It seems like only yesterday…
In the spring of 2009 director Todd Phillips unleashed extended scenes of his upcoming summer comedy to an unsuspecting ShoWest (movie) convention audience. The film was called THE HANGOVER dealing with a wild bachelor party in Las Vegas that went terribly wrong. The footage became the buzz of the convention and probably the most anticipated comedy of the entire summer.
Its eventual opening didn’t disappoint.
THE HANGOVER with a total North American box office gross of $ 277.3 million would become the biggest R-rated domestic comedy of all time. Yes, it even outgrossed TED‘s $218.5 million in ticket sales.
Two years later Phillips followed up his blockbuster with the uh, cleverly titled THE HANGOVER PART 2.
Yet while the sequel was a commercial success, many moviegoers felt betrayed. Why?
Because it was basically a recycled storyline of the original—except Phil, Stu, Alan and Leslie Chow substituted Bangkok for Las Vegas.
Which brings us to THE HANGOVER PART 3, promised by Warner Brothers AND Mr. Phillips to be the last in the franchise.
But as we all know, in Hollywood you never say never…and mean it.
What to expect?
Definitely a darker movie with a death, a killing and a giraffe’s decapitation all in the opening minutes. That’s followed by a family instigated intervention of Alan’s goofy character that also involves the Wolfpack to get it done.
And then there’s this mobster (John Goodman) who claims Mr. Chow stole his gold bars and sends his goons after Phil and Stu to track him down.
I could go on…but I won’t.
Suffice it to say, this final outing turns into a nightmare stretching from L.A. to Tijuana and finally back to where it all began, Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
The best scene in the movie takes place at a Vegas pawn shop where Alan falls for shop owner—Melissa McCarthy— and the feeling is returned.
As for the debauchery in THIS Hangover? Not so much.
But for the funniest bit you’ve got to stick around about half way into the end credits which suddenly stop and turn into another major scene. I won’t give it away here but will tell you that it involves Alan, (cameo star) Melissa McCarthy, Stu and Mr. Chow.
Sadly half of our screening audience had already left the auditorium by the time this late scene popped up. The rest froze dead in their tracks on their way out and cheered the scene.
Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha and Jeffrey Tamber are all back to conclude the trilogy.
THE HANGOVER PART 3 raising 3 out of 5 bedeviled fingers.
(Reviewed at AMC 24, Olathe.)
JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Friday mornings at 6:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on NewsRadio KMBZ Fm & Am / Also anytime on Time-Warner Cable’s K.C. ON DEMAND, Channel 411 / And throughout Nebraska on NEBRASKA ON DEMAND.
Wow! Thanks Jack. I had an erection going on 3hrs 58min and then I read Melissa McCarty’s name. You are a lifesaver. The needle in the pee-pee is no fun.
I have a cardinal rule about movies, Jack-never go see anything with a “III” attached to it.
How do you feel about a # 6?
Afterall this will be the holiday weekend of # III vs. # VI.
(Let’s hear it for originality)
Jack, best review I’ve read so far;
“I beg of you, don’t ask me to choose between Hangover II and III,” writes Kyle Smith at the New York Post. “That would be like asking a mother to choose between her children, assuming she hated her children, never wanted to see them again and wished they’d never been born in the first place.”
…sounds like the “Mommie Dearest” approach. Meanwhile Todd Phillips and company are laughing all the way to the bank.
Agreed.
PASS with extreme prejudice, possible TNT watch if I am suffering from insomnia or projectile diarreha and vomiting and cannot sleep.
When examined back to back, it is clear that “Dude Where’s my Car” is actually funnier than “The Hangover”.
Takes itself less seriously, is more absurdist, and was the original ‘I can’t remember last night’ movie.