If you've ever found yourself wondering why Anchorman 2, Wedding Crashers 2 and Zoolander 2 never came to fruition, perhaps watching the new trailer for The Hangover Part II will clear things up. Maybe it is a good thing Paramount never wanted to spend money on the Channel 4 News Team.
Not that you expected anything different, but the set-up for The Hangover Part II is pretty much exactly the same as The Hangover -- save some part swapping. Phil, Stu and Alan (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis) head to Thailand for Stu's bachelor party -- Alan, in one of the only funny original jokes in the trailer, calls it "Thighland" -- and they wind up losing his soon-to-be brother-in-law somewhere in Bangkok after a wild night of monkeys, head shaving and face tattoos. Second verse same as the first: Figure out what happened the night before, find the lost kid, get to the wedding, cue Flo Rida Kanye West. (Kudos to Warner Bros. for picking some killer music for this trailer.)
There are some laughs, but they're mostly of the retread-type -- if you found it LOL-funny in The Hangover at how Stu reacted to losing a tooth, wait until you see him react the same way to his face tattoo! And so on. Even the supporting players are the same: Doug (Justin Bartha) goes to Thailand with the boys, but steers clear of any shenanigans; Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) does, too -- a decision that not only appears to strain the credibility of the story (he comes as Alan's guest), but also means audiences will be forced to endure more of Ken Jeong's histrionics. (As anyone who has watched Community this season knows, the less Jeong, the better.)
And, yet! A funnier trio than Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis would be hard to find, and The Hangover Part II can probably glide along on their charm and chemistry without much difficulty. Perhaps this is just a case of the trailer hiding the best jokes and keeping things familiar to the fans who spent $467 million worldwide on The Hangover? Fingers crossed.
VERDICT: Let's drink some Gatorade and see if this hangover gets any better.