Review 164: "The Hangover"

Where do I even start...

 

Caricature Study

 

      Ugh. In 2009, I was a naive young boy. I didn't suspect that i would every be bored of the hilarious antics of the Wolf Pack. And then the sequel came out. And now the other sequel comes out. Great. I haven't seen the first Hangover movie since it was first released back in 2009, so I figured now was as good a time as any to look back on the original film. I mean, sure, The Hangover sequels might not be considered comedies, but the first ne was funny. Or at least had jokes in it. Directed by Todd Phillips (Road Trip) and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), the film follows Phil (Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook), Stu (Ed Helms, The Office) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis, Due Date) who walk up after the bachelor party for their friend Doug (Justin Bartha, The New Normal), with no memory and no clue where Doug is. In their attempts to piece together their wild night, they cross paths with Stu's new wife Jade (Heather Graham, Scream 2), mobster Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong, Community) and Mike Tyson himself.

 

Yeah, that how I felt after Part II as well.



 Wild and Crazy Guys

 

      I thought that if anything the reason I wouldn't find The Hangover as funny as the first time I saw it was because I was no longer 13-years old and had outgrown the time when the f-word was hilarious just on it's own. But the one thing I didn't not remember about The Hangover (Heh) was just how few jokes there actually are in this movie. While this movie is far less dark than it's successors, the film is nowhere near the laugh riot I remember, and everyone else remembers, it being. Yeah, the situations are absurd. Stealing Mike Tyson's tiger and kidnapping a naked mobster are fairly funny idea, but The Hangover is a little too much into realism. The characters react much in the way you'd expect people who learn they stole a tiger, lost and tooth and an entire other person would react. They're completely freaked out. They panic, they scream and they get hurt. And it's not that funny. Sure, the jokes that are in there often are funny, but the film doesn't actually have a lot of them.

 



What Happens in Vegas... (Is a Terrible Movie)

 

      I will though admit that The Hangover is still an entertaining film. The cast is made of the stereotypical characters for a comedy like this. Cooper's the cool guy, Helms is the nerd and Galifianakis is the crazy one. It's a grouping that director Phillips has used before and slightly better in movies like Road Trip. The characters don't really have any arcs and really don't learn anything. The just experience this wild night and that's really it, which is fine for a comedy as long as it's funny. And The Hangover does make you want to keep watching to see how it all turns out and how everything will be explained. It's kinda hard to really dislike The Hangover because we know it's not bad. We've seen the bad version of The Hangover. It's called The Hangover Part II.

 

Oh, right. I guess there is a wedding in this movie.

 The Verdict

 

      The Hangover might not be nearly as good as I remember it being, but it's still not a bad movie. The characters are one-dimensional, but that works in the plot and the acting is great. The film might not always be funny, but it is always entertaining and when it does make jokes they are funny jokes. The story gets you invested enough to keep you watching. Sure, it's not all great, but it could have been a lot worse... So, I guess this means I should see the third one now. Ugh. The Hangover gets 4 stars out of 6.