Review: The Hangover Part II (15) **

Harder-edged than the original, charmless and coarse-grained, The Hangover Part II is a largely unfunny, squalid retread of its predecessor. Fans of 2009’s break-out hit will recognise the same routines and the same cast. The dark and dirty sequel steals plot points wholesale and transplants them from Las Vegas to Thailand where dentist Stu (Ed Helms) is planning his wedding.

Pals Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Doug (Justin Bartha) make the trip and clingy Alan (Zach Galifianakis) is reluctantly invited by Stu. But what begins as a harmless beer beside a beach bonfire turns into... well, you can probably guess the rest.

Phil, Stu and Alan wake up in a grungy room in Bangkok. Stu has acquired a tattoo on his face. Alan’s head is shaved. There’s a monkey in the bathroom. And a severed finger in a bowl of water.

This is a perfect example of a studio rushing headlong into resurrecting a golden goose only to hatch a turkey.Bangkok offers a parade of obvious situations and screenwriters Craig Mazin and Scott Armstrong, working with director Todd Phillips (replacing writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore) soak them all up. Cooper screams and swears a lot, Helms re-plays much of his performance from Part I which leaves Galifianakis to take advantage of the remaining laughs, which are few and far between. Crucially, and most annoying, Mazin and Armstrong reintroduce two characters from the first film that have no place here to shore up a lazy script. A montage sequence over the end credits (another rip-off from the first film) is the movie’s funniest moment.