The Hangover Part II

The tattoo is this film’s most concrete legacy. S. Victor Whitmill, who designed Mike Tyson’s facial tattoo, sued Warner Bros for copying the same design onto Ed Helms. The court refused to block the release, the case went ahead anyway, and the studio settled on 20 June 2011, having already offered to alter the tattoo digitally for the home video release. The joke you are watching is an authored work with an owner. Two warnings are worth having in advance. The closing photo montage includes a direct restaging of Eddie Adams’ photograph of the Saigon execution, and Roger Ebert called it a cruel shot the director should never have used. On animals: PETA protested the use of the capuchin monkey, and because the American Humane Association was refused access to the set, the film carries no standard animal safety certification at all. The casting mishap is instructive too. The Bangkok tattooist was first given to Mel Gibson, dropped after crew objections, shot in a single day by Liam Neeson, then reshot again with Nick Cassavetes when Neeson proved unavailable. Not for: anyone wanting the series to move forward. Audience polling scored it very highly while critical averages collapsed, and that gap alone answers the question.