Why THE HANGOVER 2??

The saying “Lightning Doesn’t Strike Twice” is usually true. So in the case of THE HANGOVER 2, how can the director and stars do it all again??  Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and more talk about the “unfinished business” from the first film, and where they could go from here (HANGOVER 3?). Plus, THOR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, GREEN LANTERN? Careful, do not underestimate X-MEN FIRST CLASS! Do you think X-MEN FIRST CLASS can be a hit?  Drop us a comment below! We are taking a break on Monday Memorial Day (May 30th) – see you back here on Friday June 3rd!

Transcript

Hello, it's Mike Raub. Welcome to The Point, where all parts of pop culture come together, The Hangover 2. Adiak topped the first one, and what about getting these guys to calm down with the improvisation? We talked to the cast and the director, and they each have a little different position. In the meantime, do not underestimate X-Men First Class.

It's Friday, the 27th of May. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point, The Point radio, get The Point radio. There's a reason for the saying, lightning doesn't strike twice. That's because it doesn't.

So when faced with topping the R-rated comedy smash, The Hangover, producers Todd Phillips, Scott Armstrong, and Craig Mazin had a pretty big challenge ahead of them. I mean, we thought about that all the time. That was essentially the first month of sitting in the room together was the debate over how different it should be.

I mean, we kept saying same but different, same but different. In the end, people are going to come to a sequel. They want a sequel because of what they enjoyed about the first one. And I think where we landed was right. You stay within the template of what the first one is, but you make the stakes higher.

You make it a lot darker. And the other thing that we did, I think that was right, was to acknowledge that the characters had already been through the experience the first time. And so they don't, in the first movie, they wake up, there's a tiger and a baby in the room, then they go and have breakfast.

They can't do that this time. They know how bad it could get. So I think we landed on the right blend. Well, yeah, I just added that. I think we were aware that the fun part of The Hangover, the first Hangover for me is

obviously the guys are really funny in it, and the chemistry and all that. But it's also a mystery. And we didn't want to lose that investigative element that is present in the first one, because I think that keeps people fairly forward on their feet and involved in the story. So it was something we made a conscious decision, like you said, early on that, or like you

said, that we were going to stick with that template. We kind of owned, quote unquote, owned that template and we were going to embrace it. For actor Bradley Cooper, it was a case of, well, a lot of unfinished business left over from the first movie. I think that's part of the reason why there was so much room for the second one, because

there was so much unfinished. I mean, you really didn't get to know the characters. The narrative, which was really this mystery, this ticking clock, took precedent in the first one. I think the difference between this one and the second one, that one and this one is this

movie is more about the dynamic of the three guys and you really get to know them. And for example, like for me, watching the first one, it can almost be boiled down to one joke. The whole movie is a set up in the punchline of the credits. When you get to the end of this movie, I'm excited to see the credits, but that's not

what I've been thinking about the whole movie. I got very caught up in what happened to Stu and how they dealt with the dynamic and what Alan did. And it was much more about that, which I found it to be a much more pleasing movie sort of as a viewer.

Actor Ed Helms feels there was plenty of stuff for his character to deal with as well. I think the first movie was we were defining those characters and discovering them ourselves and they were really kind of more in archetype. They were more just conventional archetypes in a way that we just added our own kind of accents and inflections to.

When it came time for the second movie, it was very exciting because just to echo what Bradley said, we were able to add dimension to these characters in a way because we'd already done the homework. You knew who they were. You knew what the relationships were.

And Craig and Todd and Scott gave us a lot of fun stuff that just fleshes these guys out. As Todd said, getting to go to Stu's office, dental office, it's just more layers on these guys that is fun to explore. Todd Phillips, the director, one of the key ingredients was getting in a little improvisation

and knowing exactly when to use it. We don't do improvisation in general like on set. We kind of more do it off to the side in the morning where the four of us will get together and we'll just kind of not rewrite the scene but make some notes and Zach will say, how about this line there?

How about this? And then of course while we're shooting. Number two right now in theaters. It's Friday, May 27th. Here's what's going on in pop culture.

Wouldn't it be interesting if the superhero hit of the summer was the one movie that most of us haven't paid all that attention to? With all the press for Thor and Captain America, what about X-Men first class? Well, UK fans that have seen the movie are very enthusiastic about it and say that it accomplished everything it had to, which is a pretty long list being a an X-Men movie

without Wolverine and a lot of the familiar characters that most X-Men franchise fans will be looking for and a period piece as well. We'll find out X-Men first class opens in theaters this week. Everybody wants to know when's the next Star Trek movie? Well, right now it depends on the calendar of director JJ Abrams who does want to direct

the sequel and more than likely will. Right now the film is set to open in June of 2012. Paramount will more than likely add six months to that, making it maybe a Christmas movie for the end of next year or more than likely a summer movie for 2013. Roberto Orsi and Alex Kurtzman doing the script have been very busy on a lot of other

projects along with writing partner Damon Lindelof. They say they've turned an outline in to Abrams that have yet to hear back on any opinions he has on that. Of course, once they get the outline approved, then it's time to do the script. Last week we told you about the Walking Dead board game and maybe we didn't designate it

though that that was based on the comic. That being said, now there's a second board game out there this time based on the actual television series. Walking Dead, the board game of course is based on the series that well made basic cable history for adults when it ran last year.

It has you assume the role of your favorite characters from the series battling the zombies in a post-apocalyptic world of course. And average play takes anywhere from 25 to 60 minutes. So you got your choice, the Z-Man game which is based on the comic or this one which is based on the TV series produced by Crypto Zowig Entertainment.

Both will be out in September. Showtime turned a few heads this week when they canceled United States of Terra. They're blaming it on a ratings decline but Nurse Jackie, another comedy on Showtime also ready for another season, was renewed even though it lost a number of viewers this season as well.

In the meantime the Borges ended their first season last week with about 810,000 viewers for the night. Not bad, it says Showtime so the second season of the Borges will debut on Showtime in the summer of 2012. Comedian writer and web guy Chris Hardwick is going to host BBC America's upcoming Saturday

Night Comedy Blog that we told you about called The Ministry of Laughs. It debuts on the network in June by the way. In turn the network also agreed to produce an original pilot inspired by Hardwick's popular Nerdist podcast as well. Look for Chris's debut on BBC America on June 18th at 10pm.

Last week Amazon.com decided to help debut Lady Gaga's new album by offering a 99 cent deal for just 24 hours. That crashed their Cloud Drive service backfiring for the e-commerce giant and asking some questions about just really how prepared most of these retailers are for what could be a pretty busy couple of years in the e-commerce world.

It did take a little bit but everything of course with Amazon back on track. Here's some more good news for Hero Clicks fans. The entire inventory of the upcoming WizKids release, Captain America from the new Marvel Hero Clicks collection has totally sold out. It was said to be in stores on the 13th of July.

It's been sold out to distributors worldwide. That means that it should get into stores who ordered it but once it does it'll be in short demand as well. The featured characters well besides Captain America include Shield, Hydra, the Serpent Society of course there's a couple of Red Skulls in there and a lot more as well.

Is it the movie or is it a real groundswell for Captain America? Well that's yet to be determined but it is good news for Hero Clicks who were kind of on the verge of going away not that long ago. This is Mike Gold. Sure we get plenty of letters at MikeGold at GetThePointRadio.com.

Here's a small sampling. Dear Mike, with Chris Maloney leaving Law & Order SVU the show is going to suck and I don't think I can take it. What should I do? Signed, scared and disappointed.

Dear scared and disappointed, well you should put your affairs in order, buy a cemetery plot or a nice urn and decide if it's at all possible for you to get a life. Dear Mike, how can a guy as smart as Ed Schultz actually call Laura Ingraham a great wing slut? Signed, shocked and disappointed.

Well dear shocked and disappointed because Ed might be a left wing blowhard he does have a fine and discerning taste in women. Dear Mike, how could Laura Ingraham so readily accept Ed Schultz's apology like that? Signed, politically loose and disappointed. Dear politically loose and disappointed.

Because while Laura might be a right wing blowhard she has a fine and discerning taste in women. Dear Mike, is the new Cars album really worth the 24 year wait? Signed, okay second disappointed. Dear okay second disappointed, well it certainly is a major improvement on that last studio

album. Besides, what else did you have to do? Dear Mike, why do rock bands always break up and then get back together years later for big reunion tours? Signed, ginger baker and disappointed.

Dear ginger baker and disappointed. Because while they cannot spell abject failure they understand the concept. Besides what else do they have to do? Dear Mike, why is the next Star Trek movie being pushed back six months? Signed, Chris Maloney.

Dear Chris, because they're trying to find a way to write Bill Shatner out. Because they don't want to go up against the Three Stooges. Because they still haven't come up with an interesting idea. Because this is Mike Gold on America's true pop culture channel. Get the point radio.com.

That was a wrap on our week. We are going to take Monday off for Memorial Day. We all get a three day weekend but we'll be right back here next Friday to catch up on everything including the opening of X-Men First Class. In the meantime, you don't have to miss anything in pop culture.

We got it for you 24-7, rolling right now throughout the weekend all day long on the point radio. Listen free at getthepointradio.com. This podcast is cranked out for you twice every week by Mal and Content Media for great websites like ComicMix.com and Michael Davis World.com.

Give us a comment of course at ComicMix or write us direct at ListenAtGetThePointRadio.com. Check us out on the iTunes podcast directory under the point radio. Have a great Memorial Day weekend. See you Friday right here.