Not completely devoid of laughs but a severe disappointment once again.

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2013)

'THE HANGOVER PART III': Three Stars (Out of Five)
The third, and supposedly final, chapter in the blockbuster comedy series that began in 2009 with the surprise sleeper hit 'THE HANGOVER'. That film launched the movie star careers of it's three leads Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. They all reprise their roles in this film (for the third time) and Todd Phillips once again directs. Phillips and Craig Mazin took over writing duties from Jon Lucas and Scott Moore in the second and third films (along with Scott Armstrong for 'PART II'). This time around the three buddies (along with Justin Bartha, reprising his role again for the third time) are taking Alan to rehab when their attacked by gangsters and Doug is kidnapped. It's a different formula than the first and second films (which we're almost identical) this time around and not nearly as funny. Like the second film it's a major disappointment from the classic original.
The story focuses around Alan (Galifianakis) who's been off his meds for several months and keeps getting into lots of trouble. His father, Sid (Jeffrey Tambor reprising his role), dies as a result of the stress from Alan's actions. Alan's buddies Phil (Cooper), Stu (Helms) and Doug (Bartha) decide to take him to get the treatment he needs for his mental issues when they're attacked by a gangster named Marshall (John Goodman). Marshall wants revenge on the drug dealer, Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong reprising his role), who recently escaped from prison. He kidnaps Doug and threatens to kill him unless the other three friends bring Mr. Chow to him. Sid, Stu and Doug come up with a plan to drug Chow and take him to Marshall but things go horribly wrong.
The original 'HANGOVER' is one of my all time favorite comedies! I was so disappointed with 'THE HANGOVER PART II' for merely imitating the original film (almost exactly) and not coming up with any new laughs of it's own (a lot of the old jokes felt forced the second time as well). Here the filmmakers came up with a new formula and adventure to get their popular characters into but failed to deliver the laughs once again. For one thing the three leads are sober the whole film; how can you do a 'HANGOVER' film without getting the characters hung-over?! The actors give it their all and Phillips is always a decent director but the main problem with both sequels is Phillips thought he could replace the excellent two writers of the original film. He and Mazin don't know how to deliver the humor and fun that Lucas and Moore did (and the main reason this film isn't funny is it's lacking the fun). It's extremely dark, violent and just bizarre. It's hardly even a comedy film. Not completely devoid of laughs but a severe disappointment once again.
Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72ucjLaVv_8