The Hangover (2009)
The Hangover
Originally posted December 10, 2009
The travel commercials which claim “Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” have found their full-length companion with The Hangover.
This good-natured and surprisingly funny look at a bachelor party gone dangerously awry takes a well-worn storyline – these waters have also been trod in the likes of Very Bad Things and the aptly titled Whatever Happens in Vegas - however The Hangover finds a different (and frankly better) way to tell this familiar story.
Quite simply, The Hangover begins where most of these stories would end. We never see exactly the mayhem these four got themselves into – with the exception of a bunch of snapshots at the very end – but we get to see all of the fall-out from their blowout.
Of course, the guys semi-mistakenly took roofies (the date rape drug) – one of them thought he had scored some ecstasy and slipped it into the buddies’ drinks – and therefore the three guys have no clue what happened the night before. All they know for sure is there is a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in a closet, one of them is married to a hooker, one is missing a tooth, they got home in a stolen police car, there is a naked Japanese man locked in their car trunk and there is absolutely no sign of the groom. Oh, and the wedding is the next day.
Sounds like a normal Vegas weekend to me.
What makes The Hangover so funny is not so much the craziness that they got into but their shock as the night before’s misdeeds slowly unfold. It is almost a comic mystery – little bits of information being doled out in outrageous and surprising ways.
Click here to read the rest of the review!
