THE HANGOVER PART II

★★ 1/2 out of four stars

Rated: R for pervasive language, strong sexual content including graphic nudity, drug use and brief violent images.

Doubling down on the formula that made "The Hangover" the most successful R-rated comedy ever, "Hangover 2" leaves no avenue unexplored in its relentless quest to assault sensibilities, breach taboos and induce vomiting.

The premise is pure déjà vu. On the day after a bachelor party for Stu (Ed Helms), he awakes alongside Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) in a decimated hotel room. The men have pounding heads, physical disfigurements, amnesia about what went on the night before and no clue where the fourth member of their party is.

This time what happened in Vegas happens in Thailand. Repeating the structure of the first film beat for beat, writer/director Todd Phillips goes sleazier and more depraved.

The three stooges get a pinch more time to flesh out their characters. Cooper and Helms have a nice bantering scene that hints why the playboy and the dorky dentist are friends. We get a slice or two deeper into Alan's mental layer cake of huffing hostility, rich-kid entitlement and social ineptitude.

Ken Jeong reprises his fey, obnoxious crime lord Mr. Chow, taking it to wilder reaches of insanity, posing for a photo in the end credits montage that is so appallingly tasteless in its re-creation of a historical outrage that it's nearly genius. It is very sick and it gave me one of the biggest laughs I've had in weeks. So, mission accomplished, I guess.

COLIN COVERT