'The Hangover 2' Not Much of a Hit With Critics

'The Hangover 2' opens this weekend, and critics feel like they are being cash-cowed. Another sequel made to try and squeeze money out of the success of the first movie, but bringing little to the table to get viewers excited. Sounds like critics would rather treat get body acne treatments than watch this film.

While 'The Hangover' was a decent comedy, and better than most in recent years, I didn't feel like I was watching anything special when I saw it. It got a lot of hype, and people seemed to enjoy it, but I still felt it wasn't an instant comedy classic by any stretch. It was sort of like Zombieland to me. Full of hype with very little payoff, and trying way too hard to appeal. Like the people making it had some references to what is cool, but didn't really "get it" with what they were referencing. Just trying too hard.

Times critic Betsy Sharkey, accusing the film of existing purely as a crass cash-grab without any good comedy to justify itself. She writes, "Me, I'm left with morning-after regrets. Lost is the fresh, perverse, painfully politically incorrect R-rated pleasure that came when 'The Hangover' ate up the summer of 2009."

Manohla Dargis of the New York Times: "If you superimposed a diagram that mapped out all the narrative beats, characters and jokes in 'The Hangover Part II' over one for 'The Hangover,' the two would align almost perfectly."

Roger Ebert's two-star review gives the film credit for having a few laughs (mostly because of Zach Galifianakis), but Ebert takes offense at one photograph, seen during the film's closing credits. Like the first one, "The Hangover Part II" saves the final revelations of the boys' wild night out for a montage at the end. "It's not that I was shocked. This is a raunch fest, yes, but not an offense against humanity (except for that photo, which is a desecration of one of the two most famous photos to come out of the Vietnam War). The movie has its share of laughs."