The Hangover

There's comedy and then there's "comedy".

Ok, i'll start off by saying this: this movie is probably a lot better than i'll give it credit for, but it's also a lot worse than others give it credit for. For all that it is, The Hangover is certainly not one of the greatest comedies you'll ever see. It's not horribly dull, but it's not interesting enough to warrant the reviews it receives.

The main problem is that The Hangover relies almost exclusively on low-brow humour. It's not that this kind of humour is bad, but an entire movie composed of this kind of humour just doesn't work, completely alienating those who don't think fart jokes and slapstick are necessarily comedic gold. Whatever happened to clever word play, intelligent social commentary and snarky one liners? We still get them in The Hangover, but they're oh-so very rare! Well, ok, we don't get all of those, but there are a few clever quips - just not enough to make it a good comedy. I swear i can see when the actors are trying to be funny.

Most of the plot is incredibly contrived, but this is to be expected from most comedies. Doug (Justin Bartha) is about to be married and his friends decide they will take the bachelor party to vegas for one last blast. Complications (and supposedly hilarity) ensue. His "friends" include a mishmash of characters: Phil (Bradley Cooper), who's the bored cynic of the group; Stu (Ed Helms - he was funnier on The Daily Show, i swear!), the "weak willed" one; and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), the dumb one. Doug fills out the roles as "the straight man" for much of his time on screen. Don't be fooled by the set up: the story's not about Doug!

While for most of the movie the characters stubbornly stick to their predefined roles, given this is hollywood, i'm sure you can guess they will all overcome their characterizations by the end to show you that they are "more than what they let on". Yes, even the stupid one. Most of them won't even have very compelling motivations for the change - like Phil: he'll go from hating his family to loving them inexplicably for no reason at all. I guess this is a minor point, but it's kind of an annoying one.

The movie tries for the old "reverse order" plot dealy and has the friends wake up in a destroyed hotel room, groggy and unaware of what had transpired. We're treated to some unusual sights like a live chicken wandering around, a tiger in the washroom and a baby in the closet - and things get weirder from there! There's definitely an interesting hook here, but the film doesn't really do anything with it. Much of what's shown is never explained and that which is is given spectacularly unsatisfying explanations.

Since i'm sure everyone's seen the trailer, it'll come as no surprise that Mike Tyson is in the movie. Why? Apparently the group went to Tyson's mansion to party it up. Don't expect more explanation than that, 'cause you'll never get it. The "comedy" of the situation comes from urine jokes and slapstick *yawn*.

To the film's credit, the mandatory-by-law love story is sidelined to Ed Helms' character becoming more of a man when he finds a more respectable woman than his own controlling bitch of a girlfriend. Don't get me wrong, i'm happy this wasn't primary-plot material, but it still seems like an unnecessary component of the film.

Naturally, everything that can present itself as a problem will eventually be taken care of come the end of the movie so that poor Doug can get back to his waiting bride in the nick of time for his wedding. By this point, most comedies usually give on up the comedy component and just sort of fill in the blanks to have the story fill out as expected and The Hangover is no different. Despite my blasse explination, i don't fault the film for this. It is spectacularly difficult to have a movie end on a comedic high note and fill out the plot.

There's a few more "comedic" scenes at the end, but they're all but expected by this point, ruining whatever clever unexpectedness they were going for. During the credits the film treats the viewer to a slide-show of scenes from the group's missing digital camera to try and show you what had happened during their blackout more completely. I can't say that it adds anything more, though that may just be me speaking.

Overall, The Hangover is an ok comedy... though you'll really really have to want that laugh to get it. This is a glass half-empty: C minus.

Btw, sorry about the hastily done picture. I wanted to get the review up sooner than later and that really gave me not that much time for a "good" picture. I'll try and make it up in the future, but no promises!