Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham, Sasha Barrese, Jeffrey Tambor, Ken Jeong, Rachael Harris, Mike Tyson

Directed by: Todd Phillips

Warner Brothers Pictures

The Official Site of The Hangover

Discuss The Hangover on the boards!

We’ve trained ourselves to expect certain things from certain movies. Every gangster movie is going to have a rat, every M. Night Shyamalan movie is going to have a twist and every red shirt is going to die. The Hangover very easily could have been just another “bachelor party in Las Vegas� movie with all the strippers, gambling, heavy drinking and bad decisions that that implies, but it chooses instead to tell the story from the perspective of the morning after. The result is a murder mystery style adventure where no one actually dies but our heroes, three pals of varying degrees of social awkwardness, follow the clues of a night gone wrong in hopes of finding their missing friend Doug who’s getting married the next day.

I know, I know, I know… A bachelor party movie told through the haze of the next day sounds as thrilling as a bank heist movie told from the perspective of the real estate agent that rented Citibank the space. The film’s victory comes in the clues they follow to remember their forgotten night of fun. A missing tooth, a tiger in the bathroom and Mike Tyson butchering a Phil Collins classic help The Hangover break the Vegas stereotype and give us not only a fresh take on tired old clichés but also one of the funniest comedies in years.

While Hangover avoids what we’ve come to anticipate in a Vegas bachelor party film it seems to embrace very specific character types. Phil (Bradley Cooper) is the smooth operator. You half expect someone to say he’s “so money� if only ironically. Stu (Ed Helms) is the geeky sad sack, beaten down by dentistry pride (they’ve earned their �Dr.� title) and a high maintenance girlfriend. Alan (Zach Galifianakis) is a special kind of socially inept. It’s as if he’d spent his life sealed inside a plastic bubble filled with nothing but a skittles and pornography but was let out for the weekend just to attend the party. He’s what the love child of Buger (Revenge of the Nerds) and Harry (Harry and the Hendersons) would look like.

Each embraces their character type and never strays too far from what’s expected from them. I thought it worked. I’m almost looking forward to Facebook surveys that let you know “which character from The Hangover you’re most like.� Could the movie have been benefited had they strayed or expanded beyond cool guy, geek and outcast? Maybe but somewhere around the point where they argue over the pronunciation of the word “retard� you realize that it doesn’t even matter.

As the group puts together the pieces of the night before we begin to see the larger picture of what happened hopefully leading us closer to finding Doug. What’s interesting is that it’s told without any visual flashbacks other than a few photos from a surprise wedding, about 30 seconds of pool-pissing surveillance footage and of course… the closing credits. This is my not so subtle plea for you to sit tight as the credits begin to role. The bathroom will still be there after you shuffle through another dozen laughs or so.

I’m not interested so much in explaining the story to you or even reliving some of the funnier moments, which you’ve most likely already done around the water cooler or on the playground depending on how liberal/cool your parents are, I’m far more interested in spreading the word. I wish I were able to come up with a clever turn of phrase to express this better but the simple, succinct truth is that The Hangover is hilarious. It doesn’t overuse gross out humor or try terribly hard to teach you a lesson or tug at your heartstrings, it’s just flat out funny. A welcome burst of laughter in what has been an emotional and action-packed summer so far.

Too much penis though. Say what you want about Wolverine. At least you never saw his dong.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 - I love journey movies that change settings and situations as quickly as this movie does. In many ways it mirrors the other big release this weekend Land of the Lost which both play more as a stoner kid’s movie than you’d think. The Hangover was the easy champ though barely sliding into second thanks to another strong showing from Up. June is a dead zone until Transformers 2 hits so expect these two instant classics to be slugging it out for a couple weeks.

The Hangover is a true instant classic, so good that the sequel was greenlit like three weeks before the film’s release. That’s the sort of thing that doesn’t happen unless your main character is wearing a cape and a mask for the majority of the movie. I’ll be picking this up on DVD for sure and eagerly awaiting the next adventure.

Not time for love Dr. Jones. I’m off to bed. Sleep well. Thanks for swinging by.