The Hangover, starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis as three men who take their buddy, Doug (Justin Bartha) to Vegas for his bachelor party is one hell of a party that will leave you drunk with laughter. Directed by Todd Philips, The Hangover takes the Vegas bachelor party that we’ve seen so many times before and puts it squarely in ludicrous territory resulting in a bevy of laughs and smiles.
The Hangover starts with a simple premise, a bachelor party in Vegas and then twists and turn in all sorts of ridiculous, unexpected ways as the men try to piece together what happened the night before. To anyone who has seen the trailer, I’m not giving away anything by saying that the men wake up the morning after, extremely hungover and find their hotel suite trashed, a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet and oh yeah… the groom is missing. Those are just a few of the things that the trio discover; believe me it gets even wackier and sillier. Director Todd Philips has essentially added his two other comedy hits, Road Trip and Old School together plus a dash of Dude, Where’s My Car? to equal a brand new comedy classic. Philips does a great job of keeping things moving along, while not giving any of the mystery away and gets the most out of his actors, utilizing each of their comedic talents to great effect.
This leads us to the acting. All in all, every actor in The Hangover is terrific and will all enjoy a nice career bump from it. Bradley Cooper has been slowly but surely making his way to leading man status over the last few years and has ably taken his career to the next level with this performance. He is perfect as Phil, the calm, cool, laid back guy among the trio and he is so charismatic, he practically jumps off the screen at you. Rumors have been surfacing that Cooper is being considered for the role of Green Lantern and after seeing this film, I totally get it. He’s the right guy to play the self assured superhero. Cooper does have his fair share of funny lines in the movie, but he is essentially the straight man to Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis.
Ed Helms plays Stu, who is essentially an extension of the character he plays on The Office, Andy Bernard (I love him on that show). Stu is a quiet, normal guy who is a dentist (much humor is wrung out of this) and is about to get engaged to a control freak, bitch of a girlfriend. During the course of their crazy lost weekend, Stu becomes the man he really wants to be and watching Helms portray him is a delight. On The Office, Helms is always singing silly made up songs and Phillips wisely allows him to do this in the movie and it is one of the funniest bits in the film. Ironically, Helms could be the next Steve Carell, who plays his boss on The Office.
The last of the three leads, Zach Galifianakis, is brilliant as Alan, Doug’s weirdo, dim bulb, soon to be brother-in-law. Galifianakis has been kicking around for years and this performance will finally put him on the map. He is truly beyond hysterical in this role and is able to take even the most ordinary line and give it a comedic spin and basically steals every scene he is in. If you don’t find yourself laughing during his absurd wolf pack of one speech, you should probably check your pulse. The rest of the actors give great comedic performances as well, especially Justin Bartha, best known as the wisecracking sidekick from the National Treasure movies, as the groom to be, Doug. He holds his own with all three of his talented co-stars and is probably about ready to break out as a leading man as well.
The Hangover is jam packed with comedy gold and will probably only become funnier with repeat viewings. Make sure you stick around for the end credits where you’ll see pictures of the bachelor party that fill in any gaps of the drunken night. The pictures are worth the price of admission alone. To sum it up, The Hangover is an extremely well acted, beautifully done, comedic gem and it is one party that shouldn’t be missed.
