G-S-T Review…The Hangover

This movie has been one that G-C-T (and most everyone I know actually) have been waiting for since the day the teaser came out.  Coming from Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip) you could just tell that it was going to be insanely funny, with a little dumb humor, but an all out laugh-a-thon none the less.  I went with two of my good friends and funny enough, we all had just got back from one of their bachelor parties in Vegas so this felt more like a flashback than a movie.  Simply put, The Hangover was completely hilarious and had me crying it was so funny.  So without giving anything away (jokes or special appearances) here’s my thoughts.

PREMISE:  Doug and his three friends head to Vegas for one last shot at ‘single-dom’ before he gets married.  They get a villa at Caesar’s Palace, dress their best and set out to light up Vegas and give Doug a night he’ll never forget.  Morning breaks, and while everyone is feeling the effects of the prior night and assessing the damage, they find one HUGE thing went wrong…Doug is missing, and his wedding in less than 40 hours.  With no memories of the evening’s events, the trio begins to piece things together during the 10+ hour window when they could have lost Doug.  They set out to find him (if possible) and try to get him back in time to get married.  Basically, if anything could have gone wrong, it did, and then some.

HIGHS:  Right off the bat, this movie was filled with great humor.  There were simple sight gags and sly humor to get things moving, but went into overdrive after they all woke up the next morning.  The characters really worked, and namely because of the casting – Bradley Cooper,  Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis were perfect playing Doug’s three, very varied, friends.  Like other great/smart comedies (i.e. Shaun of the Dead) some jokes, like “the bartender” were cyclical and kept making their way through the film and each character’s delivery just got funnier all the way.  Also, most times because of the trailer, the audience knows the funny parts before going into the theater – not the case here.  The trailer showed maybe 5% of what this movie had in store, which was so much that I actually forgot Mike Tyson was going to be in it, despite the fact he’s in all the trailers.  I found myself, many times, laughing so hard at one joke, I missed the one right after it.  High points to Jon Lucas, and Scott Moore for crafting this unbelievably funny and pretty smart comedy (and so I forgive them for writing Ghosts of Girlfriends Past).  They kept delivering good jokes where other films would have run out of ideas and gone sooo over the top because they were lacking content.

LOWS:  The pacing of the film got a little slow towards the middle of the film (before the great and hysterical ending) and that’s the only problem I found.  But actually I don’t consider it a problem really, as I think it was done to give the audience a break from laughing so hard, and finally establish a plot direction about how to get Doug back…so that said, I’d have to say there were no lows.

RULING: Honestly, I haven’t laughed this much and consistently throughout a movie in years.  I know critics and people say things like “this film was hilarious” for nearly every comedy that comes down the pike, but this film was different.   This “comic-gold” was well written, acted and sequenced with truly “original” humor, and that’s a rare thing in Hollywood with remakes and retreads running wild.  Todd Phillips and the trio of  Cooper/Helms/Galifianakis kept the laughs going the entire 100 minutes (which is tough to achieve), and all the way through the end credits (which to me, the credits made the movie).  Finally, something fans probably didn’t think could be done, Phillips topped his famous Old School.  Go see this movie!!!

…and P.S., IMDB hints that we’ll be treated to The Hangover 2, just over the horizon, in 2011.

G-S-T Ruling: 4.5/5

G-S-T Seal of Approval: GRANTED

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