As I sit here drinking a beer, I’m thinking back on the first Hangover movie.
Like going out 2 nights in a row, the first night is always the best. You’re hanging out with your friends, drinking and talking about things that happened since the last time you got together. You’re laughing and having the best time.
On the 2nd night, you’re dragging. Hungover and struggling to have as much fun as the night before. It’s still a good time but you know you’re just there hanging out because if you stayed home, you’re friends would call you names so you sit there struggling to get those vodka/Red Bulls down before you head home.
Welcome to The Hangover 2. The Wolf Pack is back and this time they’re even more hungover!
This time, the gang – Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms – take off for Thailand for Stu’s (Helms) wedding. But despite his best efforts to make sure there’s not another replay of Vegas, a simple beer in front of a campfire quickly stops that from happening.
They once again wake up in a haze, having to solve the mystery of what happened the night before. Instead of their bestie Doug (Justin Bartha) missing, it’s now Stu’s soon-to-be wife’s brother, Teddy (Mason Lee – Ang Lee’s son). With only a severed finger, a monkey and Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) as clues, the guys head out and try to find Teddy.
The movie has the exact same plot so you already know what the beats are and as a whole, it felt slower and about 50% as funny as the first one. Stu sings another song, there’s a kind of lame cameo from someone that appeared in the first film and there just doesn’t seem to be as much joy in this one as the last. Galifianakis has all the great laugh out loud lines but it seemed like his character was more of an annoyance this time around.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some freakin hilarious moments and I won’t spoil any of them here but a lot of it felt like the cast was going through the motions.
But, please don’t let that stop you form going to see it this weekend. It was really great to see the guys together and if anything, you’ll get some really good belly laughs.
