Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Jeffrey Tambor, Rachel Harris, Heather Graham, Rob Riggle; Director: Todd Phillips; Producers: Daniel Goldberg, Todd Phillips; Screenwriters: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore; Music: Christophe Beck; Editor: Debra Neil-Fisher; Genre: Comedy; Cinematography: Lawrence Sher; Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures; Location: Las Vegas, USA; Running Time: 100 min.;Technical Assessment: 3.5
Moral Assessment: 2.5
CINEMA Rating: For mature viewers 18 and above
On the day of the wedding, three groomsmen Phil, Stu and Alan (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis) wake up in a $4,200-a-night-suite in Las Vegas with a chicken in the bedroom, a tiger in the bathroom, and a baby in the closet—but without the fourth member of the past night’s stag party: bridegroom Doug (Justin Bartha). They had meant to spend Doug’s last night as a bachelor by drinking and gambling and be home for the wedding the next day, but now they must first find the bridegroom. Phil, Stu and Alan have absolutely no memory of the night before, and in their search for Doug, they encounter people who remember them and recall for them bit by bit what took place during the (unmemorable) night. Encountering more mishaps in their search, they piece together the events until the fact surfaces that Alan had secretly laced their drinks with a drug that would disable the memory while the user is under its influence.
Much of the humor in and the structure of the The Hangover revolve around the four friends’ getting lost. Clueless about what they have done since they shared some potent drinks on the roof of Caesar’s Palace and desperately trying to find explanations for a virtual “rude awakening”, they provide really funny situations to an otherwise inconsequential movie. The movie succeeds in involving the viewer in this ridiculous whodunit situation, and the acting and dialogue are so good that you may even come to the point of caring about the crazy quartet, believing in the angelic-faced hooker, being entertained by the diminutive but mean Chinese mobster, hoping they find the groom safe and sound, and praying that nothing that bad happens to the baby in the pram tailing a delivery truck. This movie deserves credit for its being specifically written, not assembled from recycled parts of other comedies corny, vulgar, half-baked or all three combined. There is a solid story, and the extraordinary level of detail in the dialogue complements the characterization to a credible degree.
A plus in the movie is the power of friendship—what friends would go through to ensure the wellbeing of another. Ironically, this positive element also constitutes the negative one—what stupid and dim-witted risks these friends would take for the sake of the missing one. This is a movie men would enjoy and whose characters they would secretly relate to. Women should also learn something about male instincts from this movie, and brides can take a hint or two about how to occupy their fiancés to spare the latter from similar situations a few nights before the wedding day. While the laughable parts of the movie seem harmless enough for younger viewers, CINEMA would still rate it for adult viewers 18 years old and up for its raunchy theme depicted in flash still shots towards the end, and its treatment of life-trivializing and therefore life-endangering situations (tiger in a bathroom, baby in a pram towed through traffic).
