The Hangover Part II

The trouble starts early, with that “based on characters created by” credit. What, so Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the writers of the original, were too good for this? Possibly, yes; even viewers whom it repulsed probably will prefer that first film to this torpid follow-up. Anyway, where writing is concerned (it seems unconcerned), director Todd Phillips does the dishonors himself, along with Scot Armstrong, who co-wrote Old School with him, and Craig Mazin, who, uh, was one of eight writers on Scary Movie 3 and one of nine on Scary Movie 4. But where were we? Oh yes, Bangkok—with Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms once again up to their blackout-inducing bachelor-party antics, along with Ken Jeong, Mike Tyson, that other guy from the first one (Justin Bartha), a drug-running monkey and Paul Giamatti. It’d be ridiculous to speak of innocence lost, so let’s call it innocence calloused to death by excess abrasiveness.