Summer Movie Catch-Up: Josh Reviews The Hangover

Try as I might, I must admit that my expectations do sometimes color my opinions about a movie that I see.  Occasionally I go into a film with very low expectations — and even if the movie is mediocre, I come out pleased because it was better than I expected.  Conversely, if I go into a film with very high expectations, if it falls below those expectations I can come out disappointed, even if in hindsight I can recognize that the film really isn’t that bad.

Well, after weeks of people telling me that The Hangover was a comedic triumph, maybe my expectations just got raised a bit to high because, when I finally saw it a few weeks ago, I didn’t really think it was all that.

Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) head to Vegas with with their good buddy Doug (Justin Bartha) to celebrate Doug’s impending marriage.  Cut to the next morning, when the guys wake up in a trashed hotel room with no memory of what transpired the night before, and discover that Doug is missing. The film follows their increasingly frantic efforts to reconstruct the events of that hedonistic night and locate their buddy in time for the wedding.

I really shouldn’t be too much of a grouch — much of The Hangover is very, very funny.  But I guess that after the past several years of so many brilliant Apatow-style comedies, in which no matter how lunatic the situations (such as a 40 year-old virgin getting his chest waxed), everything is still grounded in relatably human characters and situations, I have sort of tired of movies based on outlandish wacky comedy premises.

The film’s greatest strength is the terrific chemistry between Cooper, Helms, and Galifianakis.  Each is a great actor and comedian in his own right, and together they have a deliriously nutty energy.  There are far worse ways to spend two hours than watching these three lovable numbskulls bounce off of one another.

Still, while The Hangover was a fun two hours in a movie theatre, I can’t imagine that this will be a film I wind up revisiting too often in the future.  (Whereas I am already eager to see the much-less-well-thought-of Funny People again on DVD.)