Waking Up in Bangkok

The Wolfpack is back, and just like last time, the boys can’t remember a thing about last night.

Yep, the guys from the Golden Globe-winning The Hangover are giving it another go – all the main players, including director Todd Phillips, and stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and the original’s comedic breakout, Zach Galifianakis, have reunited for our Memorial Day enjoyment to bring us the promises-to-be-epic Hangover Part II, which is a completely fun but also totally by-the-numbers sequel.

Seriously, if I hadn’t been so in the mood for a laugh I would have found this part deux to be quite lazy. Which – Hindsight Alert! – it kinda is.

I mean, the basic structure and all the basic flagpoles that made the first one so original and successful are there, disguised to accommodate the (lack of new) plot and the new setting, but, y’ know, there.

Obviously, we have to have Phil (Cooper), Stu (Helms), and Alan (Galifianakis, looking at times a little annoyed about the business of doing the sequel, which he sounded in an interview I read), but that’s not where the similarities end.

There’s a wedding (this time it’s Stu who’s walking down the aisle, having divorced Heather Graham’s Vegas pole worker, to marry a new character, a sweetheart girl named Lauren played by Jamie Chung), and it’s a destination wedding at a luxe resort in Thailand (that’s where the bride’s conveniently from), so, there’s gotta be a bachelor party, right?

Not if Stu has anything to say about it (he kinda doesn’t want to get roofied again, which is understandable), but, really, c’mon, his pals say, that is some bulls--- – I’m paraphrasing here – especially since they have to make it all the way out to Asia.

In any case, the group agrees to take it easy, and to take Alan with them, which is not something Stu wants to do, but it means so much to the schlub he eventually says it’s alright.

As it would happen, one tame thing leads to another wilder thing, and pretty soon they’re all having a ginormous WTF Moment all over again.

They wake up in a seedy, roach-infested Bangkok hotel.

They’re all worse for the wear. One of them now has a shaved head, another a Tyson-esque face tat. Oh, and there’s a drug-dealing, cigarette-smoking monkey bouncing around. Someone’s lost a finger. And, just for extra credit, Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong, from TV’s Community), the Chinese mobster from the first movie, is there with his big bag of BS (and blow).

And, oh yeah, Teddy (Mason Lee), Stu’s prodigy, 16-year-old future brother-in-law (and his future, and disapproving, father-in-law’s pride and joy), is nowhere to be found.

Just like before, the clueless Wolfpack has to figure what, indeed happened to them the night before. Hilarity and all kinds of raunchiness ensue...but not a heckuva lot of originality, unfortch.

For that I will point you in the direction of Bridesmaids.

Sorry, Wolfpack. You’ll do well, I’m sure. You’ve not delivered a Sex and the City 2-type turkey, but you haven’t outdone yourself – you’ve only imitated yourself well enough to get away with it.

My Rating ***

Photo: Warner Bros.