The Hangover Part II: just not that funny

The Hangover Part II has its moments (the buddies lose a little brother on a wild night in Bangkok) , but is just not as gut-busting funny as The Hangover.   Not so much sequel as photocopy, the same story loses its impact the second time through.   Right from the start, when they awake memory-free in a trashed hotel room, their discoveries just don’t match up to the comic value of the missing tooth, the tiger and the baby in The Hangover.   The revelations in Part II are just as extreme, but they just don’t register as funny.

The one original thought is when we see what’s in the socially retarded Zach Galifianakis’ brain – and we learn that he sees the buddies as his crew of 13-year-olds.  But that’s really the only imaginative part of the movie.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story

This is a light and wry coming-of-age comedy set in a locked psychiatric facility by Directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Half Nelson, Sugar).  It’s hard for me to find humor in psych wards, but this good-hearted fluff had a few chuckles.  Keir Gilchrist and Emma Roberts star as the teens.  But the film is more of a showcase for Zach Galifianakis’ restrained and textured performance, less Wild Man and more  heartfelt – who knew?