Friday just gone, I decided to cheer myself up and go see The Hangover. I’d kept putting off seeing it as I’m short on funds, but I needed cheering up.
The film concerns four friends off for a bachelor night in Las Vegas, the usual thing: a suite, smart clothes, a few drinks up on the roof - and then nothing. You see nothing of the night, and when everyone finally comes round, they find one of their number is missing (the groom), and no-one can remember anything of the night.
The film then becomes a quest to find the groom, using little clues they find along the way, such as a medical bracelet on one of the character’s wrists, a baby left by a stripper, a tiger in the bathroom (”F***, I keep forgetting about the tiger”), a crazy naked chinese guy, Mike Tyson, etc.
The four main actors (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha) are absolutely fantastic, and you will feel a lot of sympathy for Ed Helms’ character Stu, and feel just, well, confused by Zach Galifianakis’ character Alan. Justin Bartha is the groom Doug, so you don’t see much of him but he’s a good solid chap, and Bradley Cooper’s (a.k.a. Will Tippen from Alias) schoolteacher Phil is just a great character: a bit amoral, but still doing the right thing for his friends and trying to get the measure of his new friend Alan (who’s so odd).
The comedy is just spot on. In my Star Trek review, I said I hadn’t been so entertained at the cinema for a long time. Well, this is a completely different film, but I can’t remember laughing so much at a film for quite some time either. Proper, laugh-out-loud laughing at that. The comedy comes from unexpected events, a bit of slapstick (oh, that poor baby), situations, and other things. To be honest, I don’t want to even explain some of the jokes, or quote some of the hilarious dialogue, as you should really watch the film
Here’s the trailer to whet your appetite, and I really recommend you see the film - I’m buying it when it’s on Blu-Ray: