The Hangover Part II

As the world continues to tighten its belt, financially speaking, director Todd Phillips has done his bit for the economy by saving money on a new story for his crazy Wolfpack and curling out a near shot-for-shot remake of his overrated 2009 hit. He's even taken it as far as not spending any money on jokes, leaving one-man LOL-machine Zach Galifianakis to elicit laffs by doing hilarious things like speaking, falling over and having a big beard but no hair on the top of his head.

Perhaps worried that somebody might notice the deceit, Phillips has made a subtle change by relocating the action from Las Vegas to Bangkok, which is, like, such a mental place to be. I don't know where the series goes from here: The Hangover Part III will have to be set on Jupiter if it's going to top the sheer unbelievable craziness of being set in a place where everyone looks and talks funny.

Fortunately Thailand is a place with infinite comedic possibilities. You won't believe this because it's so mind-blowingly original, but there's actually a gag in The Hangover Part II that involves ladyboys. I mean, that's pretty out there, right? And what's so great about this gag is that it gives our lovable heroes the chance to carry out some shouting, which is funny in any language. That must be why there's so much of it in this film.

I didn't actually hate The Hangover Part II for the majority of its running time, despite it clearly being complete bollocks, I just didn't care about it. All that changed spectacularly in the epilogue when, for no reason at all, everyone's favourite ear-chewing convicted rapist made an unwelcome reappearance and delivered possibly the worst few minutes of cinema I've seen in a long time. Still, convicted rapists being lionised is funny in any language, right?

And then, just to ensure I left the cinema with a really bad taste in my mouth, one of the photographs of the "forgotten" night that plays through the end credits (you know, exactly like in the first film) is a played-for-laughs recreation of the infamous "Murder Of A Vietcong By Saigon Police Chief" photograph from the Vietnam War. Because parodying the appalling horror of war in a film full of dick jokes is funny in any language.

Final thought

The Godfather Part II is a portion of a whole that is separate or distinct. Back To The Future Part II is a portion of a whole that is separate or distinct. It's probably fair to say that even Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will be a portion of a whole that is separate or distinct. The Hangover Part II, however, is absolutely not a portion of a whole that is separate or distinct. It's a massive pile of shit.