Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Mixed messages in
the marriage media
'Hangover sequel
overdoses on crazy
The Wolfpack's back in time for the wedding. (Ken Jeong, TV's "Community")
In addition to the plot, a lot of once a fleshy blur against the Las
Bangkok adventures the jokes are snide little references Vegas desert, is now a permanent
to the first movie or just re-work- character, which makes him less
border on depravity ings of the originals. Now Stu has funny. He made people laugh in the
a face tattoo instead of a missing first place because he was random,
By EMILY BOUDREAU tooth and it just doesn't have the but now that mystique is gone.
d1h
Daily Arts Writer
There's never any reason to sus-
pect that a sequel can't be as good,
if not better, than the original
movie. Just look
at "Toy Story,"*
"Harry Potter,"
"Lord of the
Rings" and even Hangover
"Pirates of the Part I1
Caribbean." But
the minute Phil At Qualityl6
(Bradley Coo- and Rave
per, "Limitless") Warner Bros.
cracks open his
eyes and finds
himself sprawled across a tile floor
in a cockroach-infested room in
Bangkok, everyone remembers
that there's a reason why nights
resulting in that kind of a hangover
are only supposed to happen once.
"The Hangover Part II" is
essentially a repeat of everything
that happened in the first movie.
Except this time, the wolf pack is
in Thailand for Stu's (Ed Helms,
TV's "The Office") wedding. But
the friends misplace Stu's fiance's
younger brother, Teddy, instead of
Doug. None of them can remember
the previous night and they must
piece it together in order to make it
same comedic value. A face tattoo
is way more serious, regrettable
and life altering than a missing
tooth.
In that same sense, "The Hang-
over Part II" is much darker and
way more twisted. Phil and Alan
(Zach Galifianakis, "Due Date")
find a finger in an ice bucket, which
is not necessarily an indicator of a
night that was wild in a good way.
With the original, the gang's antics
were believable - the guys were
the three best friends, perhaps
even your best friends. But in the
sequel, they lose their bro-next-
door quality. Stu, Phil and Alan
become people nobody wants to
party with out of fear of perma-
nently winding up in a Thai prison
with a face tattoo. Instead of fully
committing to the turn toward the
dark side, the movie tries to tame
it and connect it with the more all-
American Las Vegas scene, result-
ing in an uncertain combination.
The first movie was fresh and
unexpected with Mike Tyson's
tiger, taser-happy cops and strange
Asian men popping out of trunks of
cars. That element of surprise, so
essential to comedy, is completely
drained out of"The Hangover Part
II." The strange Asian, Leslie Chao
By MACKENZIE METER
Daily Arts Writer
Lately, I feel like I'm being
followed. Not by a person or
even an animal, but by an idea.
I just can't seem to escape it.
Everywhere I turn, I see wed-
dings. I see them in movies, TV
shows, songs, everything. Is it a
bad thing? Not necessarily, but
it's annoying. Just look at the
frenzy created by a certain royal
wedding - people got up at four
in the morning to watch cover-
age of two people from a foreign
country exchange marital vows.
Most girls dream of get-
ting married one day. Some
even start planning their wed-
dings from an early childhood,
which of course sets them up
for big bridezilla meltdowns
when their fairytale wedding
dreams don't exactly pan out.
I have never been one of those
girls. I have no idea where,
when or how I want to get mar-
ried. I don't know if I will have
a sweetheart neckline on my
dress or whether it will have
lace on it or what my "some-
thing blue" will be. Does that
mean I don't want to get mar-
ried? Of course it doesn't. Just
not any time soon.
Even though it might sound
like it, I am not picking on the
idea of marriage, even though
I'm sick of seeing it splattered
on everything. I saw "Brides-
maids" and I thought it was
hilarious. I read "Something
Borrowed" and I thought it was
a very nice little story. Of course
people live happily ever after
and of course people fall in love
all the time. Both of my big sis-
ters did. But people - especially
girls - are so focused on the
end result of dating - marriage
- that they forget to enjoy their
time as independent people.
Aside from college and the sin-
gle years to follow, there is real-
jy no other time e
completely devot
ourselves the bes lewe
can be without worrying about
anyone else - non blood-relat-
ed, of course - in the process.
And no matter what, it seems
we are inundated with the
thought of marriage at every
click of the remote. Think "Say
Yes to the Dress," "Shedding
for the Wedding" and - the
most horrifying of all - "Brid-
alplasty" in which contestants
are actually required to go
under the knife in order to win
a dream wedding. These things
not only make young women
feel like they need to spend
thousands upon thousands of
dollars on their own weddings
but also make women feel like
they must measure up to an
unattainable goal.
Beyonce never
mentioned it's
also OK to not
put a ring on it.
I think that people are still
so shaken by the recession that
they turn to things like wed-
dings because of the happiness
they are associated with. Wed-
dings mean love, a big party and
a special celebration with fam-
ily. Weddings are great. What
people are forgetting, though, is
the process necessary to get to
the rehearsal dinner and the big
white dress. There is a whole
progression of dating, of making
connections, of meeting fami-
lies and walking through a little
bit of life together before the big
day comes. And people like to
have someone walking next to
them - when times are hard,
it's so nice to have someone to
lean on. However, this does not
mean we should all race to the
altar. That special someone will
still be waiting and will step in
when the timing is right.
In the meantime, I cherish
my independence. Being con-
stantly inundated with images
of matrimonial bliss (largely a
result of the film and TV indus-
try) makes me cherish that
independence even more, but it
also can make it difficult for me
to just sit back and enjoy being
young and free - something I
hope to stay for a while.
Looking for
characters and
plot? "Bangkok
has them now."
The one character who manages
to preserve his integrity is Alan.
And while he does do the same
things he did in the first movie,
like talk about the Jonas brothers
and cause everyone that comes
into contact with him to ques-
tion his sanity, it works. With his
shaved head and piercing stare,
Galifianakis keeps Alan admirably
quirky and awkward. However,
as a character, Alan doesn't have
much depth (he's there for come-
dic purposes) and it is impossible
to expect him to carry the movie
alone. Sadly, it would appear the
difficult project of making a movie
on par with the first one. The cast
was swallowed up and most of the
"The Hangover Part II's" plot was
lost in the streets of Bangkok.