Thanks for checking out our The Hangover review. If you’d like to see a video version of our The Hangover review you can see it at the bottom of this post.
I’ve been saying for years now that Bradley Cooper is a top notch talent and deserve to get a shot at leading a film. Comedy, drama, horror, whatever. He finally got that chance with Midnight Meat Train, but Lionsgate didn’t see fit to give the movie a wide release so basically no one saw him in it. Now comes The Hangover in which he, the whole cast, and the entire movie just completely shine! This is the comedy of the year so far.
THE GENERAL IDEA
The basic synopsis for The Hangover looks something like this: “A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him.”
THE GOOD
This movie is frigging HILARIOUS!!!! Not two minutes ever pass by with some solid hard laughs. The trailers were obviously very funny, and I had a fear that maybe the best stuff was in there… it wasn’t. I could just rave on and on about how this movie is hilarious… but I’ll just say it’s hilarious and leave it at that.
Ken Jeong (the asian doctor from “Knocked Up”) is quickly becoming one of my favorite comedy character actors right now. He never plays a large part… the the parts he plays always end up being hilarious (I also thought he was the funniest thing I saw in Pineapple Express “you sucker of cock”. In “The Hangover” Ken plays a slightly larger role than he’s used to… but he’s gut bustingly funny each and every second he’s on screen and I’m telling you right now he’s already a nominee for John’s Best Comedy Moment of 2009. If you saw the movie you know exactly what I’m talking about!
I love movies about Vegas so I’m a little biased. I try to go about once every 2 months and always have such an amazing time… so when I see The Hangover guys driving through the strip and seeing all the sights… it just makes my heart happy. But more than that, the movie really does capture the spirit of Vegas for a lot of people who like to visit there. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas baby!
The whole “mystery” of where Doug is works great as you find yourself trying to figure out the problem as they go. On that level it’s a much smarter movie that you might think on the surface and it helped really get me into the movie.
The whole ensemble cast work very well, and while I feared on screen comedic chemistry between this bunch of guys might be a problem, it turns out my fears were all for not. Within about 10 minutes I really bought that these guys were all great friends finding themselves in the most ridiculous situation ever. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha aren’t quite on the level as say… the 40 Year Old Virgin guys were… but I for one can’t wait to see them together again for The Hangover 2.
THE BAD
There are moments (just a few of them) where the comedy almost went a little too far into the “slapstick” arena. Slapstick comedy can be great… but not when the movie has a real sort of feel to or isn’t a Slapstick movie in general. When that happens the comedy feels out of place and a little jarring. Like I said, it doesn’t happen often in the film… but I did notice it a couple of times.
While I don’t think a movie needs to give us (the audience) ALL the answers, there are several things that happen in The Hangover that never get explained in any way by the end. That was a little bit of a let down and a touch frustrating as an audience member. But that’s a minor gripe.
OVERALL
The Hangover is a flat out hilarious movie that also brings you along for the ride in trying to solve the mystery of what happened last night. Intensely entertaining and sickingly funny makes The Hangover the comedy of the year for me at this point. Overall I give The Hangover an 8.5 out of 10
You can see the video version of our The Hangover review here:
