The Hangover

by KYW's Bill Wine

"Whatever happens in Vegas slays in Vegas"? They wish.

Maybe the best time to sit through the bachelor-party-gone-kablooey comedy The Hangover is during a hangover. That might make it easier to overlook all the narrative omissions and juvenile excesses in a movie the guiding principle of which might well have been that getting a wince, a groan, or a raised eyebrow is just as good as getting a laugh or a smile.

In what universe is that supposed to be true?

The Hangover is a rowdy and raunchy romp about a night of carousing in Las Vegas on the part of a quartet of manchildren celebrating upcoming nuptials.

Last night four guys -- groom-to-be Doug (Justin Bartha); his strange, almost otherworldly brother-in-law-to-be Alan (Zach Galifianikis); and his two best friends, married high school teacher Phil (Bradley Cooper) and unmarried but nonetheless henpecked dentist Stu (Ed Helms) -- gathered for a wild, drunken, heavily improvised night of Sin City revelry.

This morning three of them wake up -- barely, reluctantly, and shakily -- to find that they are too hung over to remember anything at all about the night before.

So they're especially confused when they discover that their hotel suite has been trashed and a few things that weren't there last night, as far as they know, are now prominently on the scene, including a chicken, a tiger, a wedding ring on Stu's finger, and, most head-scratchingly of all, a baby (thus the referencing of Three Men and a Baby).

In addition, some things are missing that were there yesterday. Their Mercedes, a cherished possession of Doug's trusting father-in-law-to-be, for one; one of Stu's front teeth, for another; and, most important, Doug himself, who's scheduled to be married in a few hours.

So the threesome sets out to find a way, sans any memories to go on, to retrace their steps, solve last night's various mysteries, find Doug, and somehow get to the church on time.

And they've got a number of surprises in store, all of them outrageous and none terribly pleasant.

Director Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip, Starsky & Hutch, School for Scoundrels), never one to feature discipline or quality control, sets his sights once again on the mythical frat-boy mentality that cherishes outrageousness over all else.

The repetitious screenplay by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (who also wrote Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Four Christmases), never two to feature discipline or quality control, consistently takes the low road, refusing to reach for any gag of subtlety or resonance when there's an easier automatic gutbuster available.

And they paint themselves into such a corner in the third act that the narrative is reconciled neatly but more or less arbitrarily with the slideshow during the closing credits -- which fills in all the remaining blanks -- making us wonder whether the unshown might not have been an improvement over the shown.

True, there are a few bursts of hysteria -- self-consciously manufactured moments intended for the come-hither trailer -- but in the film itself they're suffocated by the dead spots that precede and follow them and which keep accumulating on the way, and all the way to the finish line.

Not helping the film's case any is the fact that it plays like an infomercial for Las Vegas casinos. That may be canny product placement, but it doesn't make for satisfying movie watching.

So we'll celebrate 2 stars out of 4 for the lost-memory lark The Hangover. Devotees of Old School and Road Trip, step right up. Everyone else, just say no.

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KYW Movie Podcasts: heard these yet?

Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 11/06/09
This week KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine look at the comedy-war film, "The Men Who Stare at Goats," the animated re-make, "A Christmas Carol," and the horror-mystery-thriller "The Fourth Kind." (18:45)

Movie Reviews - Week of 11/2/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "The Men Who Stare at Goats", "A Christmas Carol" and "The Fourth Kind". (3:01)

Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 10/30/09
KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine take a look at the Chris Rock documentary, "Good Hair," Michael Jackson's "This is It," and the action-crime-drama "The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day." (17:43)

Movie Reviews - Week of 10/26/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "Good Hair", "This Is It" and "Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day". (3:00)

Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 10/23/09
KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine take a look at the animated adventure "Astro Boy," the bio-drama"Amelia," and the action-adventure-comedy "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant." (17:20)

Movie Reviews - Week of 10/19/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "Astro Boy", "Amelia" and "Cirque du Freak - The Vampires Assistant". (3:00)

Movie Reviews - Week of 10/12/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies 'New York, I Love You', 'Law Abiding Citizen' and 'Where the Wild Things Are'. (3:00)

Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 10/09/09
KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine take a look at Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story," the comedy "Couple's Retreat," and the drama, "The Boys Are Back." (19:23)