Laugh yourself silly as three friends try to pick up the pieces after a drunken night in Vegas
'The Hangover': What a party!
It was a night to remember. Too bad they can’t. Phil, Stu and Alan (played by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, respectively) wake up late one morning in a trashed Las Vegas hotel suite; there’s a chicken roaming around, a tiger in the bathroom and a baby in the closet.
Movie Review
“The Hangover”
Three and a half stars
Rated:R
Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis star in the Todd Philipsdirected film about three groomsmen searching for the friend they misplaced during his Vegas bachelor party.
Phil is missing a tooth (“I look like a Beverly Hillbilly!”), and Doug (Justin Bartha), who’s supposed to get married the next day, is nowhere to be found.
If I woke up minus one friend and plus one tiger, I’d be worried that my friend was dead. But this is a comedy, so he’s probably alive somewhere.
Also, if this weren’t a comedy, you’d have to worry about the baby. Phil is a father, and Stu seems like a reasonably mature adult, but they entrust the infant to Alan, who is not supposed to go within 1,000 feet of a school. They do not acquire a car seat, even though Phil is the reason car seats were invented. “You know I drive better when I’m drunk,” he says.
The tot survives, of course, because it’s not funny when babies get hurt. It is funny, however, when your fiance’s dad lends you his priceless Mercedes, and a tiger chews up the seats.
The lead actors bring seamless group chemistry to this movie; they could easily replace Jim Carrey, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro in the new Three Stooges film. Alan is not bright; he asks the front desk clerk at Caesar’s Place if Julius Caesar was ever in residence. He won’t put on pants until he’s asked twice. He wears thong underwear and makes out with a dog. Galifianakis is utterly shameless, the funniest Fat Party Guy since Chris Farley.
Phil is the kind of teacher who finances his Vegas adventures with a field-trip scam. But he’s a loyal pal, bravely leading the search for Doug, even when Chinese gangsters and Mike Tyson become involved. These guys are rude, crude and irresponsible, but you wouldn’t mind having them as friends.
Stu is a variation on Helms’ Andy character from “The Office,” who likes to sing and remind everyone that he went to Cornell. Stu likes to sing and remind everyone that he’s a doctor, although he’s a dentist. It’s not arrogance so much as a desperate craving for the respect he doesn’t get at home; his shrill girlfriend (Rachael Harris) expects him to call every two hours, hates his friends and cheated on him.
Along with the gangsters, Frampton-loving boxer and Taser-happy police officers the trio encounters on their search for Doug, they meet sweet escort Jade (Heather Graham), who might just bring Stu to his senses. Dentists don’t usually fall in love with prostitutes; then again, guys who think Rome’s most famous general once lived in Nevada rarely turn out to be whizzes at blackjack just when a blackjack whiz is needed.
Verisimilitude is not the purpose. This movie exists to make its audience laugh, and boy does it succeed.
You won’t be able to hear significant portions of dialogue if you watch it in the theater, which is half the fun of a great comedy, anyway. In an online forum, one poster reported, “The woman next to me peed her pants.” I doubt she’ll be the last.
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