Over the past few years, Judd Apatow has unfairly forced me into sounding like something of a prude. But Todd Phillips’ “The Hangover,” an absolutely fantastic R-rated raunch-fest, has just arrived just in time with the promise of redemption.
Raunchy comedies aren’t anything new; it’s just that Apatow (and his too-many imitators) are all about the raunch. You can feel the story gears turn to get to the raunch – to get to the “big” set-piece — you can feel the strain to fashion an iconic moment. Content has little to do with whether or not something’s funny. It’s all in the set up, and with the Apatow crowd you can see the wizard pull the strings. There’s practically a sign that reads, “Cool People Laugh Here.”
No matter how dirty or over-the-top the gag, if it evolves from believable characters and situations true to the world created by the filmmaker, you’re going to laugh. No matter how many times Eugene Levy catches Jason Biggs humping that pie, it’s a thing of comedic beauty because the set-up and the character reactions show full fidelity to what we know and what came before.
For this reason, “The Hangover” is easily the best and funniest comedy to spring from this genre in years. The three main characters are well defined, the story structure is seamless and the belly laughs just keep coming. Most important, unlike an Apatow-type film, you’re laughing too hard and enjoying yourself too much to be taken out of the story with a wince and an “Oh, gross…”
A couple of days before the actual wedding, three groomsmen and the groom head out for a bachelor party Vegas-style. The next morning they wake up with no memory of what transpired the night before. The $4,000 a night suite is trashed, but… Where did the tiger come from? Is that a live chicken? Is that a baby? Where’s my tooth? Why am I wearing a hospital bracelet? And…
Where the hell’s the groom?
The story’s ingeniously structured in a way that allows us to discover what happened right along with the players. One hilarious surprise leads to another as the clock ticks and the hunt for the groom leads to increasingly bizarre situations that tell the sordid and outrageous tale of the night before. All of this leads to an end credit sequence that should put tears in your eyes.
The characters may be boilerplates, but they’re boilerplates for a reason and when crafted well, as these are, the familiar is more comforting than cliché. Bradley Cooper’s the cool one, Ed Helms plays the neurotic and Zack Galifianakis is the offbeat slob. Each has their moments to shine, but channeling John Belushi in ways I didn’t think possible, Galifianakis practically steals the show as a bighearted, not too terribly bright oddball who refuses to cuss but is more than willing to have some twisted fun with a baby. When Helms says to him, “You’re too stupid to insult,” He replies, “Thank you.”
That’s a clever piece of dialogue and the witty script, written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, is loaded with memorably funny lines perfectly played by the actors blessed with them. All the performances are good and nothing in the cinematography or score department took me out of the story, which means everyone did their job. There’s also no soundtrack of “familiar” oldies, which is a nice change of pace.
The only real test of a comedy is time. Will people still watch “The Hangover” decades from now – will pieces of the dialogue forever enter the pop culture — will it join the pantheon of “Caddyshack,” “Stripes,” and “Animal House?”
I’d bet money “The Hangover” passes that test. Within its genre, I’m labeling it a classic.
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