THE HANGOVER: PART II GETS A REALLY SWEATY TRAILER - Page 2

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Originally Posted by stelios 

Who the hell hailed The fucking Hangover as one of the greatest comedies ever and as defining for this generation? Where did you people get this hyperbole you're reacting against from?

A girl I dated said that.  But she also thought "The Happening" was a great too.  Yeah... that relationship didn't last long.

I think "The Hangover" was entertaining overall, but there was some stuff that just didn't work.  And that is mainly everything to do with Bradley Cooper.  Zach G pretty much saved the movie for me (and most of his stuff that worked well feels completely improvised).  I'll still probably see the sequel, but I'll be going into it with low expectations.

Have you been reading BurrninHell's posts, stelios? For the record, I haven't really thought to place The Hangover on any list except my list of great theater experiences. Packed house, high energy, ridiculously fun. Whatever The Hangover is or is not, it is a perfectly cast film in my opinion. No one is dead weight, it's very balanced, and made by an honest-to-god filmmaker who clearly exhibited growth in terms of his technical skill. It always feels like it's building to something, there's legitimate narrative momentum instead of a bunch of improv scenes cut together to make something approximating a film.

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Originally Posted by The Rain Dog 

I will not hear a fucking word against Carrell. The mans talent is a deep well. Galifinakis is a one trick pony next to him.

Yeah, Carrell doesn't deserve the hate. He's actually written and directed some episodes of The Office, like the recent one about the garage sale, that were quite strong. I'm hoping that he eventually gets to step behind the camera for the big screen.

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Originally Posted by Bucho 

 

It's the good old amnesiac quest trope grafted onto the good old men being boys trope but everyone loves Zach so, soooooo much (including me) and he had some nice comedic chemistry with Helms and Cooper. I think it's just that they made these dudes so damn likable and threw in a curve or two like Tyson and ... ok, just the one curve, but a lot of people loved taking the ride of that film. There's not much new in there but they pulled it off in a (relatively) fresh way (ie, not the Apatow way).

After the terrible mess that was Funny People,  this was a fucking relief.

Very solid point. In a lot of ways it seemed like an oasis in a desert. It didn't matter that it wasn't the best oasis ever, because man we were thirsty.

I went to the post-release for the original just for the helluva it.

If this one can bring out another "out of left field" critisism from The Prankster that he defends so vigrously it will all be worth it.

The first time I saw The Hangover, I thought it was great. I told everyone they should see it. The second time I saw it, I didn't laugh anywhere near as much. Its a good movie. It doesn't deserved to be praised or hated.

A good movie doesn't deserve to be praised? That's confusing. I figure if one considers a film to be good, then one would assume that there is something to praise about it.

Part of the "backlash" is a reaction to the amount of "love" the film got from the "Douche Brigade". Another part of the "backlash" was to the hype it got from the "Geek Squadron". Thing is, there's really not much "wrong" with the film at all, it's very solidly constructed, the performances are a delight, but it's not as smart, innovative or "brave" as the likes of In The Loop or World's Greatest Dad or Four Lions.

I still love ol' Zach "The Fat Michael Cera/The Greek Seth Rogan/The Bearded Will Ferrell" Galafianakis though and I like me some Cooper and Helms just fine, and I love Thailand and monkeys, so I'm totally in for the sequel. "Toooooooooooooootally". Not every film I enjoy has to be a "world-changer".

I hope people understand and remember that most of the reason Galafianakis appeared in so many films is that he's one of the best and most original standup comics of our generation.

If you haven't seen his stand up (get a hold of "Live at the Purple Onion"), you're doing yourself a disservice. The guy's a fucking genius even if his choice in film roles has been less than stellar. That said, he's far from the hack people make him out to be.

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Originally Posted by Paul755 

I went to the post-release for the original just for the helluva it.

I just did this too. People looking for overpraise and hyperbolic reactions should probably check out the first page of that one.

If movie execs (and society in general, actually) would just listen to BurninHell, we wouldn't all be fumbling towards a black hole of non-creativity and universal shallowness. His words work through the cobwebby, flavorless mist of our collective consciousness like a lighthouse stobe.  Honestly, I'm just glad someone finally spoke up and said something unique and different. Bravo, BiH.

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Originally Posted by Andrew Merriweather 

I just did this too. People looking for overpraise and hyperbolic reactions should probably check out the first page of that one.

You mean because it's not there, right? All I see is a pretty appropriate and measured reaction to a pretty good comedy film that apparently people have turned on because of who likes it and the enthusiasm said group (dude-bros/frat douches? I still don't get it) has for it.

People calling the film beautiful, putting it up there with Apatow's stuff, the best comedy for years, tears of laughter, and so on and so on. You seriously don't think that's an overreaction to a half-decent, thoroughly obvious collection of jokes?

And I've not "turned" on anything. To me it's always been a pretty typical Todd Phillips movie with some fun adlibbing from Galifianakis and an above-average turn from Ed Helms.

I don't recall if I posted in the thread, but it definitely ranked as one of the best comedies I'd seen for a long while (keep in mind I'm not an Apatow fan). Having since watch HANGOVER on DVD with a couple of friends, I will see it loses a bit of something outside the theater experience. Of course, these were friends that tend to be a bit....stuffy when it comes to humor, so they might have been the wrong folks to see it with. The photos/end credits sequence is definitely the funniest part of the film, and I have to think that leaving the theather laughing as hard as folks did helped create a warm glow for the entire film.

It IS a funny film, and solidly done (I also thought it had great production values), but it's not the Aughts equivlalent of AIRPLANE!

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Originally Posted by Andrew Merriweather 

People calling the film beautiful, putting it up there with Apatow's stuff, the best comedy for years, tears of laughter, and so on and so on. You seriously don't think that's an overreaction to a half-decent, thoroughly obvious collection of jokes?

 

And I've not "turned" on anything. To me it's always been a pretty typical Todd Phillips movie with some fun adlibbing from Galifianakis and an above-average turn from Ed Helms.

Where's the overreaction? I started the post-release and simply typed "beautiful" for the first post in. Do you think that was meant to be taken as beautiful like À bout de souffle  is beautiful or a summer day is beautiful or true love is beautiful or what? Or maybe it was just shorthand for expressing appreciation for a well put together comedy, as so few are. Is Apatow's résumé  so irreproachable that The Hangover can't be seen as being above any of the films he's been involved with? And finally, though I myself very rarely laugh until I burst into tears ('cause I'm a sad, miserable bastard), that was most definitely going on around me.

The movie works, it was a good time in the theaters, hit a sweet spot in the culture, and fueled a handful of careers. It's just that movie.

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Originally Posted by JacknifeJohnny 

Where's the overreaction? I started the post-release and simply typed "beautiful" for the first post in. Do you think that was meant to be taken as beautiful like À bout de souffle  is beautiful or a summer day is beautiful or true love is beautiful or what? Or maybe it was just shorthand for expressing appreciation for a well put together comedy, as so few are. Is Apatow's résumé  so irreproachable that The Hangover can't be seen as being above any of the films he's been involved with? And finally, though I myself very rarely laugh until I burst into tears ('cause I'm a sad, miserable bastard), that was most definitely going on around me.

 

The movie works, it was a good time in the theaters, hit a sweet spot in the culture, and fueled a handful of careers. It's just that movie.

 

I guess I'm just shocked that such LCD dick-jokery and physical comedy is such a smash-hit around these parts. Comedy is subjective, of course, but then you'd think the people raving about THE HANGOVER would be willing to cut the public some slack when a piece of shit like OLD DOGS makes bank. Whatever makes you laugh, right?

You have to remember that comedy is judged a bit differently, especially at the onset. And it's the genre most effected by a collective theater experience. I mean, you can have tears of laughter from a shitty youtube video. Just because The Hangover isn't the most amazing "film" from a narrative or originality perspective (and I'm not saying it's terrible in those areas) doesn't mean it can't work very well at making you/me laugh. And it did for me. I laughed my ass off.

That's all I want from one of these kind of comedies. Does it make me laugh? Well, then job well done. (That said you get major bonus points for excelling as a film, and that's why I wouldn't really rank The Hangover up there with some of my favorite comedies)

But I'd hardly call those first pages hyperbole. For every comment like you mentioned, there were plenty (mostly from those same people praising it) saying "it's not quite as good as Apatow's stuff," (40 Year Old Virgin is overrated and not as good as The Hangover as a comedy, in my opinion) and tempering their praise.

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Originally Posted by Andrew Merriweather 

I guess I'm just shocked that such LCD dick-jokery and physical comedy is such a smash-hit around these parts. Comedy is subjective, of course, but then you'd think the people raving about THE HANGOVER would be willing to cut the public some slack when a piece of shit like OLD DOGS makes bank. Whatever makes you laugh, right?

 

I don't see how you can honestly compare those two. They're not even in the same ballpark.

Also, I hate that just because "dick-jokes" are present it's automatically LCD. You can do that kind of humor well, and it's all in the performance. And I think The Hangover excels at that. It's got good performances.

It does have good performances. It also has a central theme as moribund as anything in OLD DOGS and its ilk - Stu's empowerment in the face of his bitch of a fiancee. I think they're totally comparable. One man's Alan-gets-tasered-in-the-head scene is another man's John-Travolta-takes-the-wrong-pills scene. If you want to boil it down to the entirely subjective criteria of "did it make me laugh?", there's nothing between them aside from what tickles who's funny bone.

And I couldn't disagree more about 40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN, a film that takes an Adam Sandler premise and makes a funny, real and touching movie out of it without resorting to wacky celebrity cameos and OTT Asian lunatics jumping naked out of car trunks.

But aren't you sort of arguing against yourself here, Andrew? You take HANGOVER to task for having a hoary, well-worn basic arc and turnaround and say 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN has an "Adam Sandler" (and I assume you don't mean that as a compliment) plot but manages to make it funny and touching. As it's been said ad nauseum, it ain't the story you tell, it's how you tell the story. And I (and other folks here) think that HANGOVER told the story with solid comedic and cinematic value.

Also agreeing with joeypants: just because there are "dick jokes" doesn't automatically qualify it as bad or poorly done humor. AIRPLANE! pretty much plays to the cheap seats every time, and yet it's considered (rightly, IMNSHO) a classic. I don't understand saying HANGOVER is no better than OLD DOGS, either.

Change it up, since everyone seems to be loving or hating Hangover. Where does it honestly rank in Todd Phillips' body of work? I'd rank:

Old School

The Hangover

Road Trip

Due Date

Starsky And Hutch

I did not see School For Scoundrels or his documentaries.

personally out of that list the only movie I really liked was hangover, never quite understood the love for oldschool.

It's not a contest at all. Old School was cute, Road Trip gave us Amy Smart's breasts but that's it when it comes to Phillips. The Hangover is far and above the best thing he's ever done.

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Originally Posted by 3nnui 

personally out of that list the only movie I really liked was hangover, never quite understood the love for oldschool.

Really? The pledge-stealing scenes with the van and tackling alone earned that flick unending love from me. And I still randomly shout, "You're my boy, Blue!", much to the amusement and puzzlement of friends.

Yeah I gotta go with Frank The Tank - Old School is the only Philips comedy I happily own and rewatch.

I can't believe people are actually comparing Philips to Apatow.  And 40 Year Old Virgin is way funnier and smarter than Hangover.  Its not a contest.  The cast is the only reason The Hangover isn't a complete pile of shit.  Apatow, McKay, and David Gordon Green, they're all far superior to Philips.

And I also agree Old School is probably the best Philips comedy, certainly the one I like the most.  The rest range from mildly enjoyable to barely watchable. 

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Originally Posted by Nabster 

I can't believe people are actually comparing Philips to Apatow.  And 40 Year Old Virgin is way funnier and smarter than Hangover.  Its not a contest.  The cast is the only reason The Hangover isn't a complete pile of shit.  Apatow, McKay, and David Gordon Green, they're all far superior to Philips.

 

And I also agree Old School is probably the best Philips comedy, certainly the one I like the most.  The rest range from mildly enjoyable to barely watchable. 

Oh, I don't think there's any question that Philips is below all those you mentioned. I just never cared for 40-Year Old Virgin at all. It's sweet and I don't hate it, but I never understood the wave of (intense) praise it got*. But... it did get us the rest of the Apatow films so I'm thankful for that.

Also, The Hangover and Old School are really the only Philips films I enjoy. I thought Road Trip was OK, but that's mainly because I expected it to be complete and utter garbage. I was basically just pleased that I chuckled lightly a few times. And School For Scoundrels is a complete and total piece of dogshit.

And yeah, the only reasons I enjoy either of those are the performances. Without those casts, these are tired cliches done moderately well. But... the films DO have those performances and thus, I think they're pretty damn good as comedies..

*other than I guess it was such a breath of fresh air.

JackKnifeJohnny, I meant that while the movie is good, it doesn't need to be watched more than once.

Is your name a reference to the Alice Cooper song?

Understood, and yes, it is indeed a reference to that song.

In regards to Apatow vs Phillips.

As a writer/producer, yeah it's Apatow by a mile. Anchorman alone is better than anything Phillips has done. But as a director...I might lean twords Phillips.

I love 40 Year Old Virgin but Knocked Up doesn't hold up well at all and Funny People is just ok.

Hangover and Old School are both great. Road Trip and Due Date are ok and the less said about Starsky and Hutch (although Snoop Dogg was kinda awesome) and School for Scoundrals the better.

But again...to each his own.