The Hangover Proves That Sometimes the Funniest Scenes are the Ones That Happen Off Screen

Posted by ScuzzBuster

June 14, 2009

hang1sheet It’s a damn shame for Land of the Lost, I film that I liked unapologetically earlier this week that I have to follow it up with a comedy the caliber of The Hangover. While Land of the Lost gets its laughs mostly in the cheapest and sleaziest way possible (but, does get them), The Hangover reaches for the gonads of many of the standards of “guy” comedy and succeeds with much skill.

Because my tastes in a comedy have been warped by watching years of a wide variety of them at all corners of the intellectual spectrum, I found no new ground broken in The Hangover and it was probably a bit tamer than I expected. In fact, the most shocking and outrageous gags are all in the end credits.
That’s not to sell The Hangover short, it’s a funny film that still packs a handful of cute surprises, obscurely odd moments and crowd pleasing shock and gross out gags.

If you’ve seen any of the trailers, it’s laid out pretty thoroughly. Three men set out to give their buddy Doug a Vegas bachelor party he won’t forget. After beginning the night toasting shots on the roof of their hotel we fade to the next morning where they awake in their wrecked $4200 a night suite faced with a series of clues to what occurred over the course of the previous evening that no one can seem to remember anything about. The problem intensifies when they realize that their bachelor friend Doug is missing without a trace leaving his cell phone and other belongings behind.

hangoverroof The film unfolds as they attempt to retrace their steps from night before by following a thin trail of clues that get increasingly more odd as they find them. As they slowly manage to put together a vague patchy picture of where they were and the events of the lost night, they begin to come to the horrific realization that not only have they possibly ruined their lives in the process, but they have no idea if their friend Doug even made it through the night alive.

The greatness of the story structure is that it manages to be a film completely driven by a major event that we never actually get to see. In that respect, as I left The Hangover I couldn’t help drawing comparisons to Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, another one of the great guy films of all time. Reservoir Dogs manages to construct an entire story around a jewelry store heist that, while being the event that is the catalyst for the entire film, does not happen on screen. The Hangover smartly realizes that the less we see of the actual event which the film revolves around the more impact it has.

hangoverchicken The Hangover stars Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper and Justin Bartha. Bartha is the impending groom being treated to his Vegas bash by his two best friend played by Cooper and Helms. The wild card of the group is Alan, the future brother-in-law played by Zach Galifianakis. Alan is an outsider at the party as a slobbish stereotypical brother in law and provides much of the outright comic relief through his odd behavior and awkward neurosis. He also ends up being the catalyst of the for the mistake that we find drives party out of control. Overall, the cast has a great chemistry on screen and it’s a refreshing take bringing an Animal House or basic frat party type theme into a group of older and closer to middle aged group of men.

Summer comedy films are literally a dime a dozen, so when one is particularly well done like The Hangover it’s a refreshing change to not be insulted by cheap jokes that have been done a thousand times in a thousand different ways. This flick is pretty fresh. While we do get satisfactory closure by the end it makes no attempts to sugar coat the events or people to make you feel like your being beat over the head with a message or heartwarming theme. Just a bunch of guys having a good time and having to pick up the pieces from a colossal mess.

hangover1 I think The Hangover is going to have broad appeal and probably be the cornerstone comedy of the summer with some serious box office staying power. It breaks the ice early and warms the audience up well. It’s a worthwhile, very funny and occasionally hilarious film. It definitely give it 3 and a half Vegas hooker nipples out of 4.