The Hangover Part II

Your head hurts like hell, the whole thing feels horribly familiar, and it’s just not funny any more. Can this really be happening again? Todd Phillips’s sequel to (remake of?) his rude adult comedy about a stag night snafu is not so much more of the same as exactly the same, but set in Bangkok and minus the laughs.

During their Vegas bachelor night debauch, Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) lost the groom on the eve of his wedding; this time, they lose the Thai bride’s innocent 16-year-old brother on the eve of her marriage to Stu. Last time, the trio found a baby in their trashed hotel room; this time they get to babysit a capuchin monkey. Previously, dentist Stu lost a tooth and married a stripper; on this occasion, he gets a facial tattoo and is butt-fucked by a transvestite hooker. The camp, angry Mr Chow (Ken Jeong) sprang from the locked boot of their car; the hotel’s locked ice machine serves the same function here.

The generic car chases and gunplay – involving Russian gangsters, a sinister wheeler-dealer (Paul Giamatti) and Mr Chow’s dodgy dealings – are contrived and unexciting. Since the dialogue isn’t funny, everyone overacts to make up for the lack of humour or threat. Together with co-writers Scot Armstrong and Craig Mazin, director Phillips serves up a tasteless, warmed-over version of the same dish, spiced with local Thai colour. Also, despite a predictably sweet happy ending, the script’s homophobia and racial stereotyping leave a sour aftertaste.