Henry Saw: The Hangover

Three! Three good summer movies in a row! Ah, ha, ha!


A few quick words on the funniest movie of the year thus far...

The Hangover is exactly what it looks like: A crass and foul-minded comedy with an incredibly strong starting concept. If you've seen the trailers you know the basic plot is that three guys wake up in a Las Vegas hotel suite after having gone out on a crazy bachelor party only to find their hotel room is a complete mess, there's a tiger in the bathroom, a crying baby in the closet, and the groom-to-be is missing. It's a great idea that leads to a pretty damn funny film.

The three main characters who spend most of the film searching for the would be groom are: Phil (Bradley Cooper) - a good-looking school teacher who is the defacto leader of the small group. While Cooper is arguably the most famous person in the movie (actually that's not very arguable) he's actually given the fewest funny lines. He's pretty much the straight man throughout, using his frat-boy charm to win the audience over, rather than mad cap antics or dialogue.

He leaves that to his two costars. Ed Helms (who kind of resembles a grown up McLovin from Superbad) plays Stu, a dentist, who is desperate to keep his overbearing wife from finding out he went to Vegas and not on a wine tasting tour. The supposed breakout star of The Hangover is Zach Galifianakis who plays Alan. Alan is the groom's fiance's brother (so the grooms soon to be brother in law). He's a very quirky, immature, and troubled guy who is very appreciative to be invited on this dude's weekend. Galifianakis is given the most humorous material as he bonds immediately with the baby, carries a man purse (which he calls a satchel), and has many throw away lines that made me laugh.

But the highlights of The Hangover are not the characters, or even their interactions (though some of that is very funny), it's the situations they find themselves in as they try to piece together what they did the night before. Encounters with Mike Tyson, a bitter police officer, and a naked Asian man in a car's trunk are the kind of thing that really made The Hangover work.

There's not really much more to say except that, looking ahead to the comedies coming out this summer, it's very possible this is going to be the best comedy of the summer. That would be okay, as The Hangover is a really solid comedy, but also a little disappointing as it's not quite as good as Forgetting Sarah Marshall or the aforementioned Superbad. Yet The Hangover does what every good comedy should do - leaves you smiling as you exit the theater - and talking about how funny some of the stuff in the movie was.

Grade: B+

Best Scene: When we find out why the Asian man was put in the trunk...it's a "blink and you'll miss it" line but it is still making me laugh thinking about it now.