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The Hangover Part II, a review by Dragonfire

Since I liked The Hangover, I decided to see The Hangover Part II. 

Short review - It is basically the first movie again, just with someone else getting lost and set in in a different city.

I knew from the previews that the same basic thing would happen again.  I didn't mind that since the first movie was funny and entertaining.  Well, even though I expected similarities, I didn't expect so much to be practically identical, especially with how the story is structured.  The movie starts with Phil making the call to Tracey about how they screwed up and the wedding probably won't happen.  Then the movie jumps back to who what led to that situation.  Some of what happens is surprising, but overall, the movie is very predictable.  At the end, the guys end up looking at pictures from the wild night after swearing only to look at them once and delete them.  I knew that the guys had another wild party night and lost someone again, but I had thought that a little more would be different.  It was almost like someone made up a list of main points from the first movie and checked them off for this one.

This time Stu is getting married in Thailand.  He doesn't even want a bachelor party because of what happened the last time and he has to be persuaded to invite Alan, again for the same reason.  The guys, along with the younger brother of the woman Stu is marrying, meet on the beach to drink a beer and have a toast.  Well something goes horribly wrong and Alan, Phil, and Stu wake up in a crap hole hotel room with no clue what happened.  They set out trying to retrace their steps, again, just like in the first movie.  For some reason that still doesn't make much sense to me, Mr. Chow turns up again and is mixed up in what is going on.  The character worked in the first movie, but he's just out of place in this one.

The movie is entertaining and I did end up liking it overall.  I just think it could have been better.  Some of what happens is funny, but the movie isn't anywhere near as funny as the first movie.  Too much of what happens is more wild and outrageous....and that doesn't really translate into funny more often than not.  Some twisted, disturbing, or just plain gross stuff happens.  Again, I think that stuff was supposed to be funny, but it really wasn't.  Stu does another song at one point and while I did like it, it just wasn't as funny as the one in the first movie.  Some wild sexual stuff comes up as well.  It does seem like an attempt was made to be more wild than the first movie.  There is nudity - more male than female I think - and a lot of swearing.  This one definitely deserves the R rating and isn't family friendly by any stretch of the imagination. 

The guys have to deal with the same basic situation of losing someone and not having a clue what happened the night before.  A few more extreme things happen while they are retracing their steps or happened during the night.  Stu should really just go home, lock himself in the closet, and never leave again.  Phil gets hurt again, though in a different way.  Alan is still clueless about so many things. 

The movie can be enjoyable if your expectations aren't too high.  Following the same structure and telling basically the same story from the first movie didn't make a movie that was as good.  I've already been reading that the director wants to do a third movie.   I did read that the third movie would deal with a completely different story.  If another one is made, I'll probably see it at some point, though I'm scared to think what else can happen to Stu. This is definitely not a movie for everyone.



I did get a review posted on Epinions.

The Hangover Part II

(From The Hangover Part II on June 15th, 2011)

Bloody Birthday, a review by Jimmy

Title: Bloody Birthday (1981)

Genre: Horror
Director: Ed Hunt
Rating: R
Length: 1h25
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:78.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Lori Lethin   
Melinda Cordell
Julie Brown
Joe Penny   
Bert Kramer

Plot:
In 1970, three children were born during the height of a total eclipse of Saturn, the planet governing emotion. Ten years later these seemingly innocent children have become heartless killers able to move around under the radar of suspicion because of their youthful facades. What happens when a teenage girl and her younger brother stumble upon the horrible truth?

The films with children killers are always a good watching, when they are well done evidently, because who can suspect a child of being evil. This one is part of the good one mostly because of the three child killers (Elizabeth Hoy, Billy Jayne and Andrew Freeman) who gave quite a professional performance (to be honest child actor aren't that good most of the time and are annoying). Of course it's hard to believe that no one would catch or suspect them (even more after what they did to their teacher in the school), but it's a movie so who care... I like also how the movie end.

It isn't better than Who Can Kill a Child? but it's way better than Children of the Corn.

Rating :

(From Jimmy's - 2013 Ooctober Horror Marathon on October 14th, 2013)

Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews, a review by Tom

DS9 2.23 Crossover
Writer: Gene Roddenberry (Original Characters By), Peter Allan Fields (Screenwriter), Michael Piller (Screenwriter), Peter Allan Fields (Original Material By)
Director: David Livingston
Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Doctor Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lieutenant Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O'Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira), Andrew Robinson (Garak), John Cothran, Jr. (Telok), Stephen Gevedon (Klingon #1), Jack R. Orend (Human), Dennis Madalone (Marauder)

The mirror universe is revisited 100 years after Kirk travelled to it. It is a nice idea that Kirk's visit and influence on the Mirror-Spock is cause of the fall of the Terran Empire.
It is again fun to see another side of the characters. The producers seem to like the chance of killing off the main characters in the mirror universe episodes. Here Quark and Odo bite the dust.
During this episode I was thinking, that having Worf there would have been very fitting. And just now I have read, that they intended to do that (he was even in the script), but Michael Dorn was too busy filming TNG.
I had almost forgotten how annoying Bashir was to the other characters early in the series.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews on September 23rd, 2009)