There's a tiger in the bathroom!

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2010)

As far as wedding movies go, "The Hangover" is a tad different from others in the genre. We are not asked to follow the antics of these grown up men getting in all kinds of mischief, while trying to celebrate the ritual of a bachelor party in Las Vegas. As a matter of fact, the film spare us of all that, as the creators take us to watch the effects of the night in question as three of the four friends have to face the consequences of their night on the town. The American male shows signs of wanting to remain children for as long as they can.
Phil, Stu, and Alan wanted to give their pal Doug a night he would not forget. Bringing him to Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas was a sort of adventure for these foursome. When Doug, the groom to be, disappears after a night on the town, the remaining trio decide to retrace their steps to find him. Obviously, they have no clue as to where to begin. Alan discovers there is a tiger in the bathroom, as well as a baby hidden in an unexpected place. Stu finds, to his horror, he is missing a front tooth.
As the friends try to put together the pieces about the disappearance of Doug, they get into more trouble, when a gang of thugs led by a gay Chinese man, begin to pressure them for eighty thousand dollars he claims Alan stole from him. Stu learns he got married at one of those ubiquitous chapels that dot Las Vegas. What's more, he has married a hooker, the mother of the child found in their suite. As for the tiger, it belongs to no other than Mike Tyson, a tough guy to deal with. Their erratic ways bring him to despair, but no Doug.
Todd Phillips directed this entertaining comedy with sure hand. The screenplay by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, is not the by-the-number kind, although fans of the genre will find similarities with other movies about weddings that are disastrous. For starters, the creators have kept from the audience everything related to what really happened on the night of the bachelor party. We only see shots of what they really did in snapshots as the credits roll.
Zach Galifianakis is turning into an impressive presence wherever he appears. We admired his work in the series "Bored to Death". He proves he is a funny man that does not mind 'baring' it all for a laugh. Bradley Cooper is the leader of the friends, but actually he is the straight man. Ed Helms, on the other hand, goes from the nerd type he is supposed to be into a new man, changed when he married the hooker. Rachael Harris, who plays Melissa, Stu's terrorizing lover, is an actress that has been around in small roles and really deserves to play more often. She excels as the henpecking Melissa, the woman that two-times Stu with the bartender of a cruise ship and who makes his life impossible. Jeffrey Tambor has only a small part.