“Same Movie Twice”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

The Hangover Part II is, sure enough, the sequel to the most successful R-rated comedy of all time, and you will have to admit that this one is even raunchier than the first one.

Not funnier, just raunchier.

As a matter of fact, this is just the same movie as the first one with even the same characters, except that there is a different groom and it takes place in Bangkok, Thailand, instead of in Las Vegas.

It even has a new catch phrase to replace “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” The new catch phrase is “Bangkok has him now, and it will never let him go.”

Once again we have Bradley Cooper as Phil, Ed Helms as Stu, Zach Galifianakis as Alan, and Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow, and the plot is exactly the same, except for the change of locale.

Even Doug, the groom who was missing for most of the story in the first movie returns, and he is even missing for most of the story in this one, too, except that everyone knows where he is. The person whose whereabouts aren’t known is Teddy, the 16-year-old brother of the bride.

So, here is the story. Stu, the mild-mannered dentist who has a dark side with a demon in him, is getting married to Lauren, a beautiful woman from Thailand, and the wedding ceremony is to take place on her parents’ estate in Thailand.

When the movie opens, Phil is talking on a phone, and he says, “It happened again,” adding that the situation is a little worse than “no-wedding bad.”

Then we see a title of “One Week Earlier,” and here we go again.

Stu doesn’t even want a bachelor party and is happy to settle for a bachelor brunch at a local IHOP restaurant, and he is even forced to invite Alan to the wedding, who was the cause of all the trouble the first time.

Once in Thailand, everything goes from bad to worse, especially after the guys go have a campfire on the beach and what was planned to be only one beer and roast some marshmallows.

And they wake up the next morning in a trashed hotel room in Bangkok with no idea where Teddy is.

The Hangover Part II should have been called “The Hangover, Take II.”

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”