Hangover 2 - 3/10
I gave it a three for Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and the monkey, all of whom I found entertaining. The problem with the movie was two-fold for me, it was weakly written, very weakly written and not funny enough to allow for this. I find with comedies that bad writing or poor characters can be overcome if the movie is actually funny. I don't find the story of Airplane! particularly compelling, but the good news is that it's hilarious so I don't care. Hangover 2 was simply not that funny. It was funny-ish, I can't say I didn't laugh, but there was too much not funny moments for me to reflect on how god awful the plot was.
First, yeah, it's the same dang movie. I had almost convinced myself this wasn't a problem going into the theater. I figured if I prepped myself I ultimately would get past this. That somehow it just wouldn't bother me, but ultimately it did.
I understand following the same general plot, the key word in bold there. I was thinking, in this one we'd have some nefarious kidnapper do it, but no, it was Alan.
Which brings us to Alan. I liked Alan. Key word in bold again. This time, I didn't. I found him to be playing a caricature of himself. First of all, in the first movie I had some measure of sympathy for him. It was fairly obvious why Doug would be forced to include him in his bachelor party, it was, afterall, his new brother-in-law. In this one though there was literally no reason for him to be there. If I have a wedding, my friend's brother-in-laws are not invited. It's not even because they are weirdos, like Alan, it's because they have literally nothing to do with me. I kind of assumed Alan simply would have been their slightly odd friend now, that they wouldn't have been deliberately ignoring him for years. They were though, so even though Doug's wife protested, it doesn't matter, it's not Doug's wedding.
Yet here they are back together under improbable circumstances, and what do we get, more improbable circumstances. First of all Alan was weird in the last one, and even when he was socially awkward or rude I had a small amount of sympathy for him. Not this time, [BLACKOUT]accidentally roofie-ing your friends because of a dumb drug dealer is somewhat understandible when you suspend a little disbelief, deliberately druging people, even if it was the wrong people, is incredibly awful and criminal[/BLACKOUT]. Furthermore Alan went from playfully awkward and slightly rude, to just an all out a**hole in the first thirty minutes. Not a single family member questioned his presence either. After interrupting the dinner and being all out rude to his son that Dad, as he was depicted, would've had no compunction to kick Alan out. When they found out [BLACKOUT]how they were drugged I honestly wanted to enter Phil's body and tell Alan he was finding his own way back home. The fact that Phil chocks up his anger to "the heat of the moment, is completely and blatantly ridiculous.[/BLACKOUT]
The amount of times the movie just acted like it was "okay" with the sh** that went down was obscene. I'm no chick but honestly [BLACKOUT]someone coming back with a face tattoo, who may or may not have bore responsibility for my brother losing his finger seems like a deal breaker[/BLACKOUT]. Also, I'm not wedding planner but [BLACKOUT]I'm pretty sure the wedding is off once you crash a speed boat into it[/BLACKOUT]. The first movie did a nice job of showing the guys attempting to do damage control to convince the party guests that nothing major had happened. While Stu's tooth may have been a red flag, who honestly cares what state the groomsman whose girlfriend beats him is in? Okay, maybe Stu's missing tooth was a little over the top, but not insanely over the top as [BLACKOUT]a face tattoo, a missing finger, a shaved head and a gunshot wound.[/BLACKOUT]
Someone here said it, this movie was too cruel and dark. It was essentially like doing a SAW film with stand-up comedians.