The Hangover (C or 2/4 stars)
2 days before his wedding, Doug's (Justin Bartha, of the National Treasure movies) pals - Phil (Bradley Cooper), a married-and-bored schoolteacher, Stu (Ed Helms), a dentist planning on proposing to his henpecky girlfriend, & Doug's soon to be brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis), a charming, if socially-inept oddball - take him to Las Vegas for a bachelor party in 'The Hangover', directed by Todd Phillips. The film begins on the day of the wedding. The bride is upset because the guys aren't back from their night of gambling & drinking. Meanwhile, the groomsmen wake up in a trashed hotel suite in Vegas with pounding headaches, & no recollection of the previous night's activities. Oh, and Doug is missing.
So what IS going on in that suite? A mattress is gone. A chicken is on the loose. There's a tiger in the bathroom. Yes, a tiger. A baby is in the closet. Yes, a baby. Phil is wearing a hospital band. Stu has lost a tooth, and is now married to a stripper (Heather Graham, in a thankless role). They steal a cop car. The clock is ticking ('til the wedding). And so begins their retracing of steps in order to find Doug, & to discover what happened on their drunken misadventures. However, the more they uncover, the more they realize just how crazy things got ... the deeper the water they get into. Mayhem ensues.
Every now & then, there comes a movie (not unlike last year's Pineapple Express) that gets pretty good reviews & is well-received by audiences ... that I just don't get. It's the kind of movie you'll likely love or hate. I didn't hate, but came mighty close. 'The Hangover' is made well enough, & will cater to plenty of riotous filmgoers. So, what's my problem with the film? Not the vulgarity, lewdness, crudeness, slapstick, abundant use of alcohol/drugs, bodily fluids (they can be funny), political incorrectness, perviness, male nudity (it was funny in last year's Forgetting Sarah Marshall), or the copious obscenities ....... my main problem with the film is that I didn't laugh enough. I wasn't offended. I just didn't laugh. Jokes that are rooted-in-shock-value wear off quickly.
Don't get me wrong, there are amusing bits: a scene where a naked Asian man jumps out of their trunk; though it wasn't funny 3 seconds later. There's a lengthy sequence involving Mike Tyson which was enjoyable. Zach Galifianakis is a funny guy. I think I'd like him in another comedy. And the end credits montage (which show photos of some of the stuff that went down during their wild & crazy night) were funnier in 5 minutes than the entire 95 min. feature film. Any worst-case-scenario 'whatever-happens-in-Vegas-stays-in-Vegas' caper is going to have amusing parts. But those 'parts' did not equal a satisfying whole for me.
The situations are contrived (like Superbad, I found half of the scenarios they got into to be insultingly implausible. i.e., the entire Vegas police dept.). The characters in the movie? Neither distinct, nor likeable. It's hard for me to laugh AT or WITH a trio of obnoxious dirtbags. The script? Average. The premise & set-up is fun, but the execution is not clever enough. The dialogue? Foul & banal. My investment in their strife? None. The humor? Intermittent. The kind of crassness on display is not my type of humor. 'The Hangover' is just a contemporary lowbrow comedy that aims to make people laugh & have a great time in the theater. I'm just one of the apparent few who neither laughed, nor had a great time. That upsets me.
So what IS going on in that suite? A mattress is gone. A chicken is on the loose. There's a tiger in the bathroom. Yes, a tiger. A baby is in the closet. Yes, a baby. Phil is wearing a hospital band. Stu has lost a tooth, and is now married to a stripper (Heather Graham, in a thankless role). They steal a cop car. The clock is ticking ('til the wedding). And so begins their retracing of steps in order to find Doug, & to discover what happened on their drunken misadventures. However, the more they uncover, the more they realize just how crazy things got ... the deeper the water they get into. Mayhem ensues.
Every now & then, there comes a movie (not unlike last year's Pineapple Express) that gets pretty good reviews & is well-received by audiences ... that I just don't get. It's the kind of movie you'll likely love or hate. I didn't hate, but came mighty close. 'The Hangover' is made well enough, & will cater to plenty of riotous filmgoers. So, what's my problem with the film? Not the vulgarity, lewdness, crudeness, slapstick, abundant use of alcohol/drugs, bodily fluids (they can be funny), political incorrectness, perviness, male nudity (it was funny in last year's Forgetting Sarah Marshall), or the copious obscenities ....... my main problem with the film is that I didn't laugh enough. I wasn't offended. I just didn't laugh. Jokes that are rooted-in-shock-value wear off quickly.
Don't get me wrong, there are amusing bits: a scene where a naked Asian man jumps out of their trunk; though it wasn't funny 3 seconds later. There's a lengthy sequence involving Mike Tyson which was enjoyable. Zach Galifianakis is a funny guy. I think I'd like him in another comedy. And the end credits montage (which show photos of some of the stuff that went down during their wild & crazy night) were funnier in 5 minutes than the entire 95 min. feature film. Any worst-case-scenario 'whatever-happens-in-Vegas-stays-in-Vegas' caper is going to have amusing parts. But those 'parts' did not equal a satisfying whole for me.
The situations are contrived (like Superbad, I found half of the scenarios they got into to be insultingly implausible. i.e., the entire Vegas police dept.). The characters in the movie? Neither distinct, nor likeable. It's hard for me to laugh AT or WITH a trio of obnoxious dirtbags. The script? Average. The premise & set-up is fun, but the execution is not clever enough. The dialogue? Foul & banal. My investment in their strife? None. The humor? Intermittent. The kind of crassness on display is not my type of humor. 'The Hangover' is just a contemporary lowbrow comedy that aims to make people laugh & have a great time in the theater. I'm just one of the apparent few who neither laughed, nor had a great time. That upsets me.