Doesn't match the hype

Rating: 6/10 (29 January 2011)

The Hangover is one of those movies which doesn't live up to the standards suggested by all the breathless hype. It's rather overrated, most definitely not one of the funniest movies ever made as so many of its ardent fans would suggest it to be. It's an OK movie, no more, no less. It has a smart, interesting setup but the setup proves to be better than the execution. You get the sense a lot of truly hilarious things happened over the time frame of the story. But we never actually see those things. We missed the debauchery and saw only the aftermath. It was an interesting premise, having the characters try to piece together what happened during the night of madness they can't remember. But it feels like we missed the good stuff. And what we're left with isn't enough to compensate. It's a movie which has its moments but what should have been the best moments are pretty clearly the moments we never see.
The story surrounds a wild, crazy bachelor party. Doug is the groom, his wedding a mere two days away when he, his two best friends and his bride-to-be's rather strange brother head to Vegas. Note to future grooms: going to Vegas two days before your wedding...bad idea. The movie opens on the morning of the wedding with one of the friends calling the bride to deliver the bad news. They can't find Doug. Flash back a couple of days and we see the gang of four preparing for their excursion. We see the drive from California to Vegas, their arrival in Sin City and a toast to a night they'll never forget. And then it's the next morning. And all hell has broken loose. And Doug is gone. And none of the other three can remember a thing. And there's a tiger in the bathroom.
There's the tiger. And a chicken, a police car and a mattress impaled on a statue. There's a baby. And a stripper, a naked Asian man and a former heavyweight champion of the world. How do all these things tie together? What the heck happened last night? And where is Doug? Our gang, now down to three, begins a seemingly futile attempt to make sense of the madness. As they try to piece together the puzzle we're treated to some laughs. But not nearly as many laughs as this movie's reputation would suggest. The movie just is not consistently funny enough, it's very hit and miss. And while the setup sounds like it makes room for all kinds of outrageous stuff the movie actually ends up being much more tame than you would think. The fact that the three main characters are as a group rather bland doesn't help. The characters of Phil and Stu, played by Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms respectively, are pretty much straight men, there to play off the really funny characters. And that's where the bride's brother Alan, played by Zach Galifianakis, comes in. He's clearly meant to be the most memorable character, the wacky, strange, outlandish funnyman. But while he's clearly funnier than the other two the character doesn't make as much of an impression as he really needs to for the movie to be as riotously funny as it promised to be. Supporting players, on the screen for only a few minutes here and there, really outshine the three central characters. And that's a problem. The Hangover is the story of one wild night. But it's one wild night which the audience missed out on. Much of the funniest stuff the film has to offer doesn't come until the closing credits have begun to roll. And by then it's much too late. Not a bad movie. But one which has a reputation which far exceeds its actual quality.