Catch the coda of this generally unsatisfactory comedy

Rating: Null/10 (24 May 2013)

Back in the States after the events of Part II, the friends try to take Alan off to some sort of treatment centre, but get sidetracked by crime boss Marshall who holds them responsible for Mr Chow relieving him of millions of dollars in gold bullion. With Doug held hostage and threatened with imminent death, Phil, Stu and Alan have 3 days to try to find Mr Chow and recover the gold.
As with its predecessors, Part III is built around hugely improbable events which trail along in the wake of the path through life taken by the hugely unbelievable child/man Alan (Zack Galifianiakis), and this is both the the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of the series. In the first film, the character was funny and what happened was funny. In Part II, less so. Part III is actually quite dark and, while there are some laughs, mostly this could have been filmed as a straight crime drama. Alan was never credible, but by this point he has started to become tiresome and, with a relative absence of laughs (and several fairly cold on-screen killings), this works against the film. I'm sure this won't affect its box office.
It does at least bring the series to a satisfactory conclusion, and I hope they will resist the temptation to roll out part 4. Do hang on past the first section of credits, and make sure you catch the coda which is by far the funniest part of the film - I thought "Now THIS is what I wanted to see!".