The Hangover III

Rating: 4/10 (7 September 2014)

The Hangover Part III receives critical derision for being a violent, dark sequel that has suctioned away all the charm, unpredictability, and hilarity significant to the first film's success. I think the problem with the third film is that at every turn, despite what the film seems to want from us, Chow is a cretin, a creep with no redeeming qualities yet he's set up as this lovable Bangkok nutcase with an ability to leech trust from his victims. I think Chow is a monster, but he's so prominently featured in this third film, I had no choice but to tolerate him. Look what he does to even those who are remotely humane to him: he locks them in the basement after stealing gold he claims was in his own villa basement but is actually kingpin Marshall's (John Goodman) second stash of bars, leaving them to be punished. Two caches of bars were stolen from a sheik by Marshall, and subsequently, Chow took one from him, and then this crazy maniac sets up a con over Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and his close pal, Alan (Zach Galifianakis) to get the second! Phil, Stu, and Alan are put under orders by Marshall to find Chow and the gold or else, Doug (Justin Bartha), the brother-in-law of Alan, would be executed! Chow is responsible for all of what befalls the "wolf pack", and by film's end, despite what he deserves, Alan sees that he escapes from a harm he had more than earned. People get shot a bunch in this film, and the crimes that intrude upon the lives of Phil, Stu, and Alan aren't as much played for laughs as a necessary custom to how these guys fall prey to horrors of an absurd variety time and again. I think seeing Chow leap from the balcony of Caesar's Palace, as a parachute guides him in the sky, talking about how he loves cocaine, isn't as hilarious as it is telling regarding what kind of waste of space he really is. Is he fun-loving, embracing life and all its jollies, using whatever means are at his disposal, through treachery, chicanery, back-stabbing, and madness supposed to endear him to us? Anyway, Stu spends most of his time under attack from Alan, as the film is damn insistent on keeping its focus and intentions on Alan's crisis (the giraffe incident, going off the drugs he needs to keep him from such incidents, speaking out of turn to his relatives, causing his dad to croak from a coronary, etc.). Phil must be the anchor that keeps everything from totally spiraling out of control. Arizona ends up leading to Tijuana and then to Las Vegas, but the results are the samethe wolf pack are re-acquainted with Marshall regarding Chow. Chow. Chow. Chow. Alan. Alan. Alan. At least Melissa McCarthy shows up as a pawn store owner that Alan fancies. Oh, and seeing Alan near death on the Caesar's Palace light was only a disappointment in that he didn't stay there...that or fall to a very sidewalk-crushing demise. It appears that the third film was supposed to be it, yet the end credits tell us otherwise. I hope I never see Chow's dick again.