The Hangover review
Synopsis:
| Spoiler Inside |
SelectShow |
|---|
Angelenos Doug Billings and Tracy Garner are about to get married. Two days before the wedding, the four men in the wedding party - Doug, Doug's two best buddies Phil Wenneck and Stu Price, and Tracy's brother Alan Garner - hop into Tracy's father's beloved Mercedes convertible for a 24-hour stag party to Las Vegas. Phil, a married high school teacher, has the same maturity level as his students when he's with his pals. Stu, a dentist, is worried about everything, especially what his controlling girlfriend Melissa thinks. Because she disapproves of traditional male bonding rituals, Stu has to lie to her about the stag, he telling her that they are going on a wine tasting tour in the Napa Valley. Regardless, he intends on eventually marrying her, against the advice and wishes of his friends. And Alan seems to be unaware of what are considered the social graces of the western world. The morning after their arrival in Las Vegas, they awaken in their hotel suite each with the worst hangover. None remembers what happened in the past twelve or so hours. The suite is in shambles. And certain things are in the suite that shouldn't be, and certain things that should be in the suite are missing. Probably the most important in the latter category is Doug. As Phil, Stu and Alan try to find Doug using only what little pieces of information they have at hand, they go on a journey of discovery of how certain things got into the suite and what happened to the missing items. However they are on a race for time as if they can't find Doug in the next few hours, they are going to have to explain to Tracy why they are not yet back in Los Angeles. And even worse, they may not find Doug at all before the wedding. Written by Huggo
|
Despite it not being a ridiculously funny film, it definitely had it's charms, and it became apparent why it was praised.
I only found myself laughing probably about three times throughout the entire film, and other times a smile creeped out. Just a smile.
The humour was actually funny, but it just really felt way overdone, almost as if it was trying too hard. It was just all sex, drugs and toilet jokes here. Very reminiscent of early Apatow work. Not necessarily bad, it just felt overdone, all too familiar for my taste.
The plot was intriguing to me, the result of last night's drug and alcohol fuelled romp appearing to be a huge catastrophe was hilarious, seeing what the gang went through trying to figure out what happened was pure hilarity, but like I said before, alot of the gags used were just...okay. When all of these elements were melded together in once bunch, it was just a substandard comedy film, which quite honestly dragged the film down a little.
The cast in The Hangover most definitely were the shining stars of the film, most notably Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. Cooper I was familiar with from 'Yes Man' and 'Wedding Crashers', but seeing him in a starring role was definitely something which I agreed with and definitely gave the film a little more credibility. Of course, in saying this, Ed Helms was delightfully amusing, after watching his performance as a regular in the US TV show, 'The Office'. Galifianakis was a new face for me, prior to the film I wasn't aware of his existence, and for this I'm disappointed with myself. Zach would most definitely take the 'most effing funny' award for his performance in this, and quite frankly, the three time I laughed, it was because of Galifianakis.
I enjoyed the film, it was far from the funniest film I've seen, but it had it's charms, and is why I enjoyed it so much. With plenty of laughs, awkward moments, The Hangover is a straightforward comedy while at the same time quite clever, with it's intricately intertwined continuity, it was most enjoyable thanks to the starring cast who stole the film.
Despite lack of originality in the comedic department, it deserves the praise it's been receiving.
8/10
Kazed
0%