Casey's Movie Mania: THE HANGOVER PART III (2013)

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2013)

A few chuckles here and there, but THE HANGOVER PART III is mostly stale and unfunny "comedy" that feels like a bad leftover.
For the record, I always thought that the first HANGOVER was overrated. And then came the inferior sequel, THE HANGOVER PART II, which was basically more of the same formula. But at least, those two HANGOVER movies have its fair share of outrageous fun and entertaining cast. Finally, here's the so-called "epic finale to the HANGOVER trilogy" which is -- surprise! surprise! -- neither particularly outrageous or fun. Instead, THE HANGOVER PART III feels strangely subdued at which returning director Todd Phillips takes different path this time around. How different, you say? Phillips is daring enough to ditch its very premise that originally shaped the success of the first two HANGOVER movies -- the concept of hangover itself. What's left here is nothing more than an uninspired B-grade action caper.
At the very least, the three principal cast -- Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and especially Zach Galifianakis -- remain reasonably entertaining to root at, even though they are no longer as fun as they used to be in the first two HANGOVER movies. In one of the subplots, the brief scene between Galifianakis and Melissa McCarthy (who plays a pawn shop owner) has a surprisingly tender moment rarely seen in the HANGOVER movie before.
Todd Phillips' direction is lazy and lackluster, while his script co-written with Craig Mazin, is mostly witless and dreary at best. Even most of the profanity-filled humor feels uninspired and repetitive. That supposedly crude joke about a pet giraffe gets accidentally decapitated at the highway? Well, I have tough time trying to laugh at that either. Then there's Ken Jeong, who becomes the main focus of a HANGOVER movie for the first time. It's not that he is unfunny, but his character somehow works fine when he is just a minor role in the first two HANGOVER movies. However, the expansion of his character feels significantly annoying this time around.
Frankly, I'm glad that THE HANGOVER series is finally over with THE HANGOVER PART III. It looks obvious that this third and final installment was made for the sake of attempting to cash-in the brand popularity rather than coming up a worthwhile entry at all. This one is strictly for die-hard fans.