I am baffled by the near overwhelming love for The Hangover. I am convinced that I missed something, that the movie was more than broad easy jokes about drinking to much and getting drugged in Vegas. However the film is exactly what it was advertised as. I'm not trying to be bitter, I really wanted to like this movie, and fully expected to be surprised given the great responses and box office success, but there was nothing to surprise me. It was a Todd Phillips film, and not even his best.
A good comedy consists of at least one of two things, unique characters that in some way you can relate too or get behind, and a well structured unique story. The closest The Hangover comes to either of these things is with Zach Galifianakis pervy yet innocent character, Galifianakis gives us the few funny moments where a "shock" talented comedian delivers "Gasp" funny lines. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Bradley Cooper, he may be a talented actor, I don't know, I haven't seen evidence of it yet, but he is NOT a comedic actor and needs to stop being put in comedies. Unlike Galifianakis, he has no comedic timing and can't deliver a line without sounding like a total Asshole. I don't know him, but I want to punch him in the face, and definitely don't want to be stuck in Vegas with him for any amount of time. As far as Ed Helms performance, I enjoy him as a comedic actor, but he split the difference between Galifianakis and Cooper here.
The actors can only do so much, they also need a director who is not going to sell their skills down the river for the most obvious joke at any given moment. The big reason Philips comedy doesn't work for me is because he paints with such a broad brush, he shoots for the moon with every joke and because of this they lose there impact. A good comedy should trust the actors and the situation and let something funny organically come out of the circumstance, Phillips forces unrealistic situation after unrealistic situation onto his characters without giving them more than a "what the fuck is going on" reaction. A naked asian guy jumping out of your trunk should be funny, but he didn't work for the joke, it just happened and in the context of the movie was nothing more shocking than any number of things that had happened in the previous 5 minutes. So what is the point?! Your just throwing jokes away. Philips needs to take a page out of Greg Mottola's (Superbad, Adventureland) book, funny actors, playing interesting characters in good stories. You don't need to hit a baby in the face with a car door, or leave a baby in a car or marry a hooker or get tazzed by 4th graders or any number of other over the top desperate jokes to make a good comedy. But alas it doesn't matter, looks like there will be a Hangover 2. Although, the one place the movie does work for its jokes is in the credit sequence, but its hardly worth waiting through the rest of the film.
I also want to make a note that I am far from against crude comedy, I think Apatow and his gang do this really well, but the bottom line is it has to be funny, and the characters delivering the lines have to be genuine or likable.
*1/2
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