The Hangover Review

The Hangover
Genre: Comedy
Release Date: June 5, 2009

Right, to get back on track at this website, I thought I'd start off with a review. What better movie could I start off with than "The Hangover?" Seriously, nothing really good came out in the past couple of weeks so I might as well. Anyway, for those of you who don't know, "The Hangover" is a buddy comedy about three "friends" Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) going on to a bachelor party with soon to be husband Doug (Justin Bartha). However, things go wrong when the group apparently parties to hard; Doug goes missing and the group has no idea what happened during the night. With Doug's wedding nearing and with concern growing, they go out to see what happened to Doug, as well as what happened throughout the rest of the night. As the facts unravel, things turn out to be wilder than even THEY could have anticipated.

What I Liked

What can I say except this movie was really funny. The dialogue was offensively and disgustingly witty in a consistent manner, holding nothing back. A lot of the jokes felt original, and even if they weren't, they were used in the right way. Speaking of which, many people I've talked to and myself felt that Ken Jeong was golden as Mr. Chow. Every line he said was just hilarious. Even his introduction having me laugh due to disgusting hilarity. I really can't give away anything without completely ruining the humor, so I won't do anyone that injustice.

The scenario may seem outlandish, but this movie made it seem fairly believable, which is one of the most important things for any movie. Some movies can be realistic, but that doesn't make them believable in terms of execution (like Tears of the Sun). This goes the route of certain Apatow productions, where if such a thing were to happen, this is probably exactly how it would happen. Even the performances were believable. Nothing felt over or underacted by the characters (although admittedly, it's easy to get away with certain things in a comedy, so I might have lowered my standards in certain areas).

I was intrigued as to what happened to Doug, as well as the trio searching for him. This simply sucked me into the film. For the most part, all of these things are gradually explained at an even pace, which didn't leave me impatient with some factors or bored trying to figure out others.

What kind of surprised me was that the trio had some depth. Phil is constantly stuck in a situation where he had to either find Doug discreetly or Doug's fiance that he's gone missing; either way, he's in trouble (which helps prevent it from being completely unoriginal). Alan seems like an idiot, but he's always trying to do something for the better of the group and thinks he's doing the right thing (instead of being an idiot for the sake of being an idiot). Stu is probably faced with the most conflicts, including lying to his wife to be with Doug, being forced to choose between loyalty and being with a better-characterized woman, etc. It's hard to make these kinds of character without being cliche about it.

What I Didn't Like

There were a few things that irked me. The biggest one was what happened to Doug. I won't say what happened... just that they should have thought of it a lot earlier (but then again, there'd be no fun in that). Some things weren't explain either (namely what happened to the hotel room that they stay in).

Things That Were a Mixed Bag

This movie had a LOT of frontal nudity... a lot more than I would have wanted. I will admit, it was all used in disturbingly hilarious ways. Still, it doesn't matter how it's used, because it will ALWAYS disturb me.

Conclusion

This is a solid comedy movie... one of the funniest I've seen in a good long while. Featuring actually witty dialogue, some memorable performances, and an interesting take on mystery and buddy comedy genres, I think most people will like this film a lot. Fair warning though, there is a lot of disturbing content in here that aren't for those with a high gross out tolerance level. If you can get past that and a somewhat lame "revelation," I think it's a pretty easy flick to enjoy.

A consistently funny film that has interesting characters, sometimes disturbingly witty dialogue, and a nice take on the buddy comedy genre.

Overall: 8/10