The comedy brings a sense of déjà vu. It is partly funny, partly offensive.
First, the story. A quartet of overgrown boys are about to attend a wedding, one of them his own. Along the way, pre-nuptial merriment enhanced by booze and drugs causes "blackout," and when they come to the next day, they have no memory of what has happened and must extricate themselves from the mess they are in. This is their hangover.
They find out that one of them is missing. In their search for him, they bump into all sorts of characters, including a hostile, hyperactive, fully naked Chinese loudmouth named Mr. Chow and a mysterious animal in an unlikely place. Lost in mayhem, and dealing with frantic calls from the bride and family, the wayward, desperate brats are clinging to their last shred of hope that they will make it to the wedding.
Identical
This is the identical synopsis of both the hit 2009 comedy "The Hangover," and the new, bigger sleeper "The Hangover 2." In both movies, the buddies face the same—or similar—characters and situations. Replace Las Vegas with Bangkok, tourists and gamblers with Thai low-lifes. Get intimidated by a menacing Mike Tyson and hear him sing (a boxing champ singing? Sounds familiar). And the guys get to see—or recall—their blacked-out shenanigans on mobile phone photographs. No wonder no subtitle is attached to the title of the sequel, just a numeral, unlike other blockbuster sequels identified by descriptive phrases: "First Class," "The Deathly Hallows," "On Stranger Tides."
The repetitions in Part 2 are clearly a commercial gambit to milk on the success of the first movie. Give the audience what they like. That is a violation of the rule in making people laugh. You don't repeat jokes—in this case, a series of jokes that have been "sold" before.
It's true that "Hangover 2" enjoyed one of the biggest opening weekend grosses ever in box-office history last week—over $150 million. On the first week, people must have laughed and laughed but when they went home, they might have realized that they had been had—the jokes were a rehash. On the second week, attendance dropped by 62% from the opening weekend, as per Associated Press report.
Most likely, the steep drop in box-office revenues was also precipitated by audience realization that the movie is consistently mean-spirited and racist.
Irritating than laughable
Early in the film, at the airport lounge before their flight to Thailand, a sweet-natured, civilized Asian-American teener named Teddy, the brother of the bride, offers a boorish seatmate a head pillow, but the fat barbarian returns this nice gesture by accepting the pillow, only to toss it away. That Zach Galifianakis' rotund character is supposed to have a screw loose or is suffering from some arrested development does not make his antic mildly amusing. Some people may find in him a reincarnation of Jim Belushi or Bud Abbot and Lou Castello, or a new Jack Black but his character can be more irritating than laughable.
Such meanness of spirit and rudeness as first demonstrated by Galifianakis are found throughout the movie. They also tap into the xenophobic in moviegoers. "This is Bangkok!"—a character announces, ostensibly to explain the filth and stench everywhere. An oversized cockroach is shown in closeup, a sight that may scare Claire Danes and prissy foreigners. And so the three pals continue their search, once on a boat sailing a town that is reminiscent of permanently flooded Navotas in Metro Manila. Goons and criminals of every stripe are in every corner. The one local police officer the boys turn to is dumb and useless.
One shady character, a minor albeit showy one, is played by Paul Giamatti, who ironically starred in the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated comedy some five years ago, "Sideways," also about best friends in near midlife taking a road trip before a main character's wedding. But that one is insightful, intelligent and funny.
This one seeks humor in exotica and kinkiness. Sexy showgirls turn out to have penises. A monkey nibbles on a human finger. In "Hangover 1," a toothless face may send ripples of laughter (broken tooth is replaceable) but in this second one, someone accidentally cutting his finger with a knife and is cool about it is bizarre. The chimp, further, has a "hilarious" moment that may make animal rights activists squirm—animatrix or no animatrix.
'Asiatique'
In the first movie, someone refers to Chow as a Chinaman, clearly a derogatory word but a companion corrects him (he's "an American of Chinese descent"). In this second episode, an offensive word is used to startle the audience; instead of "Asian," one guy uses the word "Asiatique." And you thought that the old term "Oriental" was patronizing.
In the name of fun, one episode is ageist and shows the boys' lack of respect for privacy and religion. They are stuck with an old monk on a wheelchair and stubbornly refuse to abide by the holy man's vow of silence, ridiculing him. They noisily barge into a temple where young Buddhists are engaged in quiet prayer and meditation. The disrespect and insensitivity so outraged the saffron-clad leader that he flogs the interlopers with a bamboo stick. It's one surprising, rare moment worth cheering, even as the priest's action is an anomaly since Buddhists are supposed to be nonviolent.
Anything-goes humor is the norm in outlandish comedies, and occasional breaches of political correctness and civilized conduct are acceptable, but when craziness gets out of hand and the humor relies on racial stereotypes, that isn't funny. Comedy is no excuse for mindless entertainment that insults a people and reinforces racial biases.
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Mario A. Hernando is a respected film reviewer and founding member of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, which hands out the annual Urian Awards. He became famous for his movie reviews on the showbiz program "Movie Magazine" in the 1990s and was editor of the Weekend Malaya for 10 years. At present, he is a board member of the Movies and Television Review and Classification Board.
Disclaimer: As this is a film review, the views and observations of the author do not represent the position of Yahoo! Southeast Asia on this creative undertaking.
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