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Speaking as someone who lived, worked and went broke in Bangkok during his early 20s, the biggest problem with The Hangover Part II
is not that it ignores the unique and fundamentally conservative Thai
culture in order to ease the way for lazy jokes about pingpong shows
(which it does), but that the film's depiction of Bangkok's underbelly
is simply not seedy enough. The strippers aren't strung out
enough, the sexpats aren't hopeless enough, the gangsters aren't violent
enough, the police aren't corrupt enough, the drugs aren't toxic
enough, and the elephants aren't mistreated enough—and the knife's edge
that is life in that underground world is, in this tacky Hollywood
creation, just too dull. Academy, Bagdad, Laurelhurst.
- Best paired with: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
- Also showing: Barfly (Mission, 9 pm Monday, Aug. 15).
WWeek 2015