I will openly admit: probably one of my favorite movies of all time was the Hangover. Classic comedy that, even after watching it 20 times, never gets old. So you can bet that when I found out they were making a Hangover 2, I was beyond excited like a little kid in the candy story.
But then I saw it.
The trailer that is.
Sadly, it looks awfully familiar to the first one. Similar story plot: friend’s getting married, groom and friends decide to drink, wake up lost the next morning (notice, it is the same 3 guys who got lost the first time around too), one friend is missing, and then the search for that friend begins with the help of a Mr. Cho. Needless to say there are some definite differences, such as instead of finding a baby, they find a monkey, and they are in a different country.
But why is it that producers/directors decide to make another sequel to an already awesome movie? Maybe it is because the first one was such a hit, they decided to make another one. Or maybe it is because they knew it would make profits again, and why not remake something that already made a ton of money?
Normally, sequels end in disaster. I am hoping for the reputation of the first one that this one is at least comparable. Either way I am for sure still seeing this movie, despite all the very weird similarities. I will be keeping my fingers crossed when I eat my popcorn and pray that the director/producers throw in many different twists that keep me on my toes.
And I hope I get a good laugh too.
Its all about Political economy. Since Hangover was such a huge success, "lets do it again." They know that the way they choose to make the first Hangover worked, so why change things and be original when the first way worked just fine. I personally think there is this certain something that determines whether or not the sequels to a movie will be successful or fail, and its about "over doing it." It's just like when you think a season of a show is over, wrapped things up really well, and then it comes back on, and all of a sudden it is terrible. As long as they do not have four sequels, Hangover part 2 has potential to still be a success. Movies like Saw or Scary Movie, in my opinion, became stupid right about #3.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the film yet, but could it be that the trailer is purposefully showing the parts of the sequel that are like the original Hangover so they don't give away the surprises and new jokes in this new one? I do agree that they probably only made the sequel because of the massive success of the original, but I am willing to give it a shot.
ReplyDeleteI saw the movie this past weekend, and it's indeed identical to the first. Same concepts, from beginning to end even to the very last line. Which I thought it was just very poor writing. Yes, there are some differences such as the story taking place in Bangkok and they lost a different guy. This is a case that something so big and profitable like the first movie shouldn't have been touched in the first place, there was no way possible it could have been better. However, we gotta admit it is Hollywood, and it cares about how to bring in as much money as possible into the industry. I am sure it is getting horrible reviews, but yet people are still rushing in to go see it because of false hopes that it is going to be as good or even better than the first one. It is all about the economy structure of pulling in profits even if the material it self lacks in any way of authentic entertainment.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing the movie I can't help but say that I'm not surprised by exactly what I paid for. The formula they crafted for the original Hangover seemed to be both perfect and timeless, but after seeing the sequel, I beg to differ. In a way I felt like a movie that had created such a buzz and dedicated group of fans would have been more inclined to deliver a few flashes of originality. I thought higher of the people involved in the film, but it is another sign of the bigger picture, which is the forces behind what we call entertainment. They control what we watch after tedious studying of our behaviors and interests and then regurgitate them back to us as if we have no capacity for real work. This crew is officially done in my books, on to the next one.
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