If the poster looks funny, you’ll like this more than I did.
Firstly what I can tell you, and what you already know if you’ve seen the preview anyway. As The Hangover is basically “Blotto Memento”, and unfolds back to front I can’t give ya too much in the way of plot.
I will tell you things I thought prior to watching the movie:
1/ In advance of the movie starting I had set the over/under of gay jokes at 5. And I had the over. (I was close but wrong. Although the first 2 gay jokes come in the first couple minutes.)
2/ I saw Heather Graham’s name in the credits and thought that exponentially increases the chance of seeing boobies. (Again only sorta right, not sure breastfeeding counts.)
3/ This’ll take months to prove or disprove, there will be a huge “UNRATED” version that will sell many, many copies.
4/ This will become very quotable. (The jury is out, I for one can’t think of much that I would regurgitate in social situations.
5/ This one from my wife, “Bradley Cooper is Ben Affleck hot.” Now I sadly know this is supposed to be a compliment, not sure Brad Cooper would agree.
Now the limited things I can say without giving too much away:
The boys leave for a Buck’s party in the days prior to the wedding. Zach Galihhjgajsdfjgbjksbdjhikis (sp?) is the standard ring-in-relo that is almost always in attendance, everyone has met him multiple times but no-one really remembers him.
Quick question, why a Buck’s party so close to the wedding and why could such an apparently cool guy only have two friends and a relo that would want to go? As a guy I would consider that poor form, any reasonable guy needs a couple days recovery time from a good Buck’s party.
The jittery bride is told on the phone that the wedding ain’t going ahead as plan, then the wavy lines appear (in our minds) and we go into flashback mode.
The Hangover basically starts when three of our four lead characters awake after a “rough” night celebrating a bachelor party. In their $4,200 per night villa are the ingredients that over the film provide most of the laughs and help explain just “what the hell happened last night?”
The ingredients:
- Tiger
- Chicken
- Missing tooth
- Baby
- Hospital tag
- Mattress on roof
- Cop car in their hotel bay
All of which are explained fully, aside from the chicken.
Seriously, what happened to the chicken? I really hope there is a DVD extra explaining the chicken’s existence. Why? Why? Why? Was it to feed the tiger?
Unfortunately, these are the things that keep me awake at night…
Anyway it wasn’t the hilarious, quotable laff riot I half expected going in, it was a pretty funny 90 minutes with some memorable scenes:
- Getting out of a night in prison.
- Finding a random naked guy in the car boot.
- Meeting Mike Tyson
Zach Galikjuhkgcvksvdckhvsjikis (sp again?) is suitably random and apparently wasted-without-being-wasted at all times. But not as randomly hilarious as is being discussed in other reviews by any stretch.
Bradley “Affleck” Cooper is the most rational and realistic of the three, while he is still a wanker at times he is no more a wanker than a myriad real-life guys that I have encountered at various Buck’s parties and gents events.
And as far as the dentist-guy and his bitch girlfriend goes, no man should ever be as whipped as he is, and no comeuppance could be drastic enough to teach her a lesson. (I am not being sexist, everyone should have the right to a 50/50 relationship, and if they choose to have a 60/40 or a 70/30 and both parties agree so be it. The chick in this film is a total bitch and needs a flogging.)
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. Humerous but by no means hilarious. Will however be deemed an immediate classic by those still too young to have forged their own drunk stories. (God willing their time will come and this won’t be as “far out”.)
