“The Hangover”

Rated R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material.

 

“The Hangover” is raunchy with a capital “R.” And “R” just happens to be the MPAA rating. Of course, a bachelors’ party is supposed to be an “adult” activity, especially if it takes place in Las Vegas. So what would you expect from a movie about such an event? Las Vegas is not a typical retreat location for Baptist Sunday School teachers. Well, none of the Baptist Sunday School teachers that I know, at least.

The set up: four guys (one groom and three groomsmen) decide to go to Las Vegas for a classic hot time in Sin City. Doug Billings (Justin Bartha) is going to get married. He seems to be a regular guy — except he is marrying a drop-dead gorgeous woman (Sasha Barrese) with a very wealthy father (played by veteran comedian Jeffrey Tambor); that part tips the scale toward Hollywoodland, but let’s not dillydally on that triviality. Doug has two best friends: a private school teacher and weekend wildman, Phil Wennick (Bradley Cooper) and the goofy, dorky dentist Stu Price (Ed Helms). The three are pretty much obliged to take along the future bride’s moronic brother, Alan Garner (a zany Zach Galifianakis), who could be the poster child for “Arrested Development Obvious,” if there were such an organization.

The four are lent (by the groom’s future father-in-law) a vintage (1969) Mercedes-Benz convertible (something like a S600) in pristine condition. You got to know the second you see that beautiful car that the weekend is headed for disaster.

Take four guys in their early to mid-30s, add alcohol, and shake with the Vegas stick and you get … some very poor decisions. As soon as they arrive, they decide to upgrade to a $4,800 a night suite. They sneak to the roof to have their first toast and the next thing they know, they wake up the next morning in the trashed suite with no memory of the night before. The dentist has lost a tooth, the dim-witted one is without his pants and there is a tiger and several chickens amidst the ruins. And they lost the future groom too. They soon discover they stole — I mean borrowed — a police car and they have no idea what happened to the Mercedes. This film has a boatload of crazy bits and characters in it including a diminutive, naked, effeminate Asian gangster, several strippers who have “side jobs,” two chuckle-headed, but malevolent cops, Mike Tyson, car crashes, vomit and urination scenes, and other visuals ill-suited for the publications for which I toil.

This film has plenty of offensive gags (pun intended). Gasps from the audience are common … and I am sure that would even be true if it were shown to inebriated frat boys. I swear.

This film is not so funny that one has to check into a hospital for stomach-muscle fatigue, but it is wickedly amusing. I thought the first half was funnier than the second. The jokes got a little overextended … and the ending is predictable — but it is what it is: a naughty, madcap comedy not meant to be an indictment against middle class social hypocrisy. After all, it isn’t a French farce, it is a bawdy American comedy.

And if you are not grossed out (in a funny, adult way) by the movie, stay for the credits. At the very end, the “fellas” find their digital camera. They decide to look at the snapshots before they delete them from the hard drive. We get to see them, too. Beware: some of the pictures could turn you into stone. The audience I was with groaned. And I saw it in a college town.

Let that be a warning to you.

“The Hangover” earns three and a half bow ties out of five.