Todd Phillips returns to form after a series of floundering pics with this bachelor party gone bad comedy that keeps the jokes coming and rarely misses a beat from start to finish.
Doug is getting married and the male celebration commences with his son to be brother in law Alan, and best friends Stu and Phil heading off to Vegas for a night on the town. Stu is a whipped dentist that has a raging bitch of a girlfriend, Phil is a disgruntled married middle school teacher, and Alan, well Alan has never left the confines of his wealthy family and is a tad bit socially awkward. The four toast to the night on the roof of their hotel overlooking the city only to wake up the next morning in their trashed hotel room, unaware of anything that happened the night before and missing their groom Doug. The three begin retracing their steps with the clues they have laid before them and their wild night begins to unfold as new hijinks fall in their path.
I won’t go into the plot to heavily with this picture, but the trailer and this synopsis is more than enough to get a grasp on what you need to know whether this picture is up your ally. The movie though does deliver the laughs and rarely a joke falls flat which is the sign for a good comedy, which this is. Most of the gags are quite funny and for every one that feels a bit tired and unoriginal, there are a few that feel fresh and are unexpected. Phillips also crafts a fast paced and actually very fine looking film with some surprisingly cool shots and homage’s thrown in for good measure. Also, props to the writers and editors for making this thing as quick and tight as possible and realizing less is more sometimes.
The actors in the film are also quite good across the board as well. Ed Helms as Stu is a delight and gets to bust out of his role in the office as the loveable loser to a dirty mouthed friend. I think Helms is the funniest in the film, followed closely by Galifianakis as the awkward Alan. Galifianakis gets the most set ups and attempts at one liners in the film, and he usually nails it, but Helms has the overall funniest bits and scenes I think. Bradley Cooper plays Phil, and is a bit of an asshole that we can’t help but like. While not getting as many jokes as the other two, Cooper holds his own with the two comedy vets and proves again that he is a diverse star in the making and is a more than capable male lead for the picture. Heather Graham is solid and still looking good in the few scenes she gets and Ken Jeong continues the trend of just being almost overwhelmingly silly and hilarious as a loud mouthed high roller.
In the end, The Hangover is well worth your time and will have you laughing from pretty much start to finish. It might take another viewing or two before we can properly place it with comparable comedies, but this potentially has the legs to get better on repeat viewings especially once I can actually hear some of those little bits that are drowned out by laughter with a big crowd. In fact, the Hangover is kind of in a tough spot coming out around a couple of superior and fantastic comedies that I just recently have viewed, Up and Away We Go, and if I hadn’t seen those I might have lauded more praise upon this one. But as it goes, this stands a pretty good comedy coming out among a couple of A+ pictures around it and that is saying something for sure and I am looking forward to seeing this again sometime and the eventual sequel.
The Hangover is a B+