| Comfort food for comedy fans The Hangover proves to be a solid buddy comedy - but it's not that much different from the flicks that came before it
C+
| THE HANGOVER
Opens Friday
Employing the same frat-boy hijinks humour as Old School (and directed by that film's Todd Phillips), The Hangover charts the course of a bachelor road trip to Las Vegas gone heinously wrong. It's incontestably offensive, but so over-the-top and engagingly gonzo that several laughs hit their marks, particularly when comedian Zach Galifianakis is at centre stage.
Doug (Justin Bartha) is the groom-to-be, taken away by pals Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Alan (Galifianakis) in a priceless automobile loaned by future father-in-law Sid (Jeffrey Tambor). Phil is the traditionally handsome best friend while Stu's stereotypically uptight, and Alan occupies the resident space-cadet role, content to offer up a barrelful of non-sequiturs at the most inopportune times.
The bachelor party starts without a hitch, but after a fateful shot of roofie-laced Jägermeister, the film flashes forward to the after-effects of the next day. The guys have no idea what transpired, but with a baby in the closet, a tiger in the bathroom and ransacked chaos all around them, they decide to retrace their steps to find out. Oh yeah - and the groom is nowhere to be found, which is a bit of a problem.
Adding to the bedlam is the apparent marriage of Stu to escort/stripper Jade (Heather Graham), and the sudden appearance of boxing heavyweight Mike Tyson.
Ken Jeong - as minor bad guy Mr. Chow - steals the show whenever he's onscreen. Then again, how do you not achieve some infamy when your introductory scene has you leaping from a trunk buck-naked, dangling your man-parts onto the shoulders of one of the main protagonists? For the rest, the flamboyantly dressed Chow offers veiled threats alongside a litany of sexually suggestive acts.
This may prove to be the breakthrough role for Galifianakis, a gifted stand-up that has not, up until now, had much to do in the parts offered to him in Hollywood. Playing an even more bizarre incarnation of his roles in such dreck as What Happens in Vegas (which is to say, himself), Galifianakis is allowed a little more of the narrative's weight, and the film is all the better for it.
Instead of concerning itself with the usual bevy of sleazy strippers and poker games during its Las Vegas section, the picture throws just about any kooky idea screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore can come up with at the foursome, with no attention to constructing plausible outcomes.
Phillips has a knack for bromance comedies, with Old School setting something of a template for later fare such as The Wedding Crashers and I Love You, Man. The Hangover is almost an official cousin (with plenty of in-jokes) to his early hit, setting itself up as the nasty fallout for lives lived on the edge, and with no conscience.
— Aaron Graham |
Uptown
Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News
