The Hangover
The Hangover offers nothing new in terms of the standard “boys night out” in movies of it’s type. You know these movies, they have been making them since forever and the paint may be different but the canvas that is being used remains the same. Let me break it down for you: Typically you have the ladies man or jock, the fat loser and the hopeless nerd. Sometimes they mix it up by throwing in “average guy” and then base the movie around a night of them getting drunk and bonding with the result being a change in their lives for the better… I am sure we all can name 5+ movies to fit this mold. Not to say they aren’t all equally funny and relevant, its just not anything new.
To be honest, I am a big fan of these kinds of comedies. What I loved about Pineapple Express was the way they took the archetypes I have described and mixed in some weed and a bunch of weird sh-t and it resulted into gold. The Hangover mixes in the date rape drug, wild animals, and Mike Tyson which results in a bizarre adventure of “wtf just happened?” The timing on the jokes were superb, the situations hilarious, and Heather Graham is still cute. We are given four guys on a bachelor party in Las Vegas, one barely has a personality and the other three will have you laughing your ass off the entire time. With Phil it’s his “f-ck it” attitude, with Stu its situational… plus his ill-timed optimism, and with Zach it’s his weirdness. Oh ya and Mike Epps makes a cameo as “Black Doug” and seems so perfectly in his element that it didn’t feel as if he was acting at all… unlike his cameo on the Resident Evil series which is blah at best.
Plot: The tale is one of a wedding, four best friends, and a night on Vegas that they seem to have forgotten. Waking up one morning after a couple shots (the drink) to a tiger, some chickens, a missing tooth and a baby, three friends set out on a quest to find the missing groom and an answer to the aforementioned chaos. Along the way they run into a motley crew of characters not limited to Mike Tyson, a homosexual crime lord and a bad drug dealer.
Hilarious, vulgar and an instant classic. The Hangover is one of those comedies that will probably get better with every watching, similar to Half-Baked. It didn’t have me slapping my knee, crying with laughter but the story was compelling enough to keep me pinned to the screen wanting to know the mystery of their crazy night, laughing at all the jokes and weirdness that happened to them. My favorite character was Stu Price (Ed Helms) the nerd of the crew, he had the best attitude and some of the funniest moments throughout, especially in dealing with his annoying girlfriend and Mike Tyson. Heather Graham was cute… oh I’ve already said that and this movie was nothing short of hilar. Make sure you check it out.
STAR RATING: (7/10) ★★★★★★★★★★
Filed under Comedy · Tagged with bachelor party, bradley cooper, date rape drug, ed helms, heather graham, mike epps, mike tyson, missing groom, zach galifianakis
