Disclaimer: Don't be offended by my opinions.Explanation: I haven't formed my opinion about this movie to a certainty, I am going to try to write my thoughts as they happen and am interested to see what comes out the other end.
I went and saw "The Hangover" yesterday and I am having trouble collecting my thoughts. I have to take time and sift through my numerous impressions so that I do not jump to any quick conclusions. Reminder, the buildup to this movie was incredible. It was hyped as the next great comedy in a growing line: "Dodgeball", "Anchorman", "Wedding Crashers", "Knocked up", Superbad, and "I Love You Man" are some of the movies that come to my mind immediately. The point being, this movie had big expectations, and that is important to how we view it coming into seeing it.
Things I liked or disliked about the movie:
The main characters (Like). Specifically Ed Helms and Zack Galifianakis. The four friends had great chemistry together. I thought that they carried the movie with great comedic acting and timing. It was the variety in relationships between them that did it for me. You had the 3 buddies in Phil, Stu and Doug. One thing that bothered me was the close similarity between these characters and the 3 main characters from "Old School", which I later found out was directed by the same guy. And then there was Alan, Doug's future brother-in-law who slowly assimilated into the group. The methods Alan employed to gain both Phil's and Stu's respect were hilarious, including attempting to give them ecstasy and singing a song about their "never ending friendship".
The Writing (Like). The main goal of the writers, based on the advertised pretense of the story, was to take the audience on a mysterious thrill ride through a crazy bachelor party by exploring the aftermath. I think the writers chose excellent "indicators" of a wild bachelor party in Vegas. By this I mean the Tiger in the bathroom, the baby in the closet , the valet ticket that brought a police car around instead of the expected Mercedes and, my favorite, Stu missing a tooth. All of there are, to my knowledge, very origional outcomes from a crazy party.
Female Characters and Conflict (Dislike). One thing that I missed from this movie was any likeable female character. None of the women in this movie contributed anything really. A great part of any guy movie (this is a guy movie obviously) is the comical situations the hero gets into while trying to woo a hard to get girl or win back an angry girlfriend. Doug's future wife had no problem with him being late to the wedding after a crazy night in Vegas and was won over without a fight. The stripper, a character that could have been used to really twist things up for Stu, ended up just handing him the priceless ring that he gave her at a drunken wedding, and agreeing to a date the next weekend. It seemed like everytime these guys got into a sticky situation, they got out with no problem at all and that didn't sit well with me.
Supporting Characters (Dislike). The supporting characters in this movie killed it for me, literally. There was a point where I couldn't decide between the awesome main characters and the lackluster conlict, and these characters swung the door shut on me liking this movie. And there was such great potential. The scenes with the police officer, the asian highroller and the stripper were very silly. The supporting characters didn't add any comedy and, more specifically, the scenes with the asian highroller were just uncomfortable. I blame the problem on the casting of recently popular actors. Ken Jeong is riding a wave of simi-popularity since "Role Models" and "Knocked Up" and Rob Riggle is well known from the "Daily Show". Both of these guys were not suited for their roles and I think this movie could have been much, much better with some qualified character actors filling these roles.
I guess I was disappointed with "The Hangover". It will however, be the source of many funny quotes. Thanks to everyone who stuck through my first critical look at a movie. I'm sure it was disjointed and muddled at times, but I have to start somewhere. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes "The Office" or Zack G's standup. I would say I was entertained by the movie for sure, but I wouldn't rank it above any of the Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrel or Seth Rogan movies of the past 5-6 years. I would also like to say that I am very excited about the beginning of Ed Helm's film career, I think this one was a great start for him, better than any of the other office characters got: Dwight: "The Rocker" ; Jim: "Leatherheads" ; Pam "Blades of Glory"
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