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The Hangover

June 14, 2009:  The Hangover

I had seen the trailers for The Hangover, and they looked great.  A ridiculous story idea (bachelor party in Las Vegas in which everyone ends up on a drug trip and they lose the groom), visual gags, and crude humour all suit me just fine.  Unfortunately, The Hangover was a total bomb for me.  It contains terribly lazy writing and jokes, an interesting but ultimately failed approach to presenting the timeline, and closing credits far funnier than anything else in the movie.  This was very disappointing.

The cast consists generally of known faces but not superstars.  Ed Helms is probably best known for his time on The Daily Show as a “reporter”, and now for his portrayal of Andy Bernard on the US TV version of The Office for the past few years.  Zach Galifianakis is a stand-up comedian who has struggled for several years as his friends Patton Oswalt and Sarah Silverman and others have found their niches, but it’s understandable that he’s taken longer to find his groove because he really is an acquired taste.  [While I consider myself a fan and recommend him, I’m still not entirely sure that I’ve acquired a taste for him.]  The two good-looking guys in the bachelor party, Bradley Cooper and Justin Bartha, aren’t particularly well-known.  The always game Heather Graham is in a small supporting role, and Jeffrey Tambor continues his streak of great little movie performances as the father of the bride.  On the other hand, Ken Jeong, a fixture in most Judd Apatow films, takes a huge misstep here with a racist and seriously one-dimensional portrayal of a crime kingpin, Rob Riggle (currently of The Daily Show) is way too blustery as a police officer, and Mike Tyson playing himself is mostly an embarrassment.

The tone was uncomfortably unfunny throughout this film.  The theatre audience was similarly baffled, although there was some laughter.  As I said, this is lazy comedy.  A naked man hugging another man, with his butt visible, is funny on its own?  There are gay jokes left and right, which can work in the right setting but this is just lowbrow and mean-spirited.  Some of the episodes we discover from these hapless partiers’ lost night are funny in concept, but they are mostly bland in execution.

Why, then did this film generate huge opening box office numbers and more importantly, how on earth can it have chugged along to over $270 million in domestic receipts as of September 2009?  I seriously don’t know, and it really makes me wonder about the moviegoing audience, and you know I don’t exactly consider myself to be a discerning member of the moviegoing public.  The Hangover had the third-largest opening weekend box office numbers ever for an R-rated comedy (after Sex and the City and American Pie 2), and the largest for a film without a built-in audience.  Amazing.

You really must skip this one.

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