The Hangover strives to bring that old cliche to new heights, but when you're working off a cliche, your movie tends to become one as well.
The flick is basically a more profane and less bizarre version of Dude, Where's My Car. Three friends (Justin Bartha, Ed Helms and the sexy Bradley Cooper) and one possibly retarded future bro in-law (Zach Galifianakis) head out to Vegas for one wild and crazy bachelor party. Cut from scene of first drinks to morning after, the dudes discover they've misplaced the groom and try to piece together the events of the night to find their friend.
With a flick from the dude who brought you Old School, you walk into The Hangover expecting a film that's heavy on dude-broing, wackiness and profanity. You're not going to be disappointed, but you're not going to be completely elated either.
As the groom, Bartha is a complete throwaway, and he leaves Cooper to play the almost-straight man in the midst of Helms' shrieking hysteria and Galifianakis' disgusting, screw looseness, and Cooper does it with gusto. He's the charmer of the group, stealing from his junior high students, ditching his dreaded wife and baby, and basically oozing charm. Helms takes his Office character up an annoying notch (and a couple of voice decibels), and Galifianakis tries his hardest to emulate Will Ferrell in Old School--for the most part he succeeds.
The Hangover, while funny, isn't completely gut-bustingly so. When it hits, it hits hard--namely with Ken Jeong stealing the show as a gay Asian gangster wielding a crowbar and no undies. Okay, fine, maybe his character is offensive to gays and Asian and the gaysians, but just as he did in Role Models, Jeong commits to his character with panache.
Another highlight includes (the way too featured in the trailers) scenes involving Mike Tyson, Phil Collins and a tiger. Although I had seen the trailer tons of times, it still made me giggle pretty profusely.
But when it doesn't hit...the film flails. The plot is slightly slow-moving for me, and the conclusion doesn't quite live up to the wacky shenanigans of the whole film. Also, the women in The Hangover seem little more than props and stereotypes--there's the hooker with a heart of gold, the shrill, cheating girlfriend and then the blank bride-to-be.
Don't go into The Hangover expecting a Wedding Crashers or even an Old School. It's not a laugh a minute type of movie, but you can expect an Apatow-level of bro camaraderie. The chemistry between Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis is perhaps unrivaled this summer so far, and it makes the film not only watchable but enjoyable as well. It may not have been the wildest of nights, but this is one fairly gnarly Hangover you won't mind waking up to.
--Darcie Duttweiler
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