Movie Review: The Hangover

A story of three groomsmen, who take their best friend, Doug, to Las Vegas for his bachelor party. High stakes and consequences go hand in hand when they wake up the next morning and can’t remember what happened. They know that they must have had a good time, but are too hung over to process it. What did they do? Where did they go? And where’s Doug?

I was really trying to not get excited about The Hangover. A lot of the time I build these rated R comedies up and they sorely disappoint. They are usually dick and fart jokes wrapped around a flimsy plot. Not this time. The director that brought us Old School (Todd Phillips) hits the nail on the head with another tale of a group of men trying to have a good time and almost ruin their best friend’s life. I was laughing through almost all of the film. It reminded me of something that could happen to people I know. Through strange events and weird occurrences people I know could drink way too much and steal a tiger or a police car. The story is told in a funny, fast paced fashion, and because of strong character development we are given a solid comedy with likable characters. Anymore it is rare in a comedy that you can fire off jokes, and at the same time tell the back story of these characters. Usually it’s forced or not done at all. They pull off about two to five minutes on each one and we get a good sense of who they are. The movie is all about guys in Vegas, but you feel their friendship.

The comedy was outstanding. If you put Mike Tyson singing in anything I will watch it. I thought that the film might have too much of an Old School vibe. Sometimes it does have some of those tones, but the jokes are fresh and something that we have either not seen or not been saturated by. In the film Alan (Zach Galifianakis) has some great bits that linger through the film. At one point Alan tell us that he is not allowed within 200 feet of a school, but doesn’t tell us why. Later when they have the baby that they found in their hotel room the others question whether or not he is capable of taking care of the child to which he replies, “What? You never think I found a baby before?”. There was just a lot of clever, witty jokes like that. Also, stay through the credits. You don’t have to wait until the end, but during the credits themselves there are some bonus laughs.

I am pretty confident in saying that if you saw the trailer and liked it that you will like the film. It was nice to see some fresh faces on the comedy scene and to find new subjects to laugh at. Don’t be surprised if you want to road trip to Vegas after this one.

Fanboyz Grade: A