'The Hangover 2' laughs all the way to the bank

Director/writer Todd Phillips is no stranger to the R-rated comedy. His debut film, after all, was Road Trip, a raunchy college romp with generous swearing and nudity. His Old School, with Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn, was also a raunchy college romp with generous swearing and nudity. These days he’s best known for two Hangover films, the second of which comes out this week. Both films are raunchy romps with generous swearing and nudity, except the participants aren’t in college, and this time the nudity tends to be male.

While there were good expectations for the first Hangover (releasing an R-rated comedy in summer is usually a sign of confidence), no one was quite expecting the degree of success it saw, eventually becoming the highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever. When that happened, you just knew a sequel would be coming, and two years later, it’s here.

Now set in Bangkok, it’s Stu (Ed Helms)’s turn to get married. With best friends Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Doug (Justin Bartha) in tow, they reluctantly invite oddball Alan (Zach Galifianakis) to join them at the wedding in Thailand. To prevent any shenanigans, Stu forgoes the traditional bachelor’s party. But after cracking open a single beer two nights before the wedding, the trio awake the following morning — just as wasted as in the first film — with no recollection of the previous night’s bacchanalia. With one member of their party missing — the bride-to-be’s brother — they must piece together clues to find him in time for the ceremony.

The movie plays not so much as a sequel but almost like a remake of the first (maybe it should’ve been called Hangover 2.0): Replace the baby with a monkey, Heather Graham with a Thai ladyboy, and Mike Tyson, well, I won’t spoil it.

Maricel Soriano, Gabby Concepcion and Snooky Serna in a scene from Elwood Perez’s Summer Love, screening at the CCP on June 11.

There are a few niggling bits though, like why exclude Justin Bartha from the proceedings? He’s a gifted comic actor; just because he was the person missing in the first film doesn’t mean he should sit this one out. Seems a shame to have that in your drawer and not use it.

Ken Jeong’s Mr. Chow reappears, and does an encore of his full-frontal scene; it almost seems like he’s going for Ewan McGregor’s record of most penile exposure.

Its heroes are, without a doubt, Galifianakis and Helms. Cooper mostly plays the handsome straight guy (he’s still an unrepentant cad, despite being married and a dad), but all the funny stuff happens because of the other two. Helms wakes up with Mike Tyson’s tattoo on his face (which got the producers of the film sued by the original tattoo artist, for infringement), Galifianakis wakes up bald but is otherwise his already eccentric self.

If you liked the first film you’ll like this one as well, since it hits most of the same notes, almost like going through a checklist. Perhaps its most favorable feature is how crass it’s willing to get with the male genitalia and a scene with Thailand’s (in)famous ladyboys (one has to wonder how Thailand’s tourism board reacts to the movie); it’s even ruder and cruder than the first, and that’s saying a bit.

The Hangover Part 2 broke the record for highest-grossing weekend box office for an R-rated film. Already, people are debating the locale of the next film, with the main actors suggesting Amsterdam.

Kudos goes to Warner for leaving the film uncut and keeping the R-rating, instead of releasing a chopped-up version that may infuriate moviegoers.

* * *

The Society of Filipino Archivists for Film have a great Saturday lined up June 11 at the CCP. At 2 p.m. there’s a free screening of Dindo Angeles’s Sinta!, based on Onofre Pagsanjan’s musical. Sinta! is a Filipino reworking of The Fantasticks). Pagsanjan himself will be in attendance. Then, at 6 p.m., they’ll be screening Elwood Perez’s Summer Love, where you can relive the Snooky-Gabby and Maricel-William tandems from back in the day.