The Hangover 2

The Flick: The Hangover 2

The Perps: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Barta, Ken Jeong, Paul Giamatti, Mike Tyson, et al.

The Dealio: OK, OK, so I probably shouldn't have gone to see this one, since I didn't like the first one. But, see, I had this date, and he indicated that he was interested...so, there we were. First let me say that Prendie really did enjoy this movie. It was scene for scene, as close as the writers/producers/director could get to the original without just doing the original again. Starts with Phil up on a roof somewhere, fielding a call from the more responsible adults, awaiting the arrival of certain key personnel (like, the groom) at a wedding. And guess what?! (You will never see this one coming) they did it again. They got drunk or medicated or some thing or the other, and woke up in a trashed-and trashy- room, with no recollection of what happened, where one of their party has gone and how to get back in time for the wedding. This movie has gone to the extreme of photo-copying most of the scenes from the original in all but locale. Last time, Vegas hosted the happy lot. This time, the underbelly of Thailand fills in. Mistaken identity, that tribal facial tattoo (Hey, I am not giving anything away; you see that much in the newspaper ad), some wiener exposure, drugs, and so on. Been there, seen that. Didn't want the tee shirt.

The Grading Session: -0.001 pengies out of 5. I will confess that, for me, the idea of waking up in a strange place with no recollection of how I got there, in a trashed room, with one of the members of the party missing, vagrant body parts festooning the room, and cops yipping at my heels is definitely not my idea of a grand time. That's just me. What isn't just me is the clear chutzpah of slapping together a carbon copy of the first and daring to call it a sequel. It's not a sequel, peeps; it's a rip off. Clearly, I am in the minority, since this flick is on schedule to eclipse the first in box office haulage. But, it is hard to say which offended me more: the unfunniness of this particular film, or the arrogance of those involved who could not be bothered to come up with something at least a tiny bit unique or new. Hey: take our money and run. We give you permission.

Lessons Learned: The biggest takeaway is that the movie-going public will allow- indeed, embrace- lazy film-making. The next biggest is: know your tolerance, and avoid The Hangover 3. Aw, come on...you know that's already in the pipeline. It would be stupid not to wrench as much buckage from the movie-going public as they will allow...which is clearly substantial. I just won't be a party to the next...party hosted by this merry lot.