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Gambling Movie Review Travel

Movie Review: The Hangover

Rated R for adult situations, sex, booze, drugs, profanity, boobs, weiners, and too many shots of ugly dude butts.

Rating: B

THE HANGOVER is the latest comedy from Todd Phillips, the director of Old School.

The premise is simple:  four guys go to Las Vegas for a routine weekend bachelor party at Caesar’s Palace.  They toast each other with some Jagermeister, and then find themselves inexplicably sharing a suite with a rooster, a white tiger, various pieces of stolen property, and the most pounding post-party headaches they’ve ever had.  Oh, and the group has lost the groom, found a baby, hung out with Mike Tyson, went to the hospital…. and they still need to get back to Los Angeles in time for the wedding that takes place in a few hours.  Have I mentioned that nobody quite remembers what happened between the Jager shots and waking up the next day?

And that’s the fun of the movie, watching the three friends piece together (ala Memento, working the timeline backwards with each new clue they uncover) exactly what happened the night before, and trying to find the missing groom so they can get him to his wedding on time.

To me, The Hangover is a solid cross between Ferris Bueller and After Hours, where the group finds themselves in impossible situations during a road trip, and then spend all night wondering how they got from point A to point B.  The film had a little too much Ed Helms for my taste, but he was nicely balanced out by Zach Galifianakis and some side characters that are too funny to describe here for concern of ruining their film appearance.  

There are tons of raunchy laughs here, with no possible way for all the best jokes to be shown in the standard green band trailer that’s suitable for all audiences as The Hangover definitely earns its R rating.  You’ll also want to be prepared to sit while the credits roll for what are some of the funniest closing credits scenes you’ll have seen in a long time, a perfect way to end this film that gives the audience a satisfying ending to the story.

If you’re looking for a raunchy comedy, The Hangover will fit the bill.  And After seeing The Hangover, you’ll want your next Vegas trip to be even just half as exciting a time as these guys had.  But maybe without the tiger.