Review: The Hangover

The Lost Weekend

I am not a fan of familiar retreads on similar ideas that have been present in many films time and time again. It's usually a boring presentation that does little to offer any moviegoer anything to hold onto. This film has that set up and easily falls into the perception of it becoming another in a long line of sophomoric frat boy comedies that is shallow in its maturity and humor. At times, there are moments in this film where some elements may want to surprise you, and you may think that you're actually watching something that may give a bit of a surprise. If you blink, you might not see the trick. However, if you have the intention to actually pay attention to the film, you'll realize that whatever good qualities are left to behold get undermined by the film's self-deprecation of its style.

Oh, the old familiar places. It's the eve of a wedding day for the handsome groom Doug (Justin Bartha). To celebrate his last day of bachelorhood, do his friends try to give him a meaningful gesture that would have an impact on his future life and bonding with them? Of course not. They go to Vegas for the most superficial time of their lives. Doug's posse includes Phil (Bradley Cooper), the brass and crude one, Stu (Ed Helms), the soft and nerdy one, and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), Doug's soon to be brother-in-law. The next morning, the three friends discover their hotel room in a mess, a baby in the closet, a tiger in the bathroom, and sans Doug (as well as one of Stu's teeth). The rest of the day is tracking the events of the previous night and piecing together the information to find the groom before the wedding.

In complete honesty, I absolutely hated the first part of this movie. That is where the familiar premise is at its ugliest, with characters to match. Phil is a high school teacher that is rude to his students and even steals from them in order to pay for his Vegas trip. Stu is so passive that his cartoonishly shrill girlfriend constantly emasculates him. Alan has the mess of a mind and gets into awkward situations like shouting at strangers and hugging people with no pants on. None of these characters are particularly likable and it makes a hard case to care about their plight come later on in the film. Not to mention the countless homophobic jokes in that first part, I was ready to completely be turned off from this film.

Then, as the detective story started to surface, I could give or take certain things. I did appreciate no sudden flashbacks into what happened as we are clearly within the mindset of these characters. They have no memory of these events so the audience will not have a visual representation of what happened. That is something I can give director Todd Phillips (Old School) and writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (Four Christmases & Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past) credit for in trying to make this movie more interesting than some of its predecessors. However, they also have to take the blame for in irregular comedic tone, unlikeable characters, and often times humor that strays away from edgy to just downright stereotypical, cheap and offensive.

Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis do their best, and I will say that the chemistry they all have is worth watching many times. Of the three, it is Helms who is the standout. Mostly known on The Office and his stint on The Daily Show, Helms is able to take any character, no matter what range of insanity they hold, and make them entertaining and heartfelt, and the same is said here. Cooper and Galifanakis are good in their roles, but their characters are so unlikeable that you just want to keep seeing them hurt rather than awaiting their advancement. I like Justin Bartha, and believe he showed great comedic timing and energy in the National Treasure films. Unfortunately, he's sidelined by the film's premise which should have made use of a less talented actor. Other supporting players range from the brilliant but wasted (Jeffery Tambor as the father-in-law; Heather Graham as newly wedded stripper) to the distractingly bad (Ken Jeong, a good actor in an offensive role as an Asian mob boss; Mike Tyson playing himself as bad as it can be).

I will admit that there were times when I laughed at parts of this movie, but I did not laugh nearly as much as other comedies. A comedy can get a slight pass on me, but it needs something to take me over the edge to strongly recommend it. Not only did this film not get close to that edge, but it ended up back tracking a bit. Some of the cast is good, but not all of them are able to save a movie that is burdened with a weak premise, faulty execution and, most importantly, unfunny jokes. Then again, many people probably won't care and will think they've seen the trick. Please, though, keep your eyes open; don't blink so you can expose the falsities for what they are. **1/2 / ****; GRADE: C+