OK, so you wake up on the floor of your swanky Caesar’s Palace villa and you catch the whiff of a few smouldering fires as you carefully step over the live chicken and make your way to the bathroom. While relieving yourself, you notice a 300 pound tiger on the floor, and barely manage to avoid urinating on your socks as you run for safety. This is just part of the opening of the second act of The Hangover, and it barely scratches the surface of the mayhem that 4 friends (or 3 friends and one soon to be in-law) get up on at a bachelor party in Las Vegas. What follows is an attempt to piece together the night shrouded in mystery, marriage, rufies and Mike Tyson.
That The Hangover was a totally crude and hilarious summertime movie should come as no surprise to anyone that’s seen any of Todd Phillips other movies. All the familiar elements of a Todd Phillips story are there, there’s wedding and baht mitzvah singer , the usual depraved Todd Phillips cameo, and a few heartfelt revelations concealed within the guise of comedy. Some might be heartened by the fact that Phillips has proven that he doesn’t need to be working with big names to keep audiences’ attention. Phillips has got a lot of tools in his little director’s box and he tries to break out as many of them as he can for this outing.
The Hangover takes a page out of Harry Potter’s book (structurally, not magically) by infusing the story with mystery elements to crank up the anxiety meter just an extra notch or two. That nervous tension helps amplify what is already a funny script executed by competent performers, combined with the ticking clock set in motion from the minute the movie starts and the constant barrage of whodiddit questions, complete with a edgy comedic glaze creates an irresistible mélange. I’d have to go through all my notes before I could say this was the funniest movie I’d seen all year, but I will state that I laughed my ass off through the entire movie, stopping only to make witty observations about my own experiences in Vegas, and maybe to realize that baby humour doesn’t work for me anymore. Not the movie’s fault – that’s all on me.
I’d also like to point out that The Hangover did the right thing as far as acknowledging it’s place in the pantheon of movies to come before it. Whether through leitmotifs, or straight up duplication of iconic shots from films like Casino and Rain Man, The Hangover doesn’t get a big head about itself, it’s here because of the films that came before it.
