Culture Blues

Let’s Review The Hangover Part 2!

As the Culture Blues Intern, it is my duty to record the post-screening discussions of my editors, so that they're not required to "sell out" and write actual cogent criticism.

Frankly, I don’t understand why we would send Jeff to see The Hangover Part 2. He’s a square. He doesn’t understand that The Hangover is this generation’s Caddyshack. Whatever that is. I think it’s about golf. I’m young! Anyway, here’s the transcript of his stupid review. Oh yeah, co-editor Jeremiah White is there too, facilitating. He’s another one. Couple of out-of-touch speds for whom the height of comedy is probably demure chortles between sips of brandy at their weekly Greenberg screening. Who wants to party with the intern this weekend? I’m free.

Jeremiah White: I guess one takedown piece of The Hangover wasn’t enough for you this week.

Jeff Hart:  Nope!

Jeremiah:  Just had to go see the sequel.

Jeff:  Yep!

Jeremiah:  Alright, tell me about it. Is it as derivative as everyone is saying?

Jeff:  Of course it is. But first, I want to talk about this long commercial that they played before the screening. It was a behind-the-scenes documentary about how they made that Axe body-spray ad where the angels fall out of the sky because the Eurotrash with the powder blue moped smells so good.

Jeremiah:  That doesn’t exist.

Jeff:  It does! Anyway, the commercial-makers were all like “we wanted to depict angels in a way they’d never been seen before” and I was all like LOL.

Jeremiah:  I’m guessing you’re building up to a bit where you say that a featurette on Axe marketing packed more laughs than The Hangover Part 2.

Jeff:  No, that would be quite the bit of humorous snark, but it wouldn’t be truthful. Although I think pairing the Axe mini-doc with The Hangover Part 2 is telling, in a way. Lots of interesting parallels to be drawn there. You know. About people that like The Hangover.

Jeremiah:  I don’t think so. Anyway, did you just admit Hang-2 is funny?

Jeff:  Well, funnier than an Axe body-spray commercial. It has moments. How could it not? It’s a raunchy comedy. Zach Galifianakis once again does most of the heavy-lifting. Him and the monkey. There aren’t any scenes that really made me bust a gut, but some people might find jokes about male genitalia, Asians, and Asian genitalia funnier than I do. Those people better bring their asthma inhalers. Everyone else should be prepared to chuckle quietly to themselves.

Jeremiah:  More or less funny than the first one?

Jeff:  That’s a tricky question. If we’re just talking about laughs, the sequel probably has more. It’s grosser, more outrageous, trying really hard to push the envelope. A lot of very cheap laughs. I might have laughed more at the sequel than at the original, but there’s no question that the original is the superior comedy. Wrap your head around that.

Jeremiah:  Most of the reviews already circulating describe Hang-2 as a loving homage to its predecessor.

Jeff:  That’s a kind way of describing what might be the first recorded case of a director plagiarizing himself. The film is an exact duplicate of the original. All of the plot points line up exactly the same. From the opening phone call by Bradley Cooper to the bride-to-be, all the way down to how the mystery is resolved and who gets to deliver the cathartic third act speech. It’s shocking that Todd Phillips and company didn’t try to deviate from the first film’s plot even a little – throw the audience a curveball. After all, isn’t that what all the wacked out critics loved about the original? It’s cleverness? It’s subversion?

Jeremiah:  This time around, the critics aren’t so in love. Hangover super-fan Roger Ebert is in a tizzy about some image in the closing credits.

Jeff:  That part is tasteless, yes. But it also got the biggest laugh from me. Guess that makes me a bad person.

Jeremiah:  Others are calling Hang-2 a shameless cash grab.

Jeff:  Obviously.

Jeremiah:  And others still are saying it’s unfunny, misogynistic, homophobic, and xenophobic.

Jeff:  All true. Pretty much par for the course, right? Thankfully, critics are back to holding comedies to high moral standards. At least that I can understand. I’ll still never get why they deified the original. They’re the same – dumb comedies, not worth spending money on, but serviceable as background noise at the frat house power hour. I guess the clever concept of the original didn’t taste so good when reheated two years later. Eat it, critical community. Because you helped make this possible.

Tagged as: bradley cooper, cigarette smoking monkeys, Ed Helms, roger ebert is mad, shameless cash grabs, the hangover part 2, todd phillips, Zach Galifianakis