The boys are back in town, so to speak, with this sequel to 2009’s sneak-attack hit. While the setting has changed and the plot has been tweaked, slightly, it is very much the same movie that droves of people fell in love with.

In The Hangover II its Stu’s (Ed Helms) turn at the altar and he opted to get married in gorgeous Thailand with ‘The Wolfpack’- Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) in tow.

Initially Stu wanted to keep things simple with the wedding festivities, opting for a bachelor brunch rather than a full-on party and not having Alan along for the ride.

Things changed, however, and adding to the crew is Stu’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, Teddy (Mason Lee).

Alan is reluctantly invited along and soon sees Teddy as a threat to the crew.

In an effort to ‘keep things as they were’ Alan tries to excise Teddy from the picture by drugging him. Needless-to-say that plan spun out of control, transforming a chill evening bonfire with some beers to a night of unfathomable misadventures.

Everything leading up to the night seemed different, enough. We got promise of new characters, a new city and, hopefully, new setups for outlandish situational humour.

The movie didn’t embellish these hopes as well as it should have though. They really played it safe, so much so that the move felt like a mirror image of the original.

The joke setups were predictable, the scenarios were familiar and the actors got annoying after a while and after you realize that nothing novel was gonna happen.

I really did want to like this movie though and some aspects of it were awesome in their ridiculousness.

There were a few scenes and bouts of dialogue that were flat-out funny and since there was no real need for character development and you knew, if you watched the first, how a particular character would act and react to whatever the situation was.

Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) made his way back and he has a bit more screen-time this go-round. A lot of the story and setups relied on the ambiguity of his criminal nature and with Bangkok being pictured as a shady city, his presence worked well.

Alan’s character got a lot more screen-time and dialogue, it seemed. In some cases it kinda sullied a scene or two and in others his nuances really shined and ‘made the scene’.

I wish there was more of Doug’s presence but much like in the first we get him in small doses. I think that may’ve given this movie that twist of unfamiliarity.

Overall the movie was a decent offering. It tied you in to the story and still had you as anxious as the characters in trying to figure out what happened. If you watched the first one all of the prominent characters will be super familiar and the setup for the party night will be as expected.

If you didn’t see the first film a few of the jabs and references will go over your head but the subsequent scenes and plot fixtures will more than suffice that lack of knowledge. As a standalone feature the movie was a knockout with a great soundtrack but paired in the series it seems a bit too familiar and too paralleled to its prequel.

In terms of comedic punch for the year, so far, Bridesmaids has it beat in a lot of ways but it has enough awkward moments, dark humour and insane developments to make you laugh.

Did you see this one yet? Did you wait on my review to help you decide :)?

Tell me what you thought, either way, in the comments.

Thanks for reading, see you soon.

Ampero

Check out the trailer and movie times here.