The Hangover - Comedy Film Review

A Review of the Bachelor Party Comedy Directed By Todd Phillips

Jul 9, 2009

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Todd Phillips' Comedy The Hangover starring relative unknowns treads new ground but fails to raise enough laughs.

Before its UK release The Hangover had already taken the US box office by surprise, topping the charts and grossing over $100m dollars in its first 10 days, a feat not readily achieved so quickly by films with no real bankable stars in the lead roles. It was billed by Warner Bros. last year as being the potential ‘sleeper hit’ of summer 2009 and it has certainly begun to live up to that estimation with its early success with cinema goers.

What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas

In the film’s opening scene, bride Tracey Garner (Sasha Barrese) is fraught with worry as she receives a call on the morning of her wedding day from best man Phil (Bradley Cooper) who confesses to having lost her groom, Doug (Justin Bartha) during the bachelor party.

Re-wind two days and we’re following Doug as he prepares to leave for Vegas with his buddies, including Alan (Zach Galafianakis), the overweight loner who's just grateful to have people to socialise with and Stu (Ed Helms) an under the thumb dentists, paranoid his wife will discover the mischief that is bound to ensue. Add to the mix a borrowed Mercedes from the father-in-law to be and we have a recipe for disaster. The eclectic bunch make their way down the freeway and are Vegas bound with both Phil and Alan determined to make this a bachelor party to remember.

After the friends toast the beginning of the evening on the roof of their Vegas hotel we immediately see them waking the next day, the hotel room is trashed, there’s a baby in a wardrobe, a tiger in the bathroom and Alan, Phil and Stu (who is minus a tooth) all nursing terrible hangovers with no memory of the night before. Oh, and one missing groom.

The three dishevelled friends embark on a trip across Vegas in a bid to recount what went on the night before and hopefully find and retrieve Doug in time for his wedding. Along the journey they meet strippers, incur the wrath of organised crime lords and have an encounter with a certain former heavyweight champion of the world.

Comedian Zak Galifianakis Holds The Hangover Together

Despite the idea of a bunch of guys creating havoc on a bachelor party being covered in many a comedy both past and present, The Hangover still has time to be original. It's a comedy where we're are given all of the film’s punch lines at the beginning and as the movie progresses we unfold the stories behind them as the characters discover what went on during their forgotten night.

Although extremely crass at times and becoming a little too farcical in places there are some excellent moments, including an hilarious reference to Rain Man as Alan tries to card count his way to victory in one of Vegas’ casinos, and Ken Jeong as an overly camp Chinese gangster who the guys discover trapped in the boot of the borrowed Mercedes.

The majority of The Hangover’s genuinely funny moments tend to come from Zach Galifianakis as Alan who has plenty of comedy experience having cut his teeth on the stand up circuit in America, he has a touch of the Jack Blacks about him due to his zany, eccentric ways. It’s a shame the rest of the cast don’t come close to his level of performance particularly Bradley Cooper who seems out of his depth trying to be a comic actor, therefore at times the film relies too heavily on Galifianakis to be the bearer of most of the laugh out loud moments.

It’s doubtful that The Hangover will live long in the memory and stand the tests of time, in an industry littered on an almost weekly basis with distinctly average comedy releases it may find itself shelved with its lesser counterparts.

However, putting The Hangover’s longevity aside, if you can bear the absurdity of it all and you’ve ever been on a night out and struggled to remember what happened the next day until you check your mobile phone pictures then you’ll very much appreciate what is at heart a likeable comedy.

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham

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