The Hangover 2 - 1 smile

The only positive element in The Hangover was director Todd Phillips’ creative approach to telling a story. Unfortunately, once you know that formula, there’s nothing original about its sequel, “The Hangover 2” because it’s déjà vu all over again, only raunchier and less funny. That means Ken Jeong is back as the foul-mouthed gangster Mr. Chow who gets to jump around naked (again) and Mike Tyson proves he can’t sing. One of the few new faces is Paul Giamatti as a growling American. And because the setting is Thailand, Phillips pushes the limits of his R rating for all it’s worth: there are a lot of bare breasts, an exposed male butt and a transsexual’s scrotum.

Everyone’s in Thailand for the wedding of dentist Stu (Ed Helms, whose high-pitched screaming throughout the film drove me crazy) to Lauren (Jamie Chung). Stu doesn’t want a bachelor party, but he gets one, of course. A night of extreme debauchery (again) leaves our heroes clueless and foggy-brained, unable to recall anything from the night before without photographic evidence (saved for the end credits). Phil (Bradley Cooper) (again) leads the investigation into what happened because the bride’s kid brother, Teddy (Mason Lee, son of director Ang Lee), has disappeared, leaving behind a severed finger. From there, “Hangover 2” replicates the search, with stops at bars and strip clubs, run-ins with angry Russian gangsters and angrier Buddhist monks, and a running gag involving a pet monkey that wears a Rolling Stones jacket and likes to smoke cigarettes. “The Hangover 2” isn’t really a sequel; it’s the same movie with a different setting and if I didn’t like the original, I really didn’t like its sequel. 4/27/11