The Hangover Part II: Make it a Double

Continuing in the grand tradition of such Part II’s as the The Godfather and Hot Shots! (although with Hot Shots! that was more of a part Deux scenario) comes The Hangover Part II, the second installment in this critically and commercially successful tribute to bacchanalia. But while The Hangover took bold steps into a genre that was presumed defunct, Part II follows the safer Hollywood approach to sequels opting instead to rest on its laurels and repeat the formula of the original.

As far as I know…

This time around the Wolfpack (as they are referred to) is in Thailand where Ed Helms is engaged to be wed to his fiancée (Jamie Chung) and once again the gang attempts to give one of their own a final farewell before getting hitched. But after a bachelor party brunch spins out of control, they awake in a strange place with no idea what happened and brother-in-law-to-be Teddy (Mason Lee) missing. So with only hours until the wedding starts, they need to retrace their steps in the hopes of recovering Teddy in time to get hitched and return everything to normal, which is the fun of The Hangover movies. They are absurd detective stories featuring severely handicapped individuals trying to make sense of impossible nites, the facts of which are more and more unbelievable even as they are revealed.

Unfortunately it’s the pretty much the same exact race against time as the first one. The plot is the same, the players are the same, even the music for the trailer is the same as the original. Ok, maybe not exactly the same but they are by the same band (Wolfmother) from the very same album. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing (excluding the Wolfmother bit of course). For those that liked the first one, it’s another wildly inappropriate film. For those that didn’t, well you probably wouldn’t be back for a second bender anyways. But for a sequel to play it so utterly safe after the original was lauded as a daring return to form for the R-rated comedy is a bit disappointing. It’s understandable that everyone involved would want to keep to the original formula as much as possible, but to literally copy and paste numerous elements is either uninspired or just plain lazy.

You need only look to the aftermath scene for proof of that. Original: the Wolfpack wakes up to find Ed Helms face altered (self-extracted tooth), one of them is missing, and a tiger is in the bathroom. Part II: the Wolfpack wakes up to find Ed Helms face altered (self-administered tattoo), one of them is missing, and a monkey is in the bathroom. Furthermore, why The Hangover movies need to be limited to bachelor party shenanigans is befuddling. At their core, these movies are about picking up the pieces after a nite of unbelievable debauchery. It seems entirely feasible that the Wolfpack could wreak such havoc after a nite drinking in celebration of a significant birthday, a retirement, a Superbowl victory, or a Tuesday.

The only reason to confine things to a bachelor party at this point would seemingly be because they feel they can’t (or just won’t) incorporate women. Hopefully with the success of movies like Bridesmaids they could be convinced to squeeze in a role or two that could join in on the fun and not just be the nagging wife or the happy-go-lucky stripper. It seems entirely feasible that Galifianakis could have a ‘Best Wo-Man’ for his eventual marriage in Part III assuming they are content to continue running the Hollywood playbook for sequels.

But all that being said, The Hangover Part II is still a very funny and well made movie. Where else can you expect the main cast to stumble upon former boxers and Presidents of the United States, convert to the Paul Giamatti Monk Academy, get into high-speed pursuits with gangsters, and use their idiot-savant like skills to play a perfect game of Pac-Man (eat it Billy Mitchell!) all in the same movie? Nowhere (except in the original).

As far as I know…

– M.C.

Priest: Paul Bettany’s Last Rites

Friday the 13th! Is there any better day to shovel out that horror-title-that-has-been-on-the-studios-radar-but-isn’t-really-any-good-and-would-otherwise-be-shelved than today? Following in that grand tradition is Priest: Hollywoods latest attempt to cash-in on comic book properties with a slapped-together afterthought of a movie sure to dazzle movie going audiences nowhere!

As far as I know…

In Priest, Paul Bettany reprises his roles from Legion and The Da Vinci Code as a man on a mission from God only this time he is in a futuristic metropolis that is ruled by an omnipotent religious order. But of course, things are not quite what they seem in this utopian oasis. The order is corrupt, the people are losing their faith, and of course, there are those vampires that keep harassing the citizenry (vampires being the flavour of the theatrical month past few years). Naturally, when Paul wants to go all Simon Belmont on things, the order strips him of his rank and casts him into exile because…hmm…let’s go with the “they are actually behind the vampire uprising; it keeps the people in check” reasoning. This time however, the vampires wise up, evolve a bit, and want to take over.

So Paul leaves the walled city in the middle of the desert, meets up with a long lost buddy/mentor of his that reaffirms his faith in things, and eventually figures out what’s up and where these things are coming from.  Soon enough, so does the order and they try to re-instate Paul but do so too late and fall victim to their own creation (that’s what they get for playing God *wakka wakka*) and while the vampire revolution is quelled, the world will never be the same.

The only problem is this was a lot better when it was called Judge Dredd.

The similarities are actually quite astounding: substitute the order for the Judges, wayward Paul for disgraced Sly, true-believer Priestess Maggie Q for Diane Lane’s loyal Judge Hershey, Christopher Plummer as leader of the order for Max Von Sydow‘s Chief Justice, and a bunch of vampires for Armand Assante and it’s practically the same movie. Not to mention that whole “banishing the main character into the scorched earth for the second act” thing. For more information on how Priest is exactly like Judge Dredd, please consult your local VHS library.

In any case, the video Paul Bettany clearly has of studio head X committing heinous crime Y must be capable of shaking Hollywood so thoroughly to it’s core that all of California would break off at the San Andreas fault and be set adrift should it ever see the light of day. How else does he keep landing these prototypical tough guy action roles? As for the rest of the players, Christopher Plummer coasts from scene to scene on his more recent Oscar nominated cred while the rest of the group tries mightily to overcome their handicaps of being cast members from such gems as Burlesque, The Unborn, Never Back Down, Pathfinder, Doom, Balls of Fury, The Tourist, and Firewall. But once again they fail to leave any lasting impressions so don’t be surprised when you have to keep shooshing the other people in the audience who are busy trying to remember who that guy/girl is cause they look so familiar and they can’t believe they ever watched that P.O.S. and they should totally get their money back.

As far as I know…

– M.C.