Mondays Movie Madness - Review "The Hangover Part II"

Our Rating *** (3.5 stars)

Two years after their escapade in Las Vegas, Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), Dr. Stuart "Stu" Price (Ed Helms), Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis) & Doug Billings (Justin Bartha) travel to Thailand to celebrate Stu's impending wedding to Lauren. Much to Alan's dismay, they are joined by Lauren's younger brother, Teddy. During Lauren's father's toast, he shows his disapproval of Stu by comparing him to congee. At the end of the night, Stu hesitantly joins Phil, Doug, Alan and Teddy for a beer. Sitting at a campfire and roasting marshmallows, the group toast to Stu and Lauren's future happiness.
Then it happens AGAIN.

This movie is fairly predictable and relies heavily on the same humour that made the first Hangover movie such a smash hit, and a cult classic.
Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow is a real show stopper, as is Zach Galifianakis as the live-at-home manboy Alan.
The real difference with the second installment is the heavier workload both of these actors get the second time around.
It is all more of the same, but slightly more refined in the execution and the location, and even though the jokes feel a little old and stale, the forumla is still pretty sweet.

Welcome back Mr Chow, you are a legend!

Can't get enough - keep reading to see some more gold from both Ken Jeong, who plays Mr Chow, along with some Zach Galifianakis gems.

The movie has seen some quite negative reviews for most of the same emotions and responses that we found as well, hence the lower than expected 3.5 stars from us. To be honest I was expecting more - the first run at it with "The Hangover" was brilliant, fresh, charming and hilarious. This time around it was not as surprising, even with the increase of workload on the two characters that really made the first movie zing.
However at a current box office of over USD$580 million on a modest budget of USD$80 million, it has been a great investment for the studio and the producers with a cool half a billion dollars in the bank.

The critical response seems to not be slowing it down either.
Here is a quick run down from wikipedia:

The Hangover Part II received mostly negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes, gives the film a score of 35% based on 221 reviews from critics with a rating average of 5.0 out of 10. The website's critical consensus is that the film is "a crueler, darker, raunchier carbon copy of the first installment" and "lacks the element of surprise – and most of the joy – that helped make the original a hit." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 44 based on 40 reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a A- on an A+ to F scale.

Andrew Barker of Variety gave the film a negative review, stating, "The stock dismissal 'more of the same' has rarely been more accurately applied to a sequel than to The Hangover Part II, which ranks as little more than a faded copy of its predecessor superimposed on a more brightly colored background". Christy Lemire of the Associated Press said, "Giving the people what they want is one thing. Making nearly the exact same movie a second time, but shifting the setting to Thailand, is just ... what, lazy? Arrogant? Maybe a combination of the two". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also gave the film an average review stating, "The Hangover Part II plays like a challenge to the audience's capacity for raunchiness. It gets laughs, but some of them are in disbelief".

Conversely, Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave The Hangover Part II a positive review remarking, "What happens in Bangkok isn't as much fun as when it happened in Vegas, but it's still worth the trip".[70] Lou Lumenick of the New York Post said, "There are definitely laughs to be had, even if the three leads often seem to be going through the motions"

The Return of Mr Chow ... Bitches.

For those fans of the Mr Chow character, you wont be disappointed by the second movie as he has a large presence, and every second is pure comedy gold.
He is an absolute legend. The sincerity of the man shines through his character development, and not only is he very believable, but also very likable.

Mr Chow, played by Ken Jeong, along with Zach Galifianakis who plays Alan, have attained an almost cult status and cemented both men as solid characters both inside and outside of the movie franchise, with cameo's in other productions that resemble the Hangover characters significantly.

For Ken Jeong, he really hit the big time with the Judd Apatow hit "Knocked Up" with a character not too disimilar to that of Mr Chow, and considering his previous employment as a doctor you can see how he has the inside running on this gag - careful, this clip is a very particular style of humour, and some may find it offensive. This is classic!

Here is a quick interview with him on the Ellen Show.

Zach Galifianakis - now that is awkward.

This man has developed quite a consistant character. He has been a busy comedian over the years developing essentially much the same character, but it is a very good one!
If you have never seen some of his "Funny or Die" performances enjoy! This one is a classic.

This Will Ferrell one is pretty funny as well.

Priceless. There are plenty more. Feel free to leave a comment.