The Hangover Part III

Rating: 4/10 (3 June 2013)

The first film was a great funny film, the second film was amusing but maybe not as good, and this was the concluding film of the trilogy, one that was promoted a lot but had mixed reviews, from director Todd Phillips (Road Trip, Old School). Basically Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), Stuart 'Stu' Price (Ed Helms), Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug Billings (Justin Bartha) are reunited again when following a pileup involving a killed giraffe Alan's father Sid (Jeffrey Tambor) dies from a heart attack, and they all attend the funeral. The family and friends are concerned for Alan's health as he is not taking his medication, they suggest he should go through some treatment to help him, he agrees to go to a rehab facility in Arizona, as long as "Wolf Pack" take him. On the way their minivan is rammed and they are shoved off road, and when they get out they are taken hostage by masked men, they meet mob leader Marshall (John Goodman), referenced in the first film, and his head of security Black Doug (Mike Epps), the boss tells them that Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong), who recently escaped a maximum security prison, stole half of $42 million in gold bars from him. He wants them to find Mr. Chow, since Alan often contacts him, so that he can get his gold back, and if they do not find him he will kill Doug who they have taken, so with three days until the deadline the Wolf Pack go in search of him. Alan sets up a meeting with Chow in Tijuana, Mexico, and after a failed attempt to drug him Chow is told by Alan, Stu and Phil the situation, so he agrees to get the gold back, he says it is hidden in a mansion that formerly belonged to him, so they will have to break in to get it. The group successfully disconnect the security alarms and locate the gold to take it all out, but then Chow betrays them and leaves them with the alarm sounding to be caught by the police, and following this they are oddly released without charge and returned to the house, they in fact stole the other half of the gold from Marshall. He kills Black Doug for his incompetence and gives them the further two days to get Chow and the gold back, they know that he stole Phil's minivan and, but the gang are able to track the phone with Alan's detection app, it is outside a pawn shop in Las Vegas. They go into the pawn shop owned by Cassie (Melissa McCarthy), only communicating with Alan who she is attracted to she says that Chow came in and traded a gold bar for $18,000, less than its $400,000 sell rate, and they deduce he must be staying in a Caesar's Palace suite. Since Stu still has the contact of prostitute Jade (Heather Graham), following their unintentional wedding, they meet her and she gets in touch with an escort agency who know a big shot Asian is staying in a barricaded suite, so while Stu watched below Alan and Phil climb down from the roof to reach the suite. They are lucky not to get badly hurt as they manage to reach the suite, but Chow catches them and manages to escape by parachuting to the reach the strip of Las Vegas below, but Stu catches up to him and locks him in the trunk of the limo Marshall let them borrow. With Chow and all the gold in place they arrange a meeting with Marshall on the outskirts of the city, satisfied that the gold is all there he releases Doug to them, and being told Chow is in the trunk he and his henchman shoot their guns through it. Chow however appears to shoot and kill the henchman and mob leader, Alan had helped him to make his way out of the trunk through the backseat, he momentarily thinks of shooting them but changes his mind as Alan saved his life. Alan turns down the offer of a gold bar from Chow and ends his friendship between them because he knows that it is wrong and things go wrong when they get together, the group then return to the pawnshop for the minivan, and Alan goes in to make a date with Cassie. Six months later it is the wedding Alan and Cassie, Stu, Phil and Doug are guests, and knowing that he will have his own life and future responsibilities Alan officially resigns from the Wolf Pack. Following the credits we see the group have had another wild party that they cannot remember, Phil and Alan laugh when they see that Stu has got breast implants, Alan realises there must have been drugs in the wedding cake from Chow, and he comes out naked and laughing, and the Capuchin monkey they met in Bangkok jumps out to freak them out. Also starring Jamie Chung as Lauren and Sondra Currie as Linda. The characters are just about still as likable as the two previous films, the chaotic element is a little lost with this story going back to the beginning and with a heist storyline involved, the only scene similar to the other two is the final sequence, I guess I can see why the critics give it two stars out of five, it is only funny in small moments and it does not feel exactly the same as before, but for me it was a fun enough comedy. Okay!