“The Hangover Part II” releases on a two-disc set, which houses the film’s Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copies.
This 2011 sequel to the blockbuster comedy “The Hangover” moves from Las Vegas to Bangkok as the Wolfpack gets into another pre-wedding, post-blackout misadventure. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, and Ken Jeong reprise their roles in this popular black comedy offering.
Visuals
“The Hangover Part II” is as hot and humid as its shooting location. The warmly saturated images for its muggy palette showcases such a decadent and grimy atmosphere. It is filled with lush greens, bright blue oceans, and sun-baked streets. Layered with vibrant colors and eye-popping depth, the film’s crisp and clean encoding shines with simmering colors and contrast. Even the dirt and grime of the surroundings and the facial features of the characters are extraordinarily detailed and lifelike.
Although a few night scenes suffer from some crushed blacks, overall, this disc release is still free from serious blemishes and digital compression issues. Colors are relatively explosive, but they never get to the point of bleeding. Characters have slightly flushed skin and a layer of stable film grain covers the picture for a more cinematic look.
Audio
Aggressive action, refined sound effects, and rich and organic atmosphere punctuate this guy flick’s impacting five-channel audio track. A variety of nice panning effects and discrete sounds of animals, gunfires, car crashes, speed boat engines, and crowd chatters work well for the action and comedy scenes. The musical score and ambient sounds really take advantage of the film’s surround channels.
The well-rounded mix supports the narrative’s comic antics fairly well. From the subtle background noise to the more action-packed moments, this front-loaded track still doesn’t fall short of sonic potential in between channels. Alternative audio options in Spanish, French, and Portuguese are also available in the package.
Supplements
This release offers a handful of fluffy extras fronted by the funniest 25 minutes in the disc entitled “Unauthorized Documentary,” which is the shortened title for “Unauthorized Documentary: The Documentary About the Documentary They Don’t Want You to See About the Making of The Hangover Part II.” Other materials include the 1-minute action montage in “Action Mashup,” the 5-minute gag reel, and the 13-minute “Behind the Story,” which is subdivided into shorter featurettes about director Todd Phillips, the capuchin monkey Crystal, and actor Ken Jeong. Subtitles are available in English SDH, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.
Final Thoughts
Compared to the original, this sequel loses a significant amount of comedic steam. The bromantic misadventures of its characters who are now household names in Hollywood are merely rehashed ones coming from the first film — only set in a new location. Yet, this morning-after comedy is still considerably better than most poorly mounted mindless flicks out there. For this particular Blu-ray release, its technically polished package is able to maintain enough charm to make this movie an interesting buy for a good number of viewers.
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