Ryan McNeil
Pretty sure it’s time for these guys to start going to meetings that begin with them standing up and saying “Hi, my name is…”
I love movies like this where I can skip the plot summation.
Have you seen THE HANGOVER?
Yes?
Sub in Bangkok for Vegas, and the bride’s little brother for the groom-to-be. Congratulations, you know the entire plot of THE HANGOVER 2.
The jokes and plot points in THE HANGOVER 2 did get a few smirks, smiles and full on laughs out of me – so I’d be lying if I said that this was a complete waste of time. I also find that I tend to sit up a bit straighter and zero in on a film when Paul Giamatti has a scene…so there’s also that. However, I am totally stumped as to why writers Todd Phillips, Craig Mazin and Scot Armstrong decided to follow the roadmap of the first film down to the tiniest detail.
On the one hand, they were likely thinking “If it ain’t broke…”, and judging from some of the laughs in my theatre, they weren’t wrong. But I can’t help but wonder if there was an equally funny film to be made just by letting The Wolfpack loose in Thailand and letting its inherent debauchery play right into their morally compromised hands. Hell, did it even have to be a wedding again? Was there no other excuse to get them all to go to Thailand for some sort of guys’ getaway?
Now with all of that said, I should mention that I haven’t grown weary of Zach Galifianakis and his brand of humour. Oddly, he seems a bit more reserved this time around than he did in the previous film, with his inappropriateness dialled back to a more appropriate level…or inappropriate level. (Wait, what?) It’s not so much that he continues to have no social skills, so much as it is little details like his oddly high appreciation for Billy Joel. Part of me believes that the filmmakers might be better off just giving Alan his own film – a la GET HIM TO THE GREEK.
Then there’s Ed Helms, who continues to prove that he’s a crackerjack second banana. I don’t believe that he’s any sort of leading man – or SNL host – but when you drop him into the right surroundings, he’ll throw himself headlong into it. Take the scene where Stu learns of his interaction with a special brand of prostitute. Many actors would use that as an excuse to wail, yell, and overact. Helms however, finds just the right level of self-revulsion and turns it all inward.
Unfortunately, loving two-thirds of The Wolfpack wasn’t enough to salvage this film for me, no matter how much I loved the first one. Beyond the predictability, there are mishaps that are put in play but not needed for the ultimate payoff. I’m talking specifically of incidents involving automatic weapons and shaved heads. If the juggler in the centre ring wants to entertain you by juggling seven bowling pins while balancing a cantalope on his nose, peddling a unicycle and singing “Kumbaya”…does he really need to set the clubs on fire too?
In sports they would call this “Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”. Phillips and co. had a sure bet on their hands, but because they believed audiences wouldn’t accept anything less than what they knew, they bored us with predictability. I’m tempted to say that if you liked THE HANGOVER, you’ll like THE HANGOVER II…but I’m a person who loved the first film, and I came away with precious little. A third film will happen – $86M guaranteed that – but when it happens you can count me out.
I’m all for the familiar, but I’ve never been the sort to have a Big Mac for dinner three nights in a row.