The Hangover Part II has its moments (the buddies lose a little brother on a wild night in Bangkok) , but is just not as gut-busting funny as The Hangover. Not so much sequel as photocopy, the same story loses its impact the second time through. Right from the start, when they awake memory-free in a trashed hotel room, their discoveries just don’t match up to the comic value of the missing tooth, the tiger and the baby in The Hangover. The revelations in Part II are just as extreme, but they just don’t register as funny.
The one original thought is when we see what’s in the socially retarded Zach Galifianakis’ brain – and we learn that he sees the buddies as his crew of 13-year-olds. But that’s really the only imaginative part of the movie.
It’s not that weren’t ANY good comedies in 2010 – just not many. And none made my list of the best films of the year. The funniest movie was Iron Man 2, a comedy masquerading as a super hero movie.
Going the Distance and I Love You, Phillip Morris were good romantic comedies – a particularly meager genre this year. Going the Distance was a rarity – a sweet, smart, funny and successful romantic comedy for adults. Screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe tried a novel approach that respected the audience – creating characters like the ones we know in real life, who talk and act like real people do. Instead of an implausible set-up, the conflict was the real problem of a bi-coastal romance. The offbeat I Love You, Phillip Morris was a gay version of the con man, prison and rom com genres, and the risk paid off.
Once, we get past the three best comedies, there were the passable (but not especially noteworthy) Get Him to the Greek, Morning Glory, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Please Give, Get Low, Love and Other Drugs, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Youth in Revolt, Cyrus and Death at a Funeral.
The Locksmith, a funny little movie which won the low-budget award at Sundance, didn’t even get a theatrical release.
It was disappointing, because even the good 2010 comedies didn’t match up with 2009’s really funny and original movies: (500) Days of Summer, Away We Go, Zombieland, The Hangover, In the Loop, Funny People and I Love You, Man.
This year, we had crappy comedies like Pirate Radio, Date Night and Soul Kitchen. The worst movies that I saw this year were so-called comedies Tooth Fairy and Leap Year – two films that no one thought were good (but that I was stuck with on a long airline flight). Not to mention that the most reviled movies of the year included the alleged comedies Sex in the City 2, Valentine’s Day, The Back-up Plan, Due Date, How Do You Know, Yogi Bear and Little Fockers.
So here’s the trailer for a non-lousy comedy (a romantic comedy, even), the original and funny Going the Distance.
