Big Screen Peter: The Hangover II

 

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis has agreed to use whatever it is you call his writing style to provide some measure of analysis to those folks who still go to a theater to see a movie.

review by Peter Lewis

“The Hangover,” released in 2009 and directed by Todd Phillips, captured a zeitgeist of American consciousness. It encapsulated much of the mindset possessed by a certain age demographic of men from ages 18-35 (and beyond, it would seem).

And this was done at the tune of $467 million gross sales worldwide, so in many ways it may seem that “The Hangover II” is just another iteration of the same mold. It certainly doesn’t take a cynic to envision Hollywood milking a golden tit: let’s shake things up a bit, shoot in a foreign locale with some of the same gags and presto-chango, we’ve got ourselves another $400 million.

Bradley Cooper admitted as much in a recent interview. “I think that it was really important that we adhered to the structure of the first one … we hadn’t earned the ability to take these three guys out and put them in a new structure. There needs to be a ticking clock, there needs to be a missed night and there needs to be someone who’s gone and a woman who is waiting to get married and a guy who needs to get married."

And from the opening moments of the film, when Cooper’s character Phil makes a phone call to his wife, it is obvious the redux has begun. The bride-to-be frets about her missing fiancee Stu (Ed Helms), while he in turn tortures himself for not only messing up his chance at wedded bliss, but for losing her little brother, Teddy (Mason Lee).

To detail the various ways the film was a carbon-copy of the original would be a bit pointless. The film is certainly a bit darker in tone, with the characters taking on a new edge, but the changes never stray from the cosmetic. We get a monkey for a baby, there are some nice cameos and plenty of ridiculously erratic behavior.

But as much as “The Hangover II” is a reiteration on the first film, it’s still damned funny, reading as much a mystery (however drunken) as it does a comedy. Which is the tell-tale sign of its success: few adolescents (read: men) haven’t had a night of scaled debauchery in which the memories are as hazy as the drinks were strong.

It’s this common-man thread that drives the deep connection felt by the audience. It’s the nights the collective “we” experienced, but painted with such beautiful outlandishness it can only be envied and pointed to as an example. The films are fated to be seen as a manifestation of adventures felt in municipalities across the land, from Allentown to Anaheim. The oblivious oddness of Alan (Zach Galifianakis), the boorish extravagance of Chow (Ken Jeong) or the amusing suburban purity of Stu just serve as the whipped topping.

There are plenty of laughs, crude and awful and mean, but hilarious just the same. If the original weren’t so damned brilliant, the remake might not be worth the effort. But it was and it is. Just don’t expect any variations on the theme.

• The Hanover II is playing at the Carmike 14 and the Malco Cinema 12 in Fort Smith, and the Malco Van Buren Cinema. Link here for time and ticket info.

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