Alan (Galifianakis), Stu (Helms), and Phil (Cooper) wake up in another hotel room with no memory of what happened. This time, they’re in Thailand, and in an attempt to piece together the events, they’ll have to encounter monks, monkeys, and the genitalia of transvestites.
It’s no accident that “Groundhog Day” (1993) doesn’t have a sequel. A comedy based on an interesting idea can be great for a one-off, but trying to replicate it inevitably leads to something like “Home Alone 2: Lost In New York” (1992). The creators of the blockbuster “The Hangover” (2009) decided to ignore this lesson. The result is a rather pale imitation, so literally following the template of the first film that it feels more like a remake.
The first film, released in 2009, was a mix of “Very Bad Things” and “Memento”: a cleverly constructed comedy with goofballs, centered around a bachelor party, but without the most interesting parts. The characters had to reconstruct the specific details of their debauchery throughout the film, like in some “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” episode. When making the sequel, director Todd Phillips made the logical decision to move the action from Sin City to a more chaotic location: Bangkok. After a rather vague setup – dentist Stu (Ed Helms) goes to his wedding with his Thai bride (Jamie Chung) – the gang reunites and embarks on an adventure through another unfriendly metropolis. But where the first film surprised with one unexpected element after another (a prostitute! a tiger! Tyson!), this time the writers decided to simply use the “Find and Replace” command.
Familiar Faces and Exotic Places
There’s their own animal – a malicious monkey in a Rolling Stones jacket. Their own representative of the oldest profession – a stripper who, however, has a secret. Their own Kanye West songs, their own postcard views in the opening credits, a second bride, and another rambling speech from Helms at the end of the film… Perhaps these repetitions were a conscious choice, but as a result, the characters’ antics seem not reckless, but boring.
The humor here is even more vulgar than before: there are disgustingly funny episodes, most of which involve the never-shutting-up idiot Alan (Zach Galifianakis) or the narcissistic criminal boss Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong). But the infamous character of the tattoo artist, who was initially supposed to be played by Mel Gibson, then Liam Neeson, and finally embodied on screen by Nick Cassavetes, appears, unfortunately, only for the sake of appearing. But while the film manages to show Bangkok as a dirty and dilapidated hole, it clearly has a problem with good jokes. One of the storylines, involving the character of Paul Giamatti, is completely devoid of funny or intriguing moments.
Lost in Translation: A Missed Opportunity
A spin-off a-la “Get Him to the Greek” with Alan in the central role would probably have been better suited to explore the theme of reckless friendship. But instead, we got an episodic copy of the original “Hangover,” seasoned with Thai exotica and a complete lack of enthusiasm from the creators and the main actors.