Movie review: The Hangover 2 ****

The Hangover 2 ****

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha
Director: Todd Phillips
Rated: R
Showing: Speciality Cinema week of Friday, June 10 - daily at 2:30/6:15/9:15pm except Sunday 1/4/7pm. For more information about film times, call 292-2135.
Runtime: 102 minutes
Comedy

The Wolfpack is back. Two years after they tore up Las Vegas on the most raucous bachelor party in history, Doug, Alan, Phil and Stu head to Thailand to celebrate Stu’s wedding.

But the groom’s plans for a subdued and sober pre-nuptial brunch go awry and after what starts as a quiet beer on the beach, they wake up in a squalid hotel room in Bangkok with no memory of the previous night’s wild events.

Doug is lost again, as is Stu’s teenage future brother-in-law. Instead of a baby, they have a monkey. Stu still has all of his teeth, but has acquired a Maori-style face tattoo, and Alan’s head has been shaved.

The remaining trio set out to piece together the night before and find their missing friends before the wedding — encountering tattoo artists, Russian gangsters, Buddhist monks and strippers along the way.

Like most sequels, Hangover 2 tries to tell the story of the original all over again but with more action and shock value.

The humour is near-the-knuckle and in-your-face and while there are plenty of big laughs the movie is not as consistently funny from beginning to end as its predecessor.

But while the concept may not be fresh, this is still one of the best comedies of the last couple of years.

The performances are excellent, with Ed Helms again stealing the show as the uptight Stu.

Zach Galifianakis gets lots of laughs as the nerdy, childlike, socially inept and yet lovable Alan, highlights being the most inappropriate wedding speech in history and a crude gag with the monkey on a bus.

Watch if you liked: The Hangover, Road Trip.