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arayrodgers
Reviews
The Hangover Part II (2011)
Very close to as good as the original
Just about everyone and their mother knows the original Hangover was amazing and one of the best comedies, possibly in all of film history (well of the past decade easily). This sequel is very strange in that it's hardly a sequel, it's more like a reworking.
They seemed to have used the exact same formula of the original, including major plot points and even what musicians soundtrack which scenes (there's a Kanye song playing on both when they're going out, there's a Wolfmother song playing again near the climax, that same singer with the eerie voice has a song at the beginning during the credits, after the "we screwed up" phone call), but somehow they managed to basically copy themselves without it feeling cheap.
I'm not sure how they achieved this, but as unoriginal as the film is, it just works. They basically took every crazy scene of the original and amplified times 100. Everything is absolutely insane, they're are definitely some things that will catch you by huge surprise. In some ways, this does indeed make this movie funnier and more action packed than the original, but what really made the Hangover so great was that the characters seemed very real, like you could see all of those things happening to you and your friends if you were at the wrong place at the wrong time, several times in a row.
That feeling of realistic characters and believable disasters is hardly present in the Hangover II, because the events are so extreme and the characters choices go past the morals of an average man (take into consideration that I believe the characters in the original were close to average men lol). If you haven't seen the first one though, you could possibly think this is one of the funniest movies ever.
So while it is funnier, it is less believable which takes away from some of the humor, but I still say it levels out to be about as good as the original.
Skins (2011)
Highly entertaining!
I actually think this show is pretty good, especially considering it's on MTV because no one really expects to see a show with much of any soul on MTV. I know it's a copy off of a British show, so they don't really deserve credit, but I love how the show is set up, with each episode focusing on a different character.
The characters are not great and sometimes they're a little over the top, but they're certainly more thought out than you would expect from a teen show. They are also realistic enough that I can sometimes see myself or one of my friends in the characters.
The show gained a ton of controversy for showing teenagers doing drugs, drinking, and having sex, without backing it up with a lesson like an after school special. That being said, this is not Degrassi. It is much more honest. It doesn't exactly glorify immoral behavior, there is the occasional negative consequence, the moral lessons on here are much deeper than, "don't do drugs, don't have sex!!!" The themes are more like messed up relationships, depression, etc. Which shows that kids that partake in these kinds of things are good people too and not just lost soulless sinners.
The acting is sub par a lot of the time, but the issues and the dialogue are most often much more believable and much easier to relate to than all of the cheesy teen shows out there. Because of that, I really respect the show.
So for being real, and not just preaching to the kids, I give this show props. I also would like to say that the humor is good, the music is good, and most of the dirty things that go on are done some what tastefully...sometimes...lol