'The Hangover' movie review

It is now officially confirmed, I also review older movies. So anyways, The Hangover is a smash-hit 2009 comedy, directed by Todd Phillips, the director of comedies, mostly known for crude, sex-related jokes, like Old School, Roadtrip and School for Scoundrels. I have enyoyed those movies, but have also heard, that this was actually the film, that put Phillips on the map, as it made a shitload of money and was also surprisingly critically-acclaimed. Its reputation is big, so I had to watch it with very high expectations. But did it reach them?

The plot of The Hangover is about Doug (Justin Bartha) getting married and his best friends, Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Stu (Ed Helms) and his future wife's brother Alan (Zach Galifianakis) giving him a kick-ass bachelor party in Las Vegas. But things get out of control, as the three actual main characters wake up, finding a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, Stu missing a tooth and Doug missing. And now it's up to 'The Wolfpack' to find out, 'what the fuck happened last night', as it is illustrated several times in the film. Now first, The Hangover is a very funny movie and also pretty original. The humor isn't all as crude and inappropriate as you might think, but it still isn't for everyone and is Rated R for a reason (even tough it the rating basically precedes its target audience a bit). However you need more then just laugh-out-loud humor for a REALLY great comedy (the case of Ted, for an example).


And The Hangover has that. The three main characters are good and relatable, from the bad-ass Phil to the nerdy Stu imprisoned in his marriage and the straight-forward idiotic (but funny as hell, of course) Alan, and it works even better, because the actors are great. The story is actually very interesting and unpredictable and near the end of the movie, where question marks and mysteries of the last night's drunken misadventures keep showing up in chaotic and hilarious situations, you really start to feel for these guys. There are 5 hours til' the wedding, the groom is missing and you start to symphatize, understand and want them to suceed. So in conclusion, The Hangover met all of my high expectations, as I find the movie a fresh and incredibly funny comedy, with interesting, but relatable characters, a good story and good acting, deserving all the awards the movie has received, from the Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical to the MTV's Movie Award for Best WTF moment.


Total rating: 8.5 / 10