DVDFile

Warner / 102 Minutes / Rated R / Street Date: December 6, 2011

Sequels occupy an interesting space in American cinema. Generally the bastard offspring of runaway hits and simply better movies - with a few Godfather II-sized exceptions - they are almost impossible to judge against anything but their forbearers. Into that pit of pre-judgment comes The Hangover 2, sequel to the runaway 2009 hit and an opportunity to allow Warner Brothers to mint money for the foreseeable future.

From the opening credit sequence Hangover 2 is a much dirtier and sinister movie than its predecessor. The music is darker, the lighting is darker - Hell, even the light-hearted comedy center of the first film, Allen (Zack Galifianakis) is a meaner, more off-putting character this time around.

Writer/Director Todd Phillips has imbued this film with its own personality separate from the first movie, sure, but that personality is an ex-pat with syphilis, seven fingers, and a coke problem. It is possible that without corporate suits looking over his shoulder every ten minutes and the weight of a money making franchise on his shoulders Phillips may have made a very dark and twisted comedy this second time around.

Sadly, this is not what happened.

Where Hangover 2 goes awry is in the spots in which the writers felt the film had to adhere to the same plot and hijinks of the first movie. These points feel tacked-on and divorced from any authenticity in the movie, creating an off-kilter feel that the movie never completely shakes. Rather than getting a wholly original film that could have stood on its own two feet, what we're left with is a Frankenstein of new ideas melded with rehashed simulacra stapled to it. For example, instead of waking up to Stu’s (Ed Helms) missing tooth and a tiger in the bathroom a la the first movie, here we get a chopped-off finger in a bowl, a drug-dealing monkey and Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) bumping rails as his morning pick-me-up. It's the same tired starting gag but with a dirty “I chopped up a stripper, didn’t I?” vibe running through it that makes much of the film a bit hard to believe instead of unbelievable.