An Interesting Concept Is Wasted In This Ugly, Humor-Free Trash

Rating: 1/10 (27 August 2017)

I understand how The Hangover became a hit with audiences. The raunchy, foul- mouthed spirit of the movie is precisely the kind of thing teenage boys try to create in the schoolyard. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis are the type of group every middle schooler wants to be a part of. They're vulgar, cool, and a little dopey. The "jokes", if you can call them that, are dumb teenage humor incarnate. I get why The Hangover has its younger fans. What baffles me about The Hangover is that it is so celebrated by critics. This is a comedy of the worst kind. One that is less interested in wit than it is in four letter words.
The concept of The Hangover is a good one, ripe with potential for lots of laughs. In it, three friends retrace their steps after a wild bachelor party in Las Vegas in order to find the missing bachelor. There's a clever idea to have the crew rediscover the pieces of their crazy night along with the audience. Unfortunately, the concept basically fizzles out after the first couple encounters.
And let's talk about those encounters. The little vignettes that the crew goes through to piece their night back together are total whiffs. There is plenty of room for comedy here. What did the crew get up to last night? Your mind runs wild with possibilities. What does the movie give us? Mike Tyson, a tiger, and a baby. If you didn't laugh at that list, chances are you won't laugh at the movie because all writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore do is present these scenarios flat. We're asked to laugh simply at the fact that Mike Tyson is on the screen. "They met Mike Tyson last night, isn't that funny?". There is absolutely no attempt to be clever with the concept. It's all surface. Another famous gag sees Ken Jeong jumping out of a car naked. Again, if you don't laugh at the idea of a naked Asian man, then you won't laugh at the movie. Without adding any kind of situational thought, a naked man running around screaming has less comedic value than a birthday clown. Scenes like this just sit there flailing around aimlessly in hopes for any kind of laugh.
And that's the target The Hangover aims for--any kind of laugh. That's why the movie is so vulgar. The director, Todd Phillips, is clearly just trying anything. It's trial and error right before your eyes. This joke didn't hit? Throw in a couple F-bombs and see if that gets anything. The movie is just so peppered with filth that it all becomes meaningless. When every other word is a swear, it just becomes noise. The trio of actors do nothing to help matters. Bradley Cooper is a fine actor, and a relatively likable persona. Here he is a disgusting, mean-spirited prick. Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis are funny, funny guys. They are squandered here. Let's face it, it's hard to be funny when you have nothing clever to say. The dialogue here is comedically bankrupt. When "So long, gay boys" is one of your big quotes and a guy getting tazed is one of your big scenes, you've got some serious script problems.
There are hundreds of comedies that fail because they're too silly or they try too hard to get laughs. Then, every once in a while comes a movie like The Hangover. A film of such laziness, such ambivalence to the idea of creating comedic scenarios, that it physically repelled me. All The Hangover does is insist you laugh at its concept, and if you like filth, laugh at that too. It's a total mess. I have no idea what people see in this movie. It's ugly, nasty, gross, and I did not laugh once. Other than that, well, it still sucks.
06/100