It’s very rare for a sequel to be better than the original film. There have been a few brilliant exceptions in the past. Take Terminator II for example. Easily in my top five. Then there was Aliens, Superman II, The Godfather II and of course Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
Now I knew that there were only two ways that I was going to react to Hangover II. Either I was going to hate it or I was going to come out wondering how they did it again? Why? Well, for starters, the plot of the original film was airtight and logical (well, sort of, anyway). No one knew what was going to happen next and all the character sketches were perfect. It was ridiculous and it was so funny. So now the moment you try to replicate something like that, you’re either going to wreck everything & bore everyone to death or you have managed to hack into the matrix & figured it all out and have made yet another fabulous funny which is going to have everyone talking for days.
I really wish the latter had happened. Because, I’ll be honest, I haven’t eaten that much popcorn ever. And I hate popcorn. But there was nothing better to do. There was some rubbish going on on the screen, and I knew all the twists and turns. It was like I was in a murder mystery novel and I was the murderer and I was also the detective. *snore*
Vegas was replaced with Bangkok. That’s a step down. Regardless of what anyone says. All the ‘funny’ bits were pretty obvious. I mean, come ON, how original can you get when you have Bangkok in the premise ( I know some of you will say ‘oh oh, that’s a stupid question’ and snicker, but we’re not playing that game right now.) Zach Galifianakis was a saving grace because his absurdity & angst (and wardrobe) wins, no matter what the situation. The rest was all… vanilla.
People around me were randomly laughing at pretty much everything. I think they were of the mind set that since The Hangover was so funny, this film had no choice but to be as funny. These are the same people who loved Anees Bazmi’s Thank You. Plus the scriptwriters are a crafty lot. In this sequel they threw in a monkey. Wearing clothes. Smoking a cigarette. That’s all that the masses need. A jacket clad smoking monkey. Wow. Well done.
I don’t want to give away the plot, but then again, it’s not like you haven’t seen this film before.
I sat through the entire film hoping that the end credits would salvage it for me…. and well, to some extent they did. Either that or I had been brainwashed by the all laughing public around me and maybe just wanted to fit in.
I’d say go watch the film…. but load up a few games on your phone to keep you company.