'Hangover' comically blunt but hilarious
Before we get to "The Hangover," we should ask the first and most important question of comedy: Did you laugh?
Yes, I did.
And my derriere is still running around the River East 21 theaters in Chicago someplace after I laughed it off a few times.
Beware. This comedy gets away with murder.
The victims: good taste and all trust in the MPAA's Ratings Administration to properly apply the "R" rating.
Just when you think "The Hangover" can't get wilder or raunchier, along come the closing credits where we see a series of photos showing us what the three main characters actually did during a night of debauchery in Las Vegas. A night they can't remember.
Brace yourself for some shocks, because a couple of these photos push the R-rated envelope farther than any comedy has before, even farther out than the ear scene in the men's room during the Wayans brothers' "Scary Movie."
"The Hangover" isn't a well-crafted study in grossness like "Something About Mary" or a sassy-but-sweet confection like a Judd Apatow comedy.
No way.
"The Hangover" gives us main characters who are hateful, despicable, lying cheats. It traffics in the sort of crass, insensitive stereotypes (of gays, prostitutes, wives, fat people and professional boxers) that would normally incite protests and letter-writing campaigns.
But it's difficult to be angry when you're laughing, and "The Hangover" has an appealingly blunt, take-no-prisoners approach that goes for the throat via the funny bone.
It begins with a bloodied man named Phil (the omnipresent Bradley Cooper) calling a bride-to-be (Nathalie Fay) with news that her wedding probably isn't going to happen.
Flashback two days earlier.
Phil, an obnoxious, self-centered high school teacher, hooks up with his pal Stu the dentist ("The Office" regular Ed Helms) to take their bland friend Doug (Justin Bartha) on a Las Vegas bachelor party spree a couple of days before his wedding. Stu is a low-esteem doormat for his overbearing girlfriend (Rachel Harris). He tells her he's going on a wine trip to Napa Valley.
The trio hooks up with Doug's brother-in-law-to-be Alan (comedian Zach Galifianakis), who might be more than a complete dummy. He might a complete dummy pedophile.
After a night of revelry, Phil, Stu and Alan wake up in their posh Caesar's Palace penthouse with absolutely no memory of what happened the night before.
A chair has been set ablaze. The room is trashed. Worse, they find a baby in a chest. Worser, they find a tiger in the bathroom. Worstest, they can't find Doug anywhere.
The search for Doug becomes an irresistible hook for the rest of "The Hangover" as the three try to retrace their steps and locate Doug. Instead, they find a looker hooker with a heart of gold (Heather Graham), a screeching gay Asian gangster (played to the overacting hilt by Ken Jeong) and former boxing champ Mike Tyson, performing the desperate cliché of a pop-tune singalong.
"The Hangover" is directed by Todd Phillips, whose previous comedies ("Starsky & Hutch" and "Old School" among others) hold no hint that he could make something as risky, raw and ridiculous as this comic hammer to the forehead.
If only Phillips could set up a joke better, and all his characters could be played by the comically gifted Seth Rogen. Then, we'd have a real whopper of a "Hangover."
"The Hangover"
Rating: 3 stars
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Other: A Warner Bros. release. Rated R (drug use, language, nudity, sexual situations). 100 minutes.