The Hangover is a film about three friends and a brother-in-law that go on an overnight trip to Las Vegas

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2011)

*** This Review May Include Spoilers*** The Hangover is a film about three friends and a brother-in-law that go on an overnight trip to Las Vegas. Phil Wennick (Bradley Cooper), Stu Price (Ed Helms) and Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis) take the Doug Billings (Justin Bartha) to Las Vegas for his last fling before he gets married. However, Stu, Phil and Alan wake up the following day in their hotel suite and cannot remember any of the events from the night before. To make things worse Doug cannot be found and so they spend the rest of the film trying to recreate what happened the night before with the hope of finding their friend Doug.
The theme of this movie is about loyalty to your friends, sticking together and taking care of each other during stressful times. This theme resonates throughout the entire film. Specifically, the plot is about Stu, Phil and Alan recreating the events that occurred during the previous night in order to recover Doug. They could have easily given up; however, all four arrived together and they were going to leave together.
Whether it was returning Mike Tyson's tiger, paying Mr. Chow's $80,000 ransom for Doug, or submitting to being "stun gunned" at the police precinct, Stu, Phil, and Alan did whatever it took to locate Doug. They were not going to return home without him.
Irony was illustrated throughout the film. Alan's Irony of Character was demonstrated through his mathematical genius at the Blackjack table (up to this point Alan was presented as a person with questionable intelligence). Moreover, the entire film was an Irony of Situation illustrated by the backfiring of events that started shortly after their arrival to Caesars Palace. Their grand plans for a final bash for Doug resulted in one bad experience after another.
Albeit vastly different plots and era, the theme for this movie is similar to that of Saving Private Ryan. The themes are similar because they both establish focus on unit loyalty, sticking together, and taking care of each other while under duress.
Finally, the theme of the movie was well illustrated at the end of the movie during the final scene. The scene showed the four friends sitting together on the patio, away from the rest of the wedding guests, enjoying a moment alone with each other. Crickets were in the background, feet were kicked up, and the four of them relaxing together on the patio away from the wedding guests. Moreover, they were all together at the end just like they were on the outset of their trip.