lindamyers11: 'Hangover Part II' Is 'More Epic' Than Original, Director Says

Sunday, April 3, 2011

'Hangover Part II' Is 'More Epic' Than Original, Director Says

'People are going to be really surprised,' Todd Phillips tells MTV News.
By Aly Semigran, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper and Zack Galifianakis in "The Hangover Part II"
Photo: Warner Bros.

Who's afraid of the wolf pack?

If the just-released trailer for "The Hangover Part II" is any indication of what moviegoers can expect come May 26, then it's a whole lot of crazy antics. Yes, even crazier than before.

The two-and-a-half-minute clip features the "Hangover" wolf pack — Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha — up to their old tricks (losing someone after a boozy night on the town, finding exotic animals in their bathroom) in a new setting (they've gone from wreaking havoc in Las Vegas to Thailand).

So when MTV News caught up with "The Hangover Part II" director Todd Phillips at the 2011 CinemaCon in none other than Vegas, we had to ask if there were any way the sequel could live up to the wildly successful 2009 comedy. Phillips, who was also at the helm of the original (which brought in more than $467 million worldwide), said he believed "The Hangover Part II" is actually better than the first.

"Audiences have really responded in the same way," Phillips said of the reaction to the follow-up. "It's just been out of this world. I think people are going to be really surprised."

In fact, Phillips himself gave the movie a stamp of approval that could sway even the most hard-core "Hangover" purists: "I think it's a funnier film, and I think it's a more epic film." And while the 40-year-old writer/director said he still loves the original, he believes the sequel "just turned out to be a more satisfying film."

As if that weren't enough, it seems the first film, which featured, among other things, drugging a Bengal tiger, a run-in with Mike Tyson and grown men getting tased by children, will be tame compared to the mishaps that occur in the latest.

As Phillips explained: "We had less constraints on us — and I don't mean money; just freedom to do whatever we wanted."

Do you think "The Hangover Part II" will be better than the original? Let us know in the comments!

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