The Hangover

I don't tend to like a lot of today's comedies, so I steer clear of them most of the time.  I had heard from too many people, though, that The Hangover was pretty much the funniest thing ever so I gave it a shot.  If only to serve as a barometer for what people today think is funny.

The premise of The Hangover is simple enough.  Three guys, Phil(Bradley Cooper), Stu(Ed Helms), and Alan(Zach Galifianakis) take their buddy Doug (Justin Bartha) to Vegas for the most awesome bachelor party they can muster just days before the big one.  Not all goes as planned, however, and the three of them wake the next morning with little to no recollection of the night before and no idea where the groom-to-be is.  They proceed on a madcap detective adventure, trying to piece together the night before and find Doug before his wedding passes by with him still a bachelor.

The three of them use clues like a missing tooth, a hospital bracelet, and a baby left in their hotel room to retrace their steps.  The more they uncover, the more it becomes apparent just how crazy their night was.  It may have been one crazy night, but I was left waiting for the stupid crazy to become funny.  Being a comedy, it did have it's funny parts - most of which are in the (much more entertaining) trailers.  And I still haven't figured out why it's funny to see a bunch of ugly guys' cheeks and dongles if you will.  Galifianakis can't seem to keep his pants on for the life of him.

It is nice to find out that someone other than Judd Apatow is making comedies these days, but when Apatow recycled characters come out on top, you know you have a problem.  The mystery angle was interesting enough to keep me wondering what happened, though just barely.  Besides, hasn't it been done before?

Maybe I have to be able to relate to the protagonists to find it funny, but frankly I'm glad I can't relate to being so trashed out of my mind that I can't remember why there's a live tiger in my hotel bathroom and I'm a little worried if everyone who found it so hilarious can.

The movie ends with some sort of half-assed effort to provide a moral to the story.  Something about not getting married to a horrible person just because you might as well.  Ok.  Seriously the best part of this movie was realizing that Bradley Cooper is going to be great as the smooth talking Face in the upcomong A-Team.  I was tempted to give this one star, but there was some originality involved, and clearly a lot of effort put into this movie so I'll let it slide comfortably into one slot above the Star Wars abomination that makes Jar-Jar look like the work of Orson Welles.

If you like your comedies with plenty of ugly naked men, abusive baby jokes, an increasingly stupid plot and a character whose only purpose is to screw things up while making no sense every time he opens his mouth, by all means, check this one out in a hurry.

** (2/5 stars)