A ‘Hangover’ never felt so good

Ty Hampton
Critic’s Corner

“The Hangover” — 3.5 out of 5 stars for comedy

They should’ve just named this movie Murphy’s Law because everything that could have gone wrong for these poor four guys went wrong, and then some. However, the only symptoms you’ll suffer from with this “Hangover” are a possible laughter-induced belly ache.

Doug (Justin Bartha) is getting married in 48 hours so he and his three buddies Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) embark on bachelor’s party trip to Las Vegas. Things start out as planned but when Alan slips them all rufies in a toast drink instead of ecstasy, the drunken debauchery leads to evening that none of them will soon remember.

The three groomsmen awake to find a bengal tiger in their bathroom, a crying baby in the closet, and absolutely no sign of the whereabouts of their best buddy and groom-to-be, Doug. Hilarious other hyjinks such as hanging out with Iron Mike Tyson, stealing a cop car, accidentally marrying a stripper, and getting in deep with the asian mafia all ensue before this one is over.

Director Todd Phillips (“Old School”, “Starsky & Hutch”, and “Road Trip”) and the same writing team of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore who put together last year’s hilarious holiday comedy “Four Christmases”, have all struck again with an off-the-wall Vegas farce that puts to shame even the craziest of drunken Las Vegas stories.

To give the guy credit, Phillips actually matured some since his last major hit “Old School”, of course not in subject matter, but in the gritty shooting fashion he used to set this film apart from your standard comedy. I’d compare the shooting style to that of “Pineapple Express” or “Hot Fuzz” — both good film company to keep.

The big four actors were also a great team in this one, seeing as none of them are big enough stars to carry the load alone. Galifianakis (“Out Cold”) was the hilarious bearded screwball as usual but Helms (“The Office”) added a tender, genuine guy role to the lineup that was necessary amongst the rest of this motley crue.

Plus, Helms does a brief musical interlude on the piano before the third act begins which was probably the most random, spot-on humor in the entire hour and forty minutes.

The movie starts out a bit slow, dragging for the first 20 minutes or so like your typical bachelor’s party flick, but picks up speed fast as everything starts to go off the deep end and before you know it — Doug is gone. The three then are forced to play detective and retrace their steps in order to find their friend alive and in time for the wedding which is looking more and more unlikely.

This is real “dude” humor and, as has been the trend lately, “dude” humor means get ready for some extreme “cringe.” Plus, with a subject matter as such, what other way are you going to go? Still I can’t give a cringe, gross-out humor driven comedy four stars, much less five — so I have to give this one 3.5 stars because it was still pretty darn ridiculously funny.

This movie is rated R for some drug material, pervasive language, sexual content and nudity. It is showing at 4, 7:15, and 9:15 p.m. nightly at the Showboat 2 Cinema in downtown Polson.