The Hangover Part III
The Hangover Part III
The Hangover series sort of wheezes its way across the finish line with The Hangover Part III. Or does it? A final segment during the ending credits appears to be teasing yet another adventure for the Wolfpack, even though the ads and all the stories leading up to Part III insist this is the end of the road for this group. It even says “The End” right at the top of the poster and refers to the movie as “The Epic Finale of The Hangover Trilogy.”
However, The Hangover Part III does answer one question that has burning since the first Hangover movie became a smash hit and critical favorite, despite being written and directed by journeymen whose previous films had been of questionable quality and whose stars were not exactly superstars. That question was simply this: Was the original Hangover just a happy accident? Was it a moment of providence, luck and divine inspiration (and yes, I know I am using that term very loosely) that could never quite be repeated?
Sadly, it appears the answer is yes, it looks that way.
The Hangover Part III at least doesn’t cynically try to remake the first movie like the first sequel. It does come up with a way of continuing the story of the first (and to a lesser extent the rerun of the second) without completely retreading it. After all, the blackout premise can only really be interesting and novel once and these guys have already done it twice. It hits a point where these guys are either just stupid or they have serious substance abuse problems if it keeps happening.
Problem is, the filmmakers have not quite figured out what to replace the series central gimmick with. Therefore, the crazed, debauched comic bacchanalia of the first two films is replaced by a much more standard adventure premise. In fact, just from a comic perspective, The Hangover Part III is mildly amusing, no more.
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