No headache, just laughs in Hangover.

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2009)

The Hangover is a reckless comedy that follows the usual male bonding road trip formula but with an edge that makes it stand out from the rest of the pack of sophomoric comedies made in this vein.
Stu, his two best friends and his rather odd brother in law head for Vegas to celebrate his bachelor party. On the rooftop of the Bellagio they drink a toast to the night ahead. Flash forward to the next morning where three of the four awake to a trashed suite with a tiger in the bathroom and a baby in a bedroom. Stu is nowhere to be found and everyone's memory (due to spiked drinks) of the night before is a blank slate. In order to find Stu and get him to the church on time they must piece together the night before.
Hangover's ability to maintain a degree of suspense, albeit comic, throughout while remaining irreverently hilarious as it goes in an out of bounds of credulity and taste is what makes it a refreshing entertainment. So a wedding chapel owner gets shot in the shoulder with no repercussions or the hapless trio agree to be tasered by police in a classroom who then give students a turn. Ridiculous? Yes? Hysterical? That too.
It's clearly a guy film with it's un PC chauvinism, insensitivity and actions by the eclectic band of jerks in full display of extended adolescence but women's laughter was every bit as evident as men the day I caught the show. It was easy to see why.