The Hangover

Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) wake up in Las Vegas hotel room with no memory of what happened the night before during their bachelor party. The problem is they lost the bachelor Doug (Justin Bartha).

There's a tiger, a bunch of pictures, and a baby. All that is fun flashing lights, but it's the chemistry of the three that makes this movie. Zach Galifianakis' breakout performance is hilarious. But it means nothing if Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms wasn't there. Bradley is a great leading man, and Ed is able to balance out Zach.

Director Todd Phillips really had the group humming. He has built up a nice resume of funny comedies. Also Ken Jeong literally jumps out onto the world.

If there's a film that will be sold on word of mouth alone this summer, it's The Hangover. With a funny but unspectacular trailer, a plot (guys go to Vegas for bachelor party and crazy things happens) that seems overly familiar, and stars who are relative unknowns there's nothing to suggest anything hugely promising. But those who have seen it can surely testify that it's a 24-carat piece of comedy gold, for once you can believe the marketing moguls...we have been graced by the sleeper comedy hit of the summer. On closer inspection it shouldn't actually have been that surprising, Todd Phillips occupies the director's chair and his previous output includes such hits as Road Trip, Old School and Starsky and Hutch. 'The Hangover' though easily surpasses those by merit of providing regular and consistent laughs amidst backdrop of a frenetic and unrelenting morning after.

The problems most comedies face are that they have to put all their best laughs in the trailer, so by the time the film comes around the funniest parts lose their impact and the rest of the film is disappointing in comparison. This is a problem The Hangover sidesteps masterfully. Yes we know they wake up with no memory of what went before; there's a baby, a tiger, a chicken, a missing tooth, someone's married a hooker and (in an unsurprisingly bizarre cameo) Mike Tyson turns up...but these moments, albeit hilarious, aren't what make the film tick. The heart of the film is in the chemistry between the three leads; Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) are likable and identifiable enough for an audience to go along with events that could quite easily in another context seem ridiculous. Alan in particular is a character that could really grind your gears if he turned up in certain films, as part of the affable trio however he grows on you immensely.

This success may partly be credited to casting unfamiliar faces but the actors themselves deserve huge credit. Cooper may already be slightly familiar to some and is undoubtedly a star in the making (having been cast this week as Faceman in the new A Team flick), Helms is best known for his stint in the US version of the office, Galifianakis though has come completely out of the blue and it wouldn't be at all a surprise to see him follow a career path similar to Seth Rogen's post Knocked Up. The missing groom Doug (Justin Bartha) also deserves an honourable mention for slotting effortlessly into the group when around, it's a shame the plot requires him to go missing for the most part. There's also perfectly pitched cameos for Heather Graham, Jeffrey Tambor, Ken Jeong and best of all Rachael Harris who is magnificently vile as the hapless Stu's wife.

Phillips has no qualms puts his characters through the wringer, there's one shocking revelation after another as the people, animals and events they encountered the night before come back to bite them on the ass during the search for Doug. As the audience know as little as the characters do the reactions ring true, they suspend disbelief as colossally silly events are only matched in magnitude by the sound of laughs in the theatre. The Hangover never quite lets up - the laughs even continue way into the credits - so it should come as no surprise that a sequel is already being planned. Having come up with something so fresh here the producers will have to be careful not to suffer from a hangover themselves the second time around.

Verdict: Brilliant chemistry and a few plot tweaks make The Hangover better than you could possibly be expecting going in. It's funny from start to finish and is guaranteed to have you leaving the cinema with a smile on your face.

With the exception of one character (more later in this review), I found this movie filled with male, sophomoric humor. Having said that most of the females in the audience also enjoyed it; kind of an equal opportunity movie to offend all sexes equally.

Unlike most trailers that show all the humor in a 60 second clip, this movie will throw so many funny situations at you so quickly that you will be giggling non-stop for the first hour.

Then, the introduction of the Mr. Chow part - essential for the plot, but played WAY over the top by Ken Jeong - became distracting. Up to that point, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, and Zach Galifianakis carried the movie briskly and with real chemistry. Zach Galifianakis, in particular, was brilliant. Who is this guy???! The last 30 minutes were not as good as the first hour and I found the ending somewhat forced.

HOWEVER, everyone I talked with after the movie will be seeing it again. This is one movie that is as funny as advertised.

Of course, I will get flamed by those who find this kind of humor too low brow for their tastes. Hey, just know what you're getting into when you see this.

When a movie is funny, even though you have seen some of it's funniest moments in the trailer, you know you have a winner. Hangover, which does have some similarities to the movie "Very Bad Things", but does not sport the same dark humor, is a comedy that works for many reasons and was therefor successful.

The actors: Be it Bradley Cooper, who deservedly gets the main (active) role here, was a hoot when he was on Alias (JJ Abrams TV Show). Here he can display his comedic potential more than in "He's not that into you". Zach Galifianakis is a bit odd and might scare a few people off, but he is a perfect fit (no pun intended). Ken Jeong, whom I've seen in several comedies in the last few months and many other comedians (and a cameo here and there) really make a wonderful ensemble (if you can avoid it, don't watch the trailer, before you see the movie, one cameo in particular is just so much better, if you don't know what's gonna hit you ... again no pun intended).

The story is pretty simple and you have to stretch your disbelief a bit, but it's all for the sake of really good comedy. And the ending is just perfect too. Everything fits and even though I don't know what they really would do in a sequel (there are rumors), I'd love to see one! :o)

Hangover, The (2009)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Four buddies head off to Vegas for a bachelor party but the next morning they wake up not knowing what happened the night before and discovering one is missing. They must then try to retrace their steps and locate the missing buddy. I'm always a bit hesitant to fall into the mass market when it comes to something popular because a lot of times I end up watching the film and it turns out to be a major disappointment but that's not the case with this gem because it lived up to its reputation and in my opinion passed them. I'm not going to call this the greatest film of the year but I might add it's the most original. You'd think a comedy about getting messed up in Vegas would be "been there, done that" but this takes a familiar set up and does something original with it. Instead of showing us the crazy party night, we don't see a second of it and instead we're thrown into a mystery and the laughs come from trying to figure out that mystery. For my money the screenplay is nearly flawless as it does a great job at building up our thoughts on what happened but the film then takes us to places that you certainly won't see coming. The majority of the laughs come from things that you normally wouldn't expect like a masterful scene involving a trunk. Even the jokes that you do expect (strippers) is done extremely well and with hilarious results. I won't ruin many of the jokes because of the "mystery" behind them is what makes them work so well but there were several scenes where tears were running down my face from laughing so hard. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis give terrific performances and their chemistry and comic timing with one another helps push the film even further. The three make for an excellent team and watching this film makes it look like the trio had been working together for years because they come off so well together. Heather Graham isn't too bad in her role and the great Jeffrey Tambor even gets a nice laugh. You really have to respect a movie that takes a familiar plot and mixes it up to the point of it being completely original and most importantly, downright hilarious. I hate labeling films when they're so fresh but I would be shocked if this movie isn't looked at in ten years the same way we look at "dirty" comedies like NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE and PORKY'S today.