The Hangover Part II

The Hangover Part II (also known as The Hangover 2: The Wolfpack is Back or The Hangover Again in the working title) is a 2011 American comedy film produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the sequel to the 2009 film mh:greatestmovies:The Hangover and the second installment in The Hangover trilogy.

Directed by Todd Phillips, who co-wrote the script with Craig Mazin and Scot Armstrong, the film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, Jeffrey Tambor, Justin Bartha, and Paul Giamatti.

The film was released on May 26, 2011 and became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy during its theatrical run.

A third and final installment, The Hangover Part III, was released on May 23, 2013.

Plot
Two years after their shenanigans in Las Vegas, it is now Stu's (Ed Helms) turn to walk down the aisle. Since his bride is from Thailand, Stu decides to hold the wedding there. Desperately hoping to avoid the mayhem of Doug's (Justin Bartha) bachelor party, Stu chooses what he thinks will be a safe option: an alcohol-free, prewedding brunch. But this being Thailand, and with Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) again in attendance, anything can happen.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It's a completely unnecessary movie. The main reason why this movie shouldn't be made is because the first film already had a perfect ending without the need for a sequel.
 * 2) The biggest problem with this movie is that its basically a rehash of the previous story as it follows the same structure and even plot points:
 * 3) *A member of the wolfpack is getting married (Last movie was Doug, this time is Stu)
 * 4) *They travel to an exotic location (Las Vegas - Thailand)
 * 5) *Alan inadvertently drugs his friends causing them to forget what happens that night.
 * 6) *They wake up along an animal, one of them loses a part of his body, one of them is missing. (The tiger - the monkey, Stu loses a tooth - Teddy loses his finger, Doug - Teddy)
 * 7) *They look for the missing person in the roof.
 * 8) *The wolfpack is tricked by someone into believing they have their missing friend but it turns out to be a trap. (Chow tells them he has Doug but it was only a trap to get 80 grand from them - Kingsley tells them he has Teddy but it was a trick to arrest Chow)
 * 9) *Stu realizes their missing friend was in the hotel they woke up all along.
 * 10) *The wolfpack finds their friend and makes it to the wedding.
 * 11) *The wolfpack watches the missing pictures from the last night before the movie ends.
 * 12) Alan is VERY unlikeable in this movie as he was once again responsible for the hangover and drugging his friends, only this time it's worse: In the previous movie Alan did it accidentally by mistaking roofies for ecstasy, which caused his friends to end up blackout; this time, Alan intentionally planned to drug Teddy (a teenager) so that his friends would celebrate without him and caused the others to accidentally get high by eating the marshmallows. While Alan was sort of stupid in the first film, he was still well-intentioned as he only wanted his friends to have fun by taking ecstasy, making him a likeable and funny comic relief; but here, he acts jealous towards Teddy just because he was also going to Stu's wedding, even though he is the brother of the bride, while Stu initially understandably didn't want to invite him because of the events of the first film, only doing so after being persuaded by Phil and Doug. He also cares more for the monkey and a hat than Teddy when he goes missing, meaning Alan was another victim of Flanderization. It's also revealed he invited Chow to Stu's wedding without telling him. His stupidity was also cracked up to eleven, as how come he be stupid enough to do it again knowing what happened the last time? And this is especially alarming when in the next movie he mentions that if they had eaten more than 3 marshmallows, they would have died. No wonder Stu didn't want to invite him.
 * 13) Leslie Chow, while still a hilarious and entertaining character, is somehow now a supporting character that is now friends with the Wolfpack for no reason, other than keeping in touch and being invited by Alan, even though he was the antagonist in the first film.
 * 14) The drug dealing monkey is a very pointless and annoying character. Plus the idea of having a monkey smoke cigarettes is very messed up and cruel. Why on earth do we need this? Even worse, the monkey gets shot during a car chase.
 * 15) Very mean spirited and gross humor, specifically where Teddy's severed finger is found in an ice bucket, the flash cards scene explaining Thailand, and the scene with the ladyboy at the night club.
 * 16) The end credit photos are far more cruder then they were in the first film and practically belong in an NC-17 movie!
 * 17) Paul Giamatti's character Kingsley/Detective Peters is a very pointless character and is only in the movie just to replace Chow in the antagonist role.
 * 18) The wedding reception scene drags on for way too long.
 * 19) Due to becoming the highest grossing R-rated comedy in its theatrical run, it resulted in a third movie, The Hangover Part III which had even more negative reviews than this movie.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Just like the previous film, the chemistry between our 3 main actors is great and convincing.
 * 2) Good direction from Todd Phillips.
 * 3) The acting is very good.
 * 4) The poster is very funny and memorable.
 * 5) The car chase scene is amazing, albeit the monkey getting shot was pretty messed up.
 * 6) Some funny moments here and there like Stu realizing the tattoo is real after being waken up by Phil.
 * 7) *The scene where Phil and Stu get furious at Alan for drugging them again is also actually pretty satisfying.
 * 8) At least it actually tries to be a comedy and a Hangover film, unlike the third movie which was more of an action thriller.
 * 9) Phil, Stu, Doug, Teddy, Tracy, Chow and Lauren are likeable characters. Chow is still hilarious and entertaining, if not even more than he was in the first film, thanks to Ken Jeong's performance.
 * 10) *At least, Alan reddeems himself by having Mike Tyson sing as a wedding gift to Stu and Lauren. He also gets a major character development in the third movie.
 * 11) Well performed dialogue, like;
 * 12) *"Oh, you are having a bad day. Did you die?"
 * 13) *"I do blow all night. Monkey jerk me off while I watch Stu make fuck with lady-boy."
 * 14) *"We had a sick night bitches!"
 * 15) *"Tell that gay monkey to leave my shit alone!"

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 33% based on 247 reviews with an average rating of 4.96/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A crueler, darker, raunchier carbon copy of the first installment, The Hangover Part II lacks the element of surprise—and most of the joy—that helped make the original a hit." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 44 out of 100 based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Trivia

 * 1) Mel Gibson was initially envisioned and was briefly casted as the Bangkok tattoo artist, but due to Zach Galifianakis and various cast/crew members threatening to walk out on production, he was replaced with Liam Neeson, who did shoot his cameo. He wasn't available due to filming Wrath of the Titans during reshoots and footage of his cameo was never released. Nick Cassavetes of The Wraith replaced Neeson and filmed his cameo.