The Hangover (2009) - Todd Phillips

This is my first review of a film that is not a brand new release, so many people's opinions have already been formed about it, but I haven't written in a while and it will have to do.

When I saw this movie's trailers way back when, I wanted to see it immediately. Just casting alone was enough to support the box office response that it got. All of my expectations were met with this one. It was as funny as I thought it was going to be, especially coming from the director of a couple comedy greats (as far as the average college kid is concerned) and other comedy flops. Todd Phillips showed his usual motif that was reminiscent of his film Road Trip from 2000. He hit it huge again with Old School in 2003. The feel of these films is prevalent in The Hangover again. It's kind of like the Stephen King obsession with close friends, but for Phillips the friends get wild and crazy and some weird shit goes down. So, looking at these films, it's hard to see where Starsky and Hutch came from, which Phillips wrote and directed.

So the film begins with a little foreshadowing, with the main character Phil calling his best friend's fiance and telling her that he and his other friends lost him in Vegas during his bachelor party. She flips out and the movie back tracks to the day of the bachelor party. The groom, Doug, and his soon to be brother in law, Alan (played by Zach Galifianakis), are getting fitted into their tuxes. Of course, because of the nature of the character and what Galifianakis does with it, virtually every line out of Alan's mouth is golden. Doug is, of course, the most boring character in the movie. Kind of like Chris Farley's brother in Black Sheep. They get in the car and go to round up the other guys. Paul, a school teacher, who turns out to be a womanizing party animal. Then they pick up Stu, played by Ed Helms, a dentist that is involved with the biggest bitch I've been introduced to, played by Rachel Harris.

Do you like The Office? Do you like the character, Andy played by Ed Helms? You do? Then you'll like Stu. It's literally the same character, through and through. Word for word, motion for motion. Maybe Andy has bigger balls, but not by much. As for Alan, its pretty much every Galifianakis character ever as well. We'll be seeing this for a few years, I'm sure, but it works. Cases in point: Chris Farley, David Spade, Bill Murray, John Candy, Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler and many others. I'm just saying, strap in for the Galifianakis ride because it's just beginning.

So, they drive off to Vegas. God, I love Vegas. They end up staying at Caesar's Palace, and speaking as someone who's been to Caesar's Palace, they make this place look great. In real life, it looks exactly as it did in 1978. Either way, the get to the Villa hotel room, get dressed and head to the roof. On the roof they do shots of Jager and toast the groom. Then...blackout. Wake up the next morning and there's a Tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, Stu is missing a tooth and one of the mattresses was thrown off the roof. No one can remember what happened and Paul is missing. So they begin the search. I'll sum up the night for you:

They accidentally took a chinese dude's winnings from the craps table worth $80,000. They stole Mike Tyson's pet tiger. They met a stripper that Stu married at a Vegas chapel and she is the mother of the baby. Stu pulled his own tooth out to prove that he was a good dentist, Alan put rufies into the shots of Jager thinking it was ecstasy and Doug threw the mattress off the roof when the other guys put him on the roof when he passed out. That's it.

3.5 out of 5 Strippers' Asses. To make it to a full 5, it just had to be funnier, but it could just be me. Don't get me wrong, the movie was funny. I liked it plenty, but it wasn't the end all be all of comedies. Go see it, it'll be worth it, but I can't see myself buying it on DVD. I can say this whole movie can be summed up in one line from Jefferey Tambor when he is told about his antique Mercedes is wrecked: "Vegas."