Funny Film, Not My Cup of Tea, But Pleasant

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2010)

Just before his wedding, a man and his three friends go to Vegas, a land of adventure where anything can happen. And in this movie, anything does happen. You'll never believe so much can go so wrong in such a short time. How will the friends be able to recover from such a seemingly disastrous night?
I had heard some positive buzz on "The Hangover" from a variety of people, and figured why not watch it? And I will say that while I'm glad I did, it's not quite on a par with other comedies, despite several humorous and outrageous moments. The first twenty minutes is a bit slow, and although it quickly recovers, I just didn't end up feeling as entertained as I had hoped when it was all over. Maybe the characters weren't lovable or something... I don't know. I see this film's popularity declining in a year or two. I'd much rather watch "Slackers".
Don't get me wrong. The cop car bit is hilarious, the Asian guy from "Community" is pretty cool, and the tiger... well, there's a tiger! In fact, my favorite part is Ed Helms' song about the tiger (sometimes referred to as "Tiger Snooze", though the actual title is unknown to me). Oh, and a Holocaust ring. My biggest complaint is Heather Graham. While she does fine, I just never cared for Graham and I heard that the part was offered to Lindsay Lohan. I much prefer Lohan, and it's a part that could have helped her collapsing career. Oh well.
If you like "Old School" and "Wedding Crashers", this is probably your sort of film. I don't mind those, but it's not really my favorite. And this isn't exactly the same -- it's not Will Ferrell, it's not Judd Apatow. But, the trend in comedies these days is going in a direction I don't necessarily appreciate as others do. I can't pinpoint it.