Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Hangover

Under normal circumstances, I try to let a day or two pass before I review a movie. Really let it sink in. But in the case of The Hangover I'm anxious to get this down before I forget the movie entirely.

That's right. Unremarkable.

I was pretty into seeing this movie. It was the only film in the latest batch of blockbusters that seemed appealing at all. With the cost of tickets these days, I want to know that I'm not making a big mistake before walking into the theater. Sure, we all strike out sometimes, but that's the breaks. Hangover was not so much a strike out, more of a walk.

Following the same premise as Dude, Where's My Car? (one of my personal favorites), four guys go to Vegas for a bachelor party and get hammered. They wake up the next morning to discover a trashed hotel suite, a baby in the closet, a tiger in the bathroom, and no memory of the night before. Oh, and the groom-to-be is gone. So you could call this Dude, Where's My Best Friend? (I died a little inside when I wrote that.)

There's nothing particularly wrong with the movie. It has some laughs. Ed Helms is always a funny guy. He turns down his character quite a bit for this movie, not at all like his role in The Office. The other guys I didn't recognize, so I can't comment on previous performances. The guy with the beard (Zach Galifianakis) plays the weird one, with much more weird than funny. Bradley Cooper plays the “asshole” of the bunch, but doesn’t really deliver with the laughs you’d expect from said character cliché. And Justin Bartha, playing the groom-to-be, isn’t in three-quarters of the movie anyway, so who cares?

Did any of you see I Love You, Man? The Hangover reminded me a lot of that movie. A good cast, a good concept, some genuinely funny moments, and an all in all unremarkable movie. I think in the case of both films, the creators put way too much stock in the cast’s ability to be hilarious, and didn’t bother to build up a humorous script or an engaging story. I Love You, Man had the advantage of Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Two guys who know how to be funny. The Hangover… not so much.

There are some laughs. Don’t get me wrong. But to be the #1 movie in America two weeks in a row? Really? Is this a sign of the times? I’ll say that the blockbuster bill for this summer doesn’t get me particularly excited. Two movies based on toys. One of which is a sequel. Harry Potter does look pretty awesome though. You can definitely look forward to my review of that.

In conclusion, if the fact that my last two paragraphs of this review aren’t even about the movie I’m reviewing don’t give away anything, I don’t know what will.

And once again, IMDB is reporting a sequel. When will it end?

1 comment:

  1. i bet it would be funnier if you saw it drunk. and in richmond.

    ReplyDelete