Friday
05Jun2009
Movie Review - 'The Hangover'
Friday, June 5, 2009 at 12:38AM | The Hangover
Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis  |
They say that whatever happens stays in Vegas. And if you can't remember what happened in the first place, all the better, right? Sure, unless you lose somebody. And a tooth. And you wake up to find a tiger in your bathroom and an unaccompanied baby in the closet.
Those are the circumstances facing Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) in The Hangover. The three guys have driven to Sin City from Los Angeles for a friend's bachelor party, but the next morning, their friend Doug (Justin Bartha) is nowhere to be found. That's just one of the many mysteries the that has to be solved, and you don't want Phil, Stu, and Alan trying to piece things together. Particularly not Alan.
The beauty of The Hangover is that we never see the bachelor party. But we develop a sense of what it might have been like as little bits of information start to come into focus. How do all of these things go together: The tooth, the tiger, the baby, a stolen police car, a hospital bracelet, a missing ring, a found stripper and escort, a flamboyantly gay and incredibly angry Chinese mobster, and Mike Tyson?
In a way, it's surprising that this movie ever got past its pitch, but the script - credited to Jon Lucas and Scott Moore but heavily reworked by director Todd Phillips - amazingly finds a way to keep moving forward while investigating events that already happened. A lesser movie, particularly a lesser comedy, would suffocate on having such a simple premise loaded with so many details, but The Hangover only becomes the film it is because of that structure.
Reader Comments (6)
Todd Phillips might actually be the best comedic director working today (sorry Apatow). Why? He has spent the majority of his career leaning on a preferred ensemble (Wilson Bros., Ferrell, Stiller, Vince Vaughn) much in the way Apatow has (Cast of Freaks and Geeks, Paul Rudd). But with Old School and Starsky and Hutch behind him, Phillips roped in a new crew and successfully mined for gold. That's really hard to do, and a place Apatow has yet to go. Even if Funny People turns out to be 5 Stars, I give Phillips the advantage, because going with lesser known commodities like Ed Helms and Zack Galifianakis is infinitely riskier than casting Adam Sandler when trying to reinvent your formula for success.
That said, my money will be spent on The Hangover when I venture to the theater this weekend, while Will Ferrell wishes he hadn't lost Todd Phillips' number; I wouldn't watch Land of the Lost on a transatlantic flight.
i didnt have very high hopes for this ive already seen dude wheres my car i really didnt want to see it again, but i happened by the midnight show with some friends and i couldnt have been more wrong. Zack Galifianakis was genius and it was just a great movie all around
Will, you have to remember that back 4 years ago, Apatow was taking a risk. Here was an R-rated comedy during a time where teen sex movies were all the rage (and "Wedding Crashers" was just barely becoming a surprise hit), with a cast composed of bit players and no big names. And it worked. It's just now that everyone's trying to jump on the bandwagon.
But this film isn't a cookie-cutter "Make your own Apatow movie". It's better than that; it's smart and funny and shocking and gross but in intelligent ways. There is penis in this movie, but it's not used as a lazy shock joke like in other films (*cough* Observe and Report *cough*). It takes you a while to realize it, but it's not there to shock you; it works completely well in the context of the film.
I love Apatow, and I'm fond of Phillips work on some films (don't like "Old School" though), but this is easily his best work to date. It's so, ridiculously funny. Probably the only film (besides "Star Trek") to completely beat my high expectations.
i didn't think it was that funny but i did notice that the funniest parts were some of the most subtle nuances in any performance i've ever seen executed by zach galifianakis, were not the at the moments that other people in the theater were laughing. even though this isn't the funniest movie i've seen in a while it is qoutable and has that "je ne sais quoi" that makes it more enjoyable every time you watch it, especially when you're high.
I can see why The Hangover is of this summer’s biggest hits. First, it’s funny as hell. Any movie that can weave a baby, a missing tooth, and Mike Tyson into its plot is comedic gold. Second, the cast perfectly play off each other. Bradley Cooper’s sleazy outspoken Phil, The Office’s Ed Helms’s whipped but goodhearted Stu, Zach Galifanakis’s indescribable Alan and Justin Bartha as Doug, the Groom, pull off each gag (No matter how gross), insult and wisecrack with great comedic timing. Third, Director, Todd Philips and Screenwriters, John Lucus and Scott Moore used a different approach to tell a standard comedic story. They focus on the characters finding out what happened at the Bachelor Party instead of seeing their antics that night. Their reactions to their antics in scenes such as when Phil, Stu and Alan go to the hospital to find Doug or seeing themselves on Tyson’s security cameras are hilarious. I especially, enjoyed the twists and turns in the story such as what happened to Doug during the Bachelor Party. It was great to see some surprises in a comedy instead of the standard set-up the joke plotting. The Hangover’s success proves that not only do audiences want to laugh at the movies but also want to see well-made comedies.
Worst Movie Ever Made. The plot is nonsensical. The "comedy" scenes could only appeal to those with a mentality of a 3rd or 4th grade boy, at best. No laughs are to be had for any reasonable adult. The movie could only appeal to the least common denominator of people in society--the extremely immature: little boys and those with similarly undeveloped cognitive abilities. Given the relative success the movie has had, it, unfortunately, can be cited as a bellweather for the current state of society.