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THE HANGOVER is the kind of movie that absolutely cries out to be seen with a group. The best bet would be to see it in a theatre, but if you have to settle for DVD, be sure to invite lots of friends over. It's really the kind of raucous comedy that relies on an audience to feed the laughter. Some funny things happen...not necessarily hilarious, but amusing. A couple of folks laugh. Then another modestly funny thing happens, and some more folks laugh at THAT. Then you laugh at something else...not the most hysterically funny thing in the world, but funny enough. And so on for a bit. And soon, the original group is laughing again. And thus, it mixes up, and before you know it, you've got a viewing experience in which a good chunk of the audience is laughing outloud at any given moment...giving the impression that movie is funny from start to finish.
On the other hand, I believe that I if you watched it alone, you would NOT laugh as much. There were some stretches of THE HANGOVER that for me, upon later contemplation, didn't actually amuse me all that much. (Pretty much 100% of the scenes featuring Mike Tyson.) But other people sure loved them...so the party atmosphere in the theatre just kept on goin'! Alone in my living room, I might just be tempted to fast-forward through those scenes.
You probably know the basic setup. Four guys head to Vegas for a Bachelor-Party weekend of tame debauchery. The groom (Justin Bartha) is a nice fellow who likes the idea of having a nice time...but isn't exactly looking to get his freak on. The co-pilots of the whole venture are his old friends Bradley Cooper (married, and resentful to be "tied down") and Ed Helms (uptight and in an unhealthy relationship of his own). And things might have gone okay if these three buddies hadn't been obliged to bring along Bartha's soon-to-be Brother-in-Law (Zach Galifianakis)...a pudgy, bearded guy who is...well...socially inappropriate. He's clingy, says weird things, is strangely uninformed about other things ("is this the real Caesar's Palace?" he asks a desk clerk, totally serious and slightly awe-struck by the possibility) and has few personal boundaries. The guys try, to varying degrees, to be nice to him...but it is an awkward fit. He must sense this, because when the 4 of them sneak onto the roof of a hotel, he plies them with shots of Jaegermeister.
Cut to the next morning. Their hotel suite is destroyed (and occupied by live animals, including a Tiger), they have the worst hangovers ever, and NO recollection of how they wound up this way. Galifianakis has no pants. Helm has lost a tooth. All three have managed to lose the groom! The movie thus busies itself with their madcap quest to find the groom, which they can only do by slowly piecing together their crazy night.
This is a very funny premise, and the film follows it quite solidly. It's just a joy seeing all the weird things in their room. A tiger?!?! When they finally stumble downstairs and give their valet parking ticket to a driver...he shows up with a police car and says "here's your car, officers." How the HECK did THAT happen?!?!
It's a crazy ride, and a very R-rated one. Leave the kids and the inhibitions at home, and you'll have a grand time. It's adult silliness at nearly its finest.
I'm not a big Bradley Cooper fan. I find him to be too smarmy and slightly "stalkerish" to warm up to. He doesn't change my mind here...especially with his vitriolic rants about marriage...but the part suits him and I did laugh at his childishness. Bartha is not well known to me (and he's only there for some of the film), but I kinda liked this guys easy, goofy charm. Ed Helm is a revelation. As Andy on "The Office," I took a while to warm up to him, and now he's a real favorite. In THE HANGOVER, he's doing a version of Andy, but it's still funny as heck, and often quite touching. And Galifianakis is just insane...he, too, brings a touching hint of humanity...but mostly he's the unhinged and slightly dangerous stranger in the mix. It's the kind of comedic performance that makes funny people into stars. (Think about how Steve Carrell, in 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, suddenly exploded into super-stardom...Galifianakis COULD enjoy that kind of success.)
There's plenty to laugh at in this rude, crude romp. It's a simple, easy to explain premise that is executed with precision by cast & crew alike. Again, not every joke is a home run...but when you can sit in a room with a hundred or so other people, and hear laughter to some degree without ceasing for 90 minutes...can that be so wrong? Finally, a movie that more than lives up to its hilarious trailers.
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| Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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December 5, 2000 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $5.00 | $1.71 |
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Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
Gift for 70 year old
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2024degos
L'état de l'article et avant tout sa qualité.
Reviewed in France on July 22, 2022
Jox
bel film, lo consiglio a tutti gli appassionati di auto, AUDIO ITALIANO !!!
Reviewed in Italy on November 6, 2014