The Hangover

By Dan Hudak // hudakonhollywood.com

Hudak's Rating: B+ worth the $10.

"The Hangover"

It’s a feeling that doesn’t happen very often, but every once in a while a movie strikes you as an instant classic. “The Hangover” is such a movie. And I don’t mean classic in the “Citizen Kane” sense. I mean it in the guy humor, absolutely hilarious, wife-would-kill-you-if-she-knew sense. If you walk out of the movie feeling a little guilty for having done some of the things depicted here, consider yourself awesome.

The location: Las Vegas. Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Stu (Ed Helms) are giving groom-to-be Doug (Justin Bartha) a bachelor party he’ll never forget, and only then will they return him to Los Angeles to get married. To say they have fun is an understatement.

Director Todd Phillips (“Old School”) starts us off at the beginning of the night on the roof of Caesar’s Palace, and then cuts to the aftermath with the guys waking up in their luxury suite. Their heads are pounding. The place is trashed. Stu, who is a dentist, is missing a tooth. An unidentified woman leaves before they wake up. There’s a chicken running around. Inflatable dolls float in the bathtub. Clothes are everywhere. And there’s a tiger in the bathroom.

The problem isn’t necessarily that they don’t remember anything, it’s that they can’t find Doug. And so Phil, Alan and Stu use their valet tickets and ATM receipts to try to retrace their steps from the evening before, which leads to one hysterical moment after another, including a Chinese gangster (Ken Jeong) who blackmails them for money, Stu marrying a stripper (Heather Graham), and a Mike Tyson cameo. To reveal more would be unfair, but it suffices to say that everything the movie attempts is hilarious.

Ever since “There’s Something About Mary” (1998) far too many comedies have been going for the raunchy gross out gag bits that in reality are more disgusting than they are funny. Any fart, fecal or vomit joke is unfortunate evidence of this. But “The Hangover” avoids the hang-up of unoriginal material. The writing is sharp and smart, the performances are dead-on (particularly Galifianakis), and Phillips keeps things moving at a brisk pace.

Sure the situations are extreme and unrealistic, but they’re also male fantasy at its best. Come on, what honest guy wouldn’t like to lay claim to the bachelor party in “The Hangover?” I would, and my bachelor party was in New York City. And it was awesome. But there were no tigers. 

Did you know? Stand-up comedy veteran Helms recalls Tyson’s visit to the set: “Todd was giving Tyson direction on how to punch Zach in a scene, and he was saying stuff like, ‘Mike, we need you to do it a little more like this and move your hand over a bit.’ And Tyson says, ‘I can’t believe the captain of the high school debate team is teaching me how to throw a punch!’ It broke up everyone on the set. Who knew the guy was funny?”

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