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Film review
The Hangover
Dir. Todd Phillips. 2009. R. 100mins. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham.
CALL OF THE WILD Cooper, left, has some explaining to do.Slightly more fun than holding a friend’s head over the bowl, The Hangover is only this summer’s breakout comedy hit in the minds of enterprising studio publicists. In Road Trip, Old School and the fine wine that is Starsky & Hutch, the Todd Phillips movie credit was a sign of laughs to come. But perhaps the success of those films should be attributed to the charisma of their Frat Pack stars—or even, in the case of Road Trip, to Tom Green. Working with an undisciplined cast and a script that betrays no signs of having made it past an initial draft, Phillips dutifully documents the fallout from a Vegas bachelor party, when three pals—squeamish Stu (Helms), crazy Alan (Galifianakis) and Vince Vaughn–ish Phil (Cooper)—wake up to find their suite trashed, their memories fuzzy and their soon-to-be-married friend gone. What happened, and more to the point, how did that tiger get in here?
That question is essentially a blank space into which writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) could insert any kind of incident—the more outrageous, the funnier. So it’s astonishing that the best anyone could come up with was a shotgun marriage, a pidgin-speaking Chinese gangster and taser-happy cops. Criticizing this bromance for seeing all of its women as harpies or strippers is a little like complaining that Natty Light lacks hops, but the reliance on ass-shot gags seems liability enough. You’ll laugh three or four times and probably won’t remember why.—Ben Kenigsberg
Opens Fri. Find showtimes
Time Out New York / Issue 714 : Jun 4–10, 2009
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Finally, a reviewer with class. A godawful movie for rough, uneducated, bored "men."
One of the worst movies ever made. No laughs. Should never have been released, let alone made. Storylines idiodic, script non-sensical, and acting poor. 1 star solely for it's ability to draw throngs of morons to the theaters and take their money.
For a raunchy proposal it fills the bill!! Cried laughing at the most absurd situations. Like a fisherman's tale, the movie overdoes a Las Vegas adventure on Strip Blvd. This movie is for guys to watch!! Ladies, watch it get an understanding of the macho male psyche!! rsssss and that's for laughs!!!
i can't believe that someone would actually give this movie 1 STAR. this movie was one of the FUNNIEST movies i have seen in a long time. i agree with most of the people on here about the people in the theatre. EVERYONE was laughing, nobody even left the theatre. when it was over everyone was smiling, talking about the movie & still laughing. i want to know what DRONES some of these people were watching the movie with that nobody laughed or just giggled??
Disgusting, unfunny "movie" Unless you are 12 and enjoy seeing vomit, fat hanging off an old man, men's hairy bare butts, a pervert purporting to masturbate a baby, a woman saying "suck my dick", guys being hit with a tire iron.... One of the worst ever....
Everyone is entitled to their opinion Ben, however I couldn't believe someone who claims to have enjoyed Old School and Road Trip found this movie disappointing. There are so many similarities, but not too many as to say Phillips has been recycling or regurgitating old tricks. This film had about 80-100 people in the theatre laughing hysterically, from the moment Phil rang Tracy at the beginning and said the words "We fucked up", right up until those photographs at the end credits.
This review makes me question who this guy is. He must be applying some academic standard, as opposed to the reaction of most of the moviegoing public. This is a funny movie, and the full theatre in NYC I attended must have thought the same. My face hurt from smiling and laughing so much.
Great review. I liked Road Trip and loved Old School but I agree with the reviewer about The Hangover. It was a really, really bad movie. Just saw it at The Grove in Los Angeles. Nobody laughed. A few chuckles. Just because something makes money doesn't mean it's good. The cast (besides Zach G) was charmless. It needed Vince Vaughn or a Will Ferrell or even a Sean William Scott in it. And what was with all the dramatic screaming and yelling? Bored me, but I laughed out loud about three times.
umm...did you happen to notice the full page ad on pg 83 of your own publication, in the same issue in which your one-star review appears? top quote is "THE BREAKOUT COMEDY OF THE SUMMER" by one Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine - who, last i checked, is far from an "enterprising studio publicist." Just serves to underline how off-the-mark your review really is.
Wow do you look foolish. Yes publicists made the $45mil. Time to hang up the review pad bud you're outdated. Stay on the Indie circuit.
Did you even watch this movie Ben?? This was one of the funniest movies I've seen in awhile. The packed audience I was just sitting with were all laughing their asses off and also applauded at the end.
I put one star on the comment of the rating. This guy's review was the worst slop i have ever read
You shouldn't be allowed to review comedies if this is what you thought. Besides myself laughing my ass off the entire time at a packed press screening the entire audience was going nuts and clapped at the end. 1 star - buddy fine if you dont like it but to comment that this is a success only in hte mind of publicists indicates to me you think you have a feel for today's audience. YOU DO NOT!
If you thought Tom green was the funny part of road trip or that Starsky and Hutch was fine wine funny, you told me all i need to know about your review making me want to see the movie because you have ZERO sense of what's funny and what's not
One of the worst and needlessly harsh reviews I've read. Besides this review the movie has been getting alot of critical acclaim. 1 out of 6 is unacceptable. You jusy destroyed your credit as a critic