This Film Will Leave You With a Hangover

When watching a comedy, the common expectation is to have your eyes tearing, your stomach hurting and your breath shortened.

The problem with “The Hangover” is that the next big laugh just never comes, producing a somewhat flat comedy.

“The Hangover” is about four friends – Phil, [Bradley Cooper, “Wedding Crashers,” “Yes Man”], Stu, [Ed Helms, “Semi Pro,” Walk Hard”] Alan [Zach Galifianakis, “Into the Wild,” “What Happens In Vegas”] and Doug, [Justin Bartha, “Failure to Launch,” “National Treasure”] who head out to Vegas for a bachelor party. When they wake up the next morning, they can’t remember what happened the previous night and in the process, the groom [Doug] has gone missing.

Phil, Stu and Alan must now retrace their steps and try to piece together what happened the night before to find Doug. Strange and wacky clues pop up during their quest, such as a tiger wandering in the bathroom of their hotel room, a stolen cop car that they wind up with and a missing baby that is found in a cabinet in their hotel room. With these clues in hand, they are a step closer to solving the puzzle- with purely idiotic results.

Despite the interesting premise, The “Hangover” fails to create a consistent laugh throughout. There are a few parts of the movie that leave your cheeks hurting, but it fizzles soon after.  There are times where you’d expect something outrageous to occur, however when it finally does, it is something that comes out of left field, leaving you disappointed.

While the characters are funny, they tend to get bothersome over time. Cooper is somewhat of the ring leader of the bunch, thinking he knows it all, but he mostly gets the gang into deeper trouble. Helms is the more responsible type, however he spends most of the movie whining, especially about lying to his girlfriend about his whereabouts. Vegas is hardly known for its wine tasting, after all.

Galifianakis is the goofy dude who isn’t very intelligent; he is childish at times and a bit obnoxious.

However, despite this cast of wacky characters, “The Hangover” throws most of its funny scenes into the trailer, leaving few comedic surprises for the film. The cameos are overrated, especially the one with Mike Tyson.

Director Todd Philips [“Old School,” “Starsky and Hutch”] left little to be desired in this film. In comparison to “Old School,” the two are night and day. Instead of getting the full rich ingredients of flavorful laughs with a cherry on top, there was nothing left except feeling extremely vanilla.

Aside from a few zany moments, “The Hangover” is just not that funny and should be viewed from your couch instead of the actual big one in the theater.