starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zack Galifianakis
In a nutshell: Well done, Mr. Phillips. Funniest movie I've seen this year 
Quick synopsis: Four guys head to Vegas for a bachelor party. Only three wake up in the hotel room the next morning, along with a baby, a chicken, a tiger and no memory of what happened.
Content: From the director that brought you Road Trip, Old School, Starsky & Hutch and School for Scoudrels (although he'd probably like you to forget those last two) comes The Hangover, a welcome return to form. I liked Road Trip, although its been years since I've seen it and I'm sure my sense of humor is different than it was during my freshman year of college. I had a blast with Old School and look back on seeing it in a packed theater in Ithaca, New York as one of my fondest theater experiences. However, upon subsequent viewings, I have found Old School to be a little uneven. The first hour is is as funny as anything, but it devolves into silliness in order to resolve its conflict. And in Old School, I really don't care about the plot. The movie holds my attention because Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn crack me up, and when time must be spent to wrap up the story I lose interest. This is fine, though. Old School is a comedy, and it's funny. Therefore, it succeeds. Some of my all-time favorite comedies have pointless stories, like Caddyshack and Animal House.
But The Hangover does Old School one better because, not only was I laughing my ass off, but I cared about the story! The comedy in The Hangover is every bit as good as Old School, thanks to some excellent casting. As he did for Old School, Phillips found actors that were born to play their respective roles. I'm talking about Ed Helms of the Daily Show and The Office, Bradley Cooper of Wedding Crashers and mediocre romantic comedies, and Zack Galifianakis who steals the show. I don't know where this guy came from, but he plays one hell of a weirdo. Why? Because I think he is a weirdo. Check out his shorts, Between Two Ferns on youtube. The chemistry between these three guys keeps the movie running in high gear throughout. And I think the absence of any huge stars worked very much in their favor. A Ferrell, Sandler or Vaughan would only have gotten in the way. Fresh faces are good.
So why did the story hold my attention even when the comedy was taking a breather? Because it was a great mystery. So what if it was already done in Dude, Where's My Car? It's done WAY better in The Hangover. In case you are uninformed, The Hangover is about 4 guys who go to Vegas for a bachelor party. In the morning, they wake up in a trashed room and the groom-to-be is missing. To make matters worse, no one has any memory of what happened. There are some clues strewn around, and it's fun following the trail and trying to figure out what happened to Doug (who is played by Justin Bartha whom I really liked from National Treasure).
Despite my gushing, The Hangover has some holes. Not every joke lands, but enough do. But there were two specific characters that annoyed me. The first is the legendary Mike Tyson. He can't act one lick and I think I would have rather seen a comedic takeoff on him played by someone funny, than the man himself since he is so incapable. The only good reason for him being in there is for the surprise when he shows up....but they spoiled that in the commercials anyway, so there was really no point.
The second is the Asian guy. He was trying too hard to be funny in a movie where everyone else feels natural (even Zack). I've been on the fence about this guy from his performances in Knocked Up and Role Models, but he completely lost me in this one.
I had mixed feelings about the scene that referenced Rain Man. Everything else in the movie went so well together. It was not bad, but it felt out of place. It felt like it was from a spoof movie, which The Hangover isn't.
The marketing for The Hangover really sucked. It stripped away any sense of uniqueness and made it look like any other crappy raunchy comedy. As I mentioned before, it spoiled the Tyson thing and also lead me to believe that there was going to be an annoying baby wearing sunglasses around the whole time. I was expecting the baby to be an omnipresent annoying gimmick like the baby in Meet the Fockers. Thankfully the marketing was misleading and the baby is gone halfway through the film. Thank goodness I caught wind of the positive word-of-mouth because otherwise I don't think I would have sought this movie out by choice. Come on Warner Brothers, you have enough money, hire a competent marketer for those rare times when you actually have a good film to promote.
Oh and make sure you stay for the closing credits. It was the perfect way to complement the story and I can't even remember the last time that a movie ended on such a hilarious note.
Rolling rankings:
1. Good Will Hunting (#156)
2. In Bruges(#153)
3. The Hangover (#157)
4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (#155)
5. Up (#149)
6. I.O.U.S.A. (#150)
7. Burn After Reading (#152)
8. The Da Vinci Code (#151) 
9. 21 (#154)
10. Star Trek: Generations (#148)
key:
masterpiece excellent good mixed bag more bad than good garbage
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