| THE HANGOVER |
| The Hangover (2009) Published: June 10, 2009 Written by Cherish Hamutoff Scratching at the last vestiges of singlehood, soon-to-be-wed Doug (Justin Bartha) gathers up his groomsmen and drives the road of shame from Los Angeles to Vegas in his father-in-law’s-to-be shiny, crazy expensive convertible. Joining him on his journey are smarmy frat-boy turned bitter married schoolteacher Phil (Bradley Cooper), passively uptight dentist with the bitch of a girlfriend Stu (Ed Helms) and on-the-edge and overweight brother-in-law-to-be with the court order to stay away from children, Alan (Zach Galifianakis). After a Jagermeister toast on the roof of Cesar’s Palace, the story fast-forwards to the night after; where we find Phil, Ed and Alan with a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in a closet, a missing tooth in Stu, and Doug nowhere to be found. Since all their memories are wiped clean with alcohol, they set about painfully reconstructing the night before to locate the missing groom. They follow the proverbial bread trail to comically angry cops with tasers, a flamingly gay Asian mob boss, a wedding chapel, hospital, jail, Mike Tyson’s crib, and a perfectly pretty and sweet-as-sugar stripper (Heather Graham). All the while, Doug’s bride-to-be is waiting and worrying, nearing the alter, not sure if she’ll be there alone. The Hangover waits until the final moments, but ends as you think it would: what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…mostly. Was it a funny movie? Judging from the silent audience, I would say…ho hum. With a funny premise, a funny cast of stereotypical characters, with many funny gross out moments, one would expect this to be the funny movie of the year, and yet, it was second rate. It felt like the filmmakers got their second tier of actors, their second tier of screenwriters and their second tier of director. This was just a second tier film. I also never once cared about these characters. I did enjoy many absurd moments and the general movie, but if I happed to come across it on TV, I’d keep on clicking. Did I want to laugh? Yes. Did I? Some. The dentist’s missing tooth was painful (although very funny) to constantly see; and I kept looking closer, thinking I’d see a slip up in special effects, but it was solid. Galifanakis’ Alan was cringe-worthy and while I enjoyed his line crossing lines, the joke about him not being able to be around young children crossed a double line…pedophilia is still not funny in my book. Also cringe-worthy was Ken Jeong’s Mr. Chow: a ridiculously distasteful and almost hateful stereotype of both gay men and Asian gansters. Besides the main characters (all male) being merely stereotypes, the female characters got hit with the “we hate women” stick. There’s the always hilarious Rachel Harris as Alan’s uber-controlling, prudish, without-one-redeeming-quality “bitch” girlfriend, Sasha Barrese as the beautiful bride-to-be sex object with nothing to do except say, occasionally, “Where’s Doug?,” and Heather Graham as the “stripper with the heart of gold” that could’ve been played by any actress looking for work. They were barely props in this movie. I really wanted to get on board with this movie, and while I was never bored, and while I did occasionally chuckle, and while I was moderately entertained and grossed out and sometimes pleasantly shocked, I never fell out of my seat with laughter. The reason this film is doing so well is people love saying the phrase, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!” and giggling like mad after saying it, then toasting to – what else? – a shot of Jagermeister. Dude! Which is what people might be doing before catching the flick. Does a nasty shot dull the pain of a film about a trip to Vegas that you thought you wished you were taking? Maybe everyone’s blanking out for a bit and then coming to ‘round when Mike Tyson beats down our motley crew? A Tyson beat down is something to come to for, but in this case, the cameo was – like the rest of the film – average. Almost misused. Could’ve been better. I didn’t hate this film, but I sure as hell didn’t love it, or really even like it; some parts I was able to tolerate, I guess. I think it’s aptly named, because, like a hangover – this film made me feel slightly regretful, gave me a mildly nauseating feeling, and made me wonder what happened to my last couple of hours. Rated: R Running time: 105 minutes Directed by: Todd Phillips Written by: Jon Lucas & Scott Moore Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham, Jeffrey Tambor, Rachel Harris |