The latest project from director Todd Phillips (Road Trip, Starsky and Hutch) is The Hangover, a comedy set in Las Vegas in which four guys go on a stag do only to lose the groom - and forget what happened to him. Doh. The blokey premise for the movie is hardly new - Judd Apatow is making a fortune out of similar fare - but that's not to say that the film feels tired. As the three groomsmen endeavour to find Doug (the groom) and the obligatory expositional hurdles have been jumped, the scenarios are outrageous and consistently funny - even if the characters are drawn fairly broadly. Doug (Justin Bartha) is fairly dull and doesn't really appear for much of the movie; the laughs are drawn from his fellow stags and their exploits as they attempt to retrace their drunken steps. Phil (Bradley Cooper) is a teacher who embezzles school trip money to fund the stag trip and Doug's other best friend Stu (Ed Helms) is a neurotic dentist and the token geek. And then there's Doug's idiot savant, soon to be brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis), a man-boy with bizarre taste in underwear and a beard badly in need of a trim. The three groomsmen awake in their hotel suite with no memory of the night before but having acquired a baby, Mike Tyson's tiger and a chicken. Oh - and in Stu's case, one less tooth and a hooker wife in the comely form of Heather Graham's escort Jade. Will they find Doug and get him to the church on time?! What do you think?
The movie is predictable as hell and the presentation of women *blatantly* unfair, but even as a woman it's hard to care when the comedy is so strong and the cast have such energy. It helps that none of them are especially well known; we've no expectations so you probably come away more satisfied than if the likes of Vince Vaughan or Owen Wilson had been involved. There's way too much tinny pop music throughout the action sequences and the movie is very, very silly, but The Hangover is enjoyable enough despite it's formulaic story. It helps that the structure keeps us in the dark as much as it does the drug addled central characters, keeping our interest and surprising us with events even though we know everything will work out alright in the end. And there are some great comedy turns from Helms and Galifianakis. Helms almost steals Galifianakis' thunder as the wierdo who gets the laughs - check out his expression when he discovers his lost incisor ('I look like a nerdy hillibilly!') and try not to laugh - but Galifianakis delivers two particularly below the belt moments which are funny and instantly memorable in spite of themselves.
If you're particularly sensitive, squeamish, PC, or unable to suspend your intelligence for an hour and a half, AVOID this movie at all costs. The humour is crass and could easily offend the gentle of spirit and admittedly, The Hangover lacks the charm of the aforementioned Mr Apatow's oevre. But what can you expect from a guy who cast both Seann William Scott and Tom Green in a previous movie? If you take Phillips' latest offering for what it is, you will not fail to be entertained. I wouldn't necessarily recommend shelling out to catch it on the big screen, but it's certainly one to watch with friends when it comes out on DVD - and hang on for the credits if you can't wait until then.
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