And alas, the director of Road Trip and Old School, Todd Phillips, comes to us with yet another raunchy, bromance-filled sexcapade of drunken misadventures and an over-the-top propensity to say "Oh my God" with the perfectly titled "The Hangover." However, do we really need another movie about all those good times at college blown up into an even more adult form? Haven't we developed this formula time and time again? Is "The Hangover" just beating the drunk dead horse over and over again?
Nope. Glad to say, this is the one Hangover you'll actually enjoy.
The story of "The Hangover," as you would imagine, follows a group of odd-coupled friends celebrating their buddy's wedding by having a boisterous bachelor's night in Sin City itself, Las Vegas. But, when Alan, (Zach Galifianakis) Doug (Justin Bartha), Stu (Ed Helms), and Phil (Bradley Cooper) end drinking too much, they all wake up not having a single clue as to what happened the night before. What makes matters even worse is that Doug is getting married in two days, but when his friends wake up, they realize that he goes missing and spend the 2 days (including the day of the wedding) ruthlessly searching for him. After waking up in the villa they rented, they find a tiger in their bathroom, a burned chair, a suspended footrest, Stu missing a tooth, and a slew of other ridiculously random situations to deal with. In an effort to rescue Doug before the wedding, keep the whole vacation a secret from everyone back home, and figure out what exactly went on the previous night, they backtrack from the clues they find in their villa and it becomes a story of mystery and comedy seamlessly meshed together.
The script written up for "The Hangover" is so clever and well-thought that its hard to believe that it was concocted for what would, otherwise, just be a stupid frat-boy comedy thrill ride. What we get as an audience is actually a commemorative comedy to show that not all simple slapstick and schlock has to be mediocre, monotonous, and just plain dumb. The film pulls punchlines almost every other phrase and never lets up; there's not one moment of lull in the entire film. In fact, if you think there's a part that seems not as funny as the rest, give it about 10 seconds and something hilarious will ensue, guaranteed. What most impressed me is how quick the jokes were...almost like there was no cheap setup for any of the comical scenes, physical or verbal.
Alongside skilled writing is the work of the actors themselves. No, they're not winning Oscars for their work, but keeping in tone with the film, they perform spectacularly. Their characters are so believable and it truly seems that each character was developed almost exclusively for the actor that played each. Each of the main characters have a real sense of charisma about chemistry between them and the story, while far-fetched, is believable from their interactions and the continuously quick and cunning comedy.
However, "The Hangover" isn't perfect in any regard. While the actors have real personality on-screen, they were a little hard to really delve into considering their back-stories and connections to each other were hardly touched on. The film never describes how each of them really met each other and/or why they're friends, especially considering each of them seem like they would never actually be friends in real life (from their immediate character traits). What's more is that the characters themselves aren't really drawn out all that well; its hard to really sense what each character is truly like. When someone can assess almost immediately what a character is going to do next, they form a bond with that character; they learn and feel who that character is. In "The Hangover," it really seems as if a bunch of shallow ne'er-do-wells were thrown together randomly for a preposterous night in Vegas. In short, there's no real depth to the characters and, thus, you never truly get an attachment to any one of them.
Alongside this, I had a bit of a trifle with one particular scene near the end which is built up through the entire movie. Without spoiling it, its something that is foreshadowed and alluded to plenty of times, and when the moment of the occurrence finally arrives, it really isn't as dramatic, engaging, funny, or climactic as it should've been. But this reflects the entire conclusion as a whole...once the resolution of the initial conflict starts to take place, you realize that there was nothing to really look forward to the entire movie. You were just awaiting the next joke or the next silly antic to come across the screen rather than actually, anxiously, expecting something to happen.
But then again, what else have you come to see from a light-hearted silly movie about friends and their crazy adventures? "The Hangover" pretty much serves up exactly what you were expecting, if not more. Its hilarious, quotable, and immensely memorable in all the right ways and holds up as this year's Knocked Up or Old School. Now if the writers of this collaborated with Judd Apatow and his team, we might get something truly epic. Until then, keep your morning after pills handy for this film because its going to be one hell of a night.
7.5/10
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