unintelligent dialogue, one example being the scene that reveals to the horrified Stu that he had sex with a man, the humour being shot down mercilessly with distasteful writing; “I shoot my load into you and you shoot your load onto the floor.” Awkward silence. Any moments of enjoyable word play come from Mr Chow, “Hola! City of Squalor!” but these are few and far between.
Rather than develop what will no doubt become a sequel laden franchise into an unexpected comedy romp, The Hangover 2 makes no effort to switch things up and with it hitting the same beats as the last, the ridiculous surprises that made the first offering so enjoyable are now gone.
2/5
