REVIEW 14: THE HANGOVER: PART II

Release date in India:	May 27, 2011
Director:	Todd Phillips
Cast:	Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Paul Giamatti, Ken Jeong, Jeffrey Tambor

The Hangover: Part II is not really a sequel. Frankly it’s not even a remake. What’s the word in the dictionary for a film in which you take the story of a sleeper hit, transport it to another location with precisely the same actors and characters, then proceed to replicate the exact same story with not a single innovation? I think the word I’m looking for is “repeat” or a noun that means “unimaginative film”.

I kid you not! The Hangover II actually takes the same quartet of friends from the first film (Phil, Alan, Stu and Doug); travels to Thailand in the week of Stu’s wedding (instead of Las Vegas within the US like they did the first time); something happens during an all-boys drinking  session on a beach; and they wake up the next morning in a seedy Bangkok hotel to find themselves completely wasted and the bride’s teenaged brother missing. They can’t remember anything about the previous night, of course. But like us, they do recall the story of Hangover I, so they rush to the hotel terrace to see if they’d abandoned the kid there. The film is about the countdown to the wedding during which they must recover their memories, retrace their steps through that wild night, find the boy, and get to the ceremony in time. Along the way they brave biker hoods, drug dealers and a calm yet murderous gangster. Even Mike Tyson resurfaces in what must rank as one of the most ordinarily crafted celebrity guest appearances in Hollywood history. 

So what’s new? Well, in place of the tiger there’s a drug-dealing, smoking monkey here (by smoking I don’t mean smokin’ hot but that the animal enjoys cigarettes). And Paul Giamatti stars as the suave criminal the friends must contend with. Bradley Cooper as Phil is as hot as ever. Justin Bartha as Doug is as cute as before. But I really don’t need to watch a nearly two hour movie just for the joy of seeing them; I could buy posters and stick them on my wall instead. Zach Galifianakis (Alan) is the only one in the group who manages to elicit a few laughs, but frankly, in the midst of all this sameness, it’s not enough. In fact, I have to say he was far funnier playing a similarly obnoxious character in that recent crazy road movie Due Date directed by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips and co-starring Robert Downey Jr.

But let me be fair. The film is not entirely a no-hoper. It starts off well. The initial scenes in which Stu meets his fiancée’s family are amusing especially Alan’s speech about Stu. And did I mention that Bradley Cooper looks gorgeous?! I suppose if you haven’t seen Part I or if you are completely undemanding as a viewer, you might like this sequel. But the joy of watching The Hangover with all its crudeness and sexcapades was its novelty. Part II takes fans of the first film for granted. And what is saddening is that with this one getting a massive opening in the US, and with two more friends from the gang still unmarried, there’s likely to be a Part III and a Part IV: same story, different city, different groom and a new animal plus yet another cameo by Mike Tyson. C’mon, we deserve better than this!

I died of laughter watching The Hangover. I may just die of heartbreak if the producers further insult those of us who contributed to their film’s success, by repeating the repetitions of Part II in Parts III & IV!

The tagline for this film reads: “The wolfpack is back”. It should have been:  “The wolfpack is back … and they have nothing new to say … and they’ll be back twice more!”

Rating (out of five): **

Release date in the US:	May 26, 2011
MPAA Rating (US):	R (Restricted - for pervasive language, strong sexual content including graphic nudity, drug use and brief violent images)
CBFC Rating (India):	A with three cuts (includes two shots of brand names plus a crass dialogue involving a monkey and a monk that you might have already seen in this trailer. The Censor Board also asked for the blurring of some shots showing brand names. The shots of frontal nudity had already been blurred by the producers before the film was submitted to the Censors.)
Running time in the US:	102 minutes
Running time in India:	101 minutes 48 seconds
Language:	English

Photograph courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangover_2  

REVIEW 10: LIMITLESS

Release date in India:	April 29, 2011
Director:	Neil Burger
Cast:	Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish

I’m afraid the cast listing up there is incomplete. It should read: Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, and Bradley’s blue blue eyes.

But seriously … Limitless stars Cooper as Eddie Morra, a writer who’s going nowhere. He’s got a book contract and a deadline looming large, but not a word emerges from his head. Then one day, he comes across an untested wonder-drug called NZT that helps him tap 100% of his brain. NZT gives him the almost-superhuman ability to remember everything he’s ever read, seen, been told or heard. Overnight, he finishes his book, gets a haircut, metamorphoses from a scruffy bum to the handsome Bradley Cooper that we would much rather see, learns the piano and gets fluent in languages he’s never spoken before. When his supplier is killed, Eddie has to do whatever it takes to ensure that his supply never dries up – which is easy since all he’s got to do is pop an NZT pill and his brain immediately comes up with a plan! Suddenly – to borrow a phrase from another film in a totally different context – he’s the king of the world!

At some level, you may be tempted to dismiss Limitless as a silly film. Ya sure, a wonder-drug that expands your mind and brain so much that there is no limit to what you can achieve!!! … I bet that’s what some of you are thinking! But c’mon, loosen up a bit: this is science fiction, it’s fantasy, it is a thriller, it is funny, it is fun! Besides, Neil Burger’s direction and Naomi Geraghty’s editing pace up the proceedings so much, that you might not get the time required to think while you’re watching. The action in Limitless is quicker than even the speed of Eddie’s thoughts when he’s on NZT. And that’s just one of many reasons why I’d recommend Limitless to you. Cooper is not only delicious, he can also act. First in his down-and-out avatar and then as the perfect version of himself in Limitless, he gets a chance to show a much wider range than in either The Hangover or TV’s Kitchen Confidential for which he’s perhaps best known in India. And after a long time you will find that Robert De Niro is not taking his audience for granted in a film, almost redeeming himself here for the embarrassing hamming in Little Fockers. Almost.

Cooper the actor is like Limitless the film: easy to take for granted because of the delectable surface gloss. Limitless is so enjoyable that you might not notice that it raises deeper questions about drug abuse (the smarter you are already, the greater the advantage from NZT, so then does it count as abuse if it’s simply maniacally organising what you know?) and what different people might achieve with exactly the same help (witness the contrast between the ramped-up Eddie and the mobster who’s also hooked on NZT). And there’s that question Eddie poses to the audience at one point: if you had a choice to take a drug like NZT or not, what would you do? No seriously, what would you do?

What does Eddie do? He pops the pills, becomes a bestselling novelist, a Wall Street wizard, a newbie millionaire who catches the eye of billionaire business tycoon Carl Van Loon (De Niro) and certain undesirables, and … well, you really don’t want me to give too much away.

On the downside, there’s the fact that there are a couple of twists you can see from a mile away. And you may also wonder: if NZT could help a man conquer the universe, why does Limitless seem to imply that Eddie would settle for the United States of America?

Well, maybe the US is the Universe! After all, Bradley Cooper’s blue blue eyes live there!

Rating (out of five): ***1/4

Release date in the US:	March 18, 2011
MPAA Rating (US):	PG-13 (For thematic material involving a drug, violence including disturbing images, sexuality and language.)
CBFC Rating (India):	A with one cut (shots of a man drinking human blood have been removed)
Running time in the US:	105 minutes
Running time in India:	105 minutes
Language:	English

Photograph courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitless_(film)