Watch The Hangover: Part II

The Hangover debuted in 2009, and broke records as one of the highest grossing comedies of all time. Of course, a sequel is the natural evolution with major Blockbusters, and The Hangover II finds the famed and damned trio from the original film returning to repeat addled mistakes as we watch with curious frustration. Phil Stu, and Alan are sort of friends after the events of the original film left them battered and almost in prison. But as Stu gets married, the trio decide, despite Stu's hesitance, to visit Thailand to celebrate.

Unfortunately, the trio's first night out, with new gang member Teddy, causes them to get absolutely wrecked trash. They then wake up the next morning with no memory of what happened the night before. Alan wakes up with a helper monkey and a tiger in his bathroom, and Stu awakens with a brand new face tattoo. Oh and of course one member, Stu's fiance's little brother, is missing entirely. For those who have seen the first, the premise is almost comically similar, right down to the missing person, minor imprisonment, sexual encounter, and the clutch-time epiphany from Stu.

The crew then head out to find the missing Teddy, and quickly uncover a string of crazy events which they enacted in the previous night. The mayhem is furthered this time out, as some of the craziness that went down supersedes the first massively, and enters into territories of almost ridiculous fantasy. The boys come across the crazed Asian gangster, Leslie Chow, who is a bit of an alley this time around. Through the course of the film, we come across psychotic monks, transvestites, and insane trained monkeys- all in pursuit of some semblance of what happened and the surfacing of their missing friend Teddy.

The characters remain identical to how they behaved before, and the film probably needs some context before going in. The setting of Thailand acts as an interesting backdrop far different from any American setting. This ups the stakes considerably, just by itself. It's a wild ride, and displays a crazed ferocity that was oddly absent from the first. The intensity is up, and though the film recycles almost every specific element of the previous film, it is still an enjoyable ride worth going down for one more time before it all becomes awfully stale.