Highly overrated.

Rating: 1/10 (23 May 2013)

My brother-in-law, who is in his mid 30s and who knows I love a good comedy, handed this DVD to me and said "Here, you need to watch this. It's the funniest movie I've ever seen." I should've known then it was going to be awful, considering in most cases his idea of "humor" is about the same as that of a 14 year old boy. However, I had heard others say how funny it was, so I thought "maybe, why not?" For the record, let me state that I'm a big fan of low-brow humor. I love the majority of the classic "dirty" comedies. The Hangover is DEFINITELY not in that group however. At one point I looked at my wife, who also likes a good comedy, and asked her if she wanted to watch something else. Her exact statement was "Maybe it will get funny." Not a good sign.
The first problem is that the characters are just not likable. Justin Bartha's character is probably the most likable, and he's hardly in the film. Bradley Cooper's character is a massive jerk (much like his role in the Wedding Crashers, which is a MUCH better movie than this one!), Ed Helms' character is an irritating whiner and Zach Galifianakis character wasn't much better, just stupid irritating.
Secondly, the movie tries too hard to be funny. "Look, a dentist pulled his own tooth out! Isn't that funny?" "A tiger in a hotel room! Isn't that funny?" "Look, the idiot is a genius black-jack player! Whew, didn't see that one coming!" "Mike Tyson! Wow, that dude is funny, right?" I could go on... The supposed gags feel contrived and forced.
Finally, the "dirty humor" comes across as crass rather than funny. Animal House does dirty humor very well. It's funny. The Hangover does not. It gets the dirty part, but misses the humor.
Save yourself two hours of your life and watch something else.