When Todd Phillips’ The Hangover Part III, they’re nowhere near as great as the original movie.
Looking back on The Hangover trilogy, it can be easy to forget just how great the first one was. The sequels never came close to matching its combination of raunchy hilarity and compelling storytelling, and there are a few reasons for this.
The Hangover Was All About Its Premise
Sequels only really succeed when the first movie works as the setup for a franchise. Superheroes and Jedi Knights, for example, can get into any number of adventures. But the story of the Wolfpack is the story of Doug’s bachelor party.
The whole success of The Hangover is its premise. The characters and the world aren’t strong enough to a franchise. The first film's premise was brilliant, but ultimately only works once.
The Sequels Turned The Characters Into Bad People
In the first Hangover movie, Phil is a repressed man-child, Stu is stuck in a toxic relationship, Doug is an aggressively regular guy, and Alan is generally unusual. None of them are necessarily bad people, so it’s easy to go along for the ride with them.
However, in the second and third movies, Todd Phillips re-characterized Phil as a total jerk, Stu as a philandering party animal, and Alan as an out-and-out sociopath. (Doug remained painfully ordinary, but he never got in on the action, so he doesn’t really count.) It made the Wolfpack much more difficult to relate to.
Repeating The Formula Led To Diminishing Returns
The first sequel to The Hangover repeated the original’s formula. Where the original saw the Wolfpack going to Las Vegas for a bachelor party and losing the groom, the sequel saw them going to Bangkok for a bachelor party and losing the bride’s younger brother.
Naturally, this led to diminishing returns. Throwing in a gunshot wound, an Interpol sting, and a drug-dealing monkey wasn’t enough to distract from the fact that The Hangover Part II was just copying the formula of a movie that already nailed it.
Subverting The Formula Didn’t Work, Either
Following the negative reception to The Hangover Part II’s plot merely copying that of the first one, Todd Phillips responded by making The Hangover Part III with an entirely new story. The Wolfpack takes Alan to get some therapy, then gets run off the road by gangsters. Doug is kidnapped and they’re given a ticking clock to exchange him for Mr. Chow.
Subverting the formula didn’t work, either. There’s not much comedic value in The Hangover Part III’s storytelling. The threequel has nothing to do with booze-soaked antics; it’s just a dark action thriller. Zach Galifianakis and Ken Jeong’s improvisations are the only thing that make it a comedy.
Alan And Mr. Chow Got Way Overused
In the first Hangover movie, Alan and Mr. Chow are undoubtedly the funniest characters, but Phil and Stu are the real stars. When it became apparent that Alan and Chow were the two most popular characters in the first movie, Todd Phillips crammed them into as many scenes as possible in the sequels.
When it comes to outlandish characters like Alan and Chow, less is more. Forcing them into the spotlight in the sequels was a detriment to what made them work so well in the first movie.
The Sequels Were Weirdly Mean-Spirited
The great thing about the first Hangover movie is that, like many raunchy R-rated comedies from Superbad to The 40-Year-Old Virgin, it’s ultimately a sweet story about the power of friendship.
By contrast, the sequels are weirdly mean-spirited. The affection between the characters shows only in the actors’ chemistry. For comedies, the sequels are very spiteful and cynical.
The Performances Weakened As The Trilogy Went On
After years of playing ing roles, Bradley Cooper finally got to lead a comedy in The Hangover. Zach Galifianakis was one of the quirkiest voices in standup when he landed the role of Alan and Ed Helms, then known for The Daily Show and The Office, got his first major film role as Stu. The trio gave their all in the first movie.
But as the series went on, it seemed like they cared less and less and didn’t put as much heart into the second movie as the first one. Ed Helms has confirmed there is absolutely no chance of a fourth installment.
Jon Lucas And Scott Moore Never Came Back
Based on a personal experience of executive producer Chris Bender, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore wrote a script for The Hangover. Director Todd Phillips reworked a lot of the script with Jeremy Garelick, adding the tiger, the baby, the police car, and Mike Tyson. What worked here was Lucas and Moore providing a strong narrative groundwork on which Phillips could build all kinds of absurdity.
Lucas and Moore decided against working on the sequels, fearing they’d be stuck writing Hangover movies for the rest of their lives, so the sequels were written from scratch by Phillips and a couple of writing partners, and from a fundamental standpoint, they weren’t well-written screenplays.
The Sequels Relied More On Shock Value
While there’s plenty of raunch in the first Hangover movie, it’s never excessive. The sequels relied a lot more on shock value, using racial slurs as punchlines and tossing in gun violence in lieu of actual jokes. The closing photo montage in The Hangover Part II includes an extremely distasteful parody of an Eddie Adams picture of a Vietnam War-era public execution.
It seems that Todd Phillips was constantly trying to top himself, but shock humor is one of the laziest forms of comedy. It can be done well, but it isn’t here.
They Couldn’t Let Go Of The First One
The second and third Hangover movies were too beholden to the first one to stand on their own two feet. In addition to being a carbon copy of the first movie, the second one manages to force in a cameo appearance by Mike Tyson, again showing off his dreadful singing abilities.
The third movie has shoehorned-in cameos by the stripper played by Heather Graham and her son, now grown up, played by one of the eight babies who played him in the first movie, just ‘cause.
