"The Hangover Part II" lacks originality (3.25/5)

The beauty of The Hangover was that its lewd and outrageous premise, one that had characters discovering their drunken follies along with the audience at an embarrassing clip, featured a level of joyous revelation that made punch lines unpredictable and memorable. The surprising directions that The Hangover took were inevitably the reason why the film became a hit back in the Summer of 2009. To no one’s surprise, the sequel was nearly a guarantee in a film landscape that spits out second installments at an impressive rate.  Was a sequel necessary? Not really, but then again the film was fresh and hilarious enough that a sequel wouldn’t be objected by the masses, and certainly not from me. Unfortunately, the creative team behind The Hangover felt that the film’s original premise was good enough to be recycled. They were wrong.

I can go with the notion that a comedy shouldn’t be devalued based on its premise, because let’s face it, comedies often use the thin plot as a springboard, but to completely plagiarize a previous film is downright asinine. Outside of a few new characters, The Hangover Part II exploits its source material proudly as it trots out each and every joke that appeared in the first film. It’s like director Todd Phillips treated the script like a game of Mad Libs. The Hangover established the formula, all he had to do was plug and play with whatever absurd or grotesque adjective, verb, or noun came to his mind. It seems unprecedented that a film would rip itself off, but here we are as the Wolfpack travels to the dangerous and exotic nation of Thailand. What’s sad about The Hangover Part II, aside from the film’s lack of originality, is that its cast was wasted. The film’s core of actors (Cooper, Helms, and Galifianakis) were terrific together in their first venture. It’s just disappointing to see them treading familiar ground. Cooper is nearly useless as he searches desperately for a punch-line to stick, coasting by on his charm and good looks.  It’s not entirely his fault though that the film can’t muster any laughs in his favor.

Helms’ character feels all too familiar in the worst sense. Not only does he face the same physical and mental predicaments (his face is dramatically altered again and he finds himself commiserating with a person of indecent ilk), but most of his comedic work hinges on the same facial and vocal contortions as found in the first film. He screams, he cries and falls apart. Despite his talent, Helms’ comedic efficiency becomes one dimensional under Phillips and the film’s tiring attempts at raucous jokes. If there was anything that would completely redeem this film, it would be Galifianakis. Through his performance, one that thankfully has more material to work with, Galifianakis does his best to craft his character into a more bizarre and endearing being. It’s only through his performance and character that the film delivers an assortment of hilarious lines and joyous surprises. Otherwise, with it being a carbon copy of its predecessor (I seriously can’t stress this enough), The Hangover Part II is a film that’s devoid of any true surprises and  feels as stale as a two year old loaf of bread roasting in the desert sun. Or in this case, it’s a joke beaten to death, just rotting away in a rundown Bangkok hotel room.