The Hangover (2009) | dir. Todd Phillips | 90 min | USA
Guest contribution by Krishtine de Leon (GuerillaBusfare.com)

I consider myself a guy’s girl – one that can take penis jokes in jest and “Pause” with the best of them, but quite frankly the Apatow franchise was wearing thin on my patience. Since the success of “Knocked Up”, the formula was hashed and rehashed, ensemble cast shuffled and reshuffled, to the point where it seemed like one long Bromantic SNL skit. Entertaining? Yes. Predictable? Totally. So when I heard that Todd Phillips, the director of “Old School” came up with another Dick Flick entitled “The Hangover”, I dismissed it rather quickly as a DVD rental; one that you played as ambiance at house parties and fast-forwarded to the funny parts after you partook in the smokeage. But when the buzz and spoilers came pouring in via Twitter, I couldn’t ignore it. I had to see what the fuss was about.

The first great thing about the movie was its obscure casting choices. All four lead male roles were played by actors you couldn’t pick out of a line-up. So while a Will Ferrell or Ben Stiller might solicit a laugh or two out of loyalty, this group of actors had to earn their chops from the get with a clean slate to their advantage. The premise of the movie was simple: four homies do it up in Vegas for a bachelor party, end up on the floor of a lavish villa with a killer hangover and no recollection of the night before, only to find out that the groom-to-be is missing from their entourage. They have to figure out what the hell they did in order to find their buddy, Doug (Justin Bartha), in time for his wedding the following day. The most engaging part of the story plot was its reverse chronology sequence, the mystery unfolding as the movie went on. So because you wanted to know how the hell they got a tiger in their bathroom, why Stu is missing a tooth, and what the fuck they were doing with a stolen police vehicle, it kept the momentum going and unreliant on slapstick transitions most comedies use to marry the scenes together.

The single comedic continuity was in the form of Doug’s soon to be brother-in-law, Alan (Zach Galifianakis), an overweight, odd fellow with a juvenile precociousness and air of unstability. Although he was the break out goof in the film, Philip (Bradley Cooper), held it down as the handsome, cynical fuck that would soon be outdone by their geeky friend Stu (Ed Helms), who, seeking escape from his oppressive girlfriend, wound up married to a hooker named Jade (Heather Graham). As diverse a bunch as this gang was, the camaraderie seemed genuine with Doug as the nucleus, which added to the sense of urgency and true concern on his behalf.

The hilarity that ensued had less to do with vulgarity, as I originally expected from a film like this. It was a combination of great timing, awkward randomness, and all-around believable acting. (Furthermore I was blazed and the weed never lies!) Two things, however, deducted from its overall rating: Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) and his horrendous “Asian” accent, and the most recognizable name on the cast, Heather Graham, and her penchant for always playing the hooker with a heart of gold. But otherwise, moments such as Mike Tyson singing “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins and the creative cinematography depicting the mental state of drunken stupor, and its after effects, proved to be a common denominator of entertainment and shared sympathy for the poor suckers. In they end, when they find their BFF in one piece and discover a digital camera holding all the secrets of the night before, you find yourself slightly jealous of their bonding adventure, even if they themselves, couldn’t remember one thing.

*Disclaimer: If you have to use the bathroom, do it early! You don’t want to miss anything in the end, unless you plan on seeing it twice. And yes, it’s funny enough to watch twice!

Krishtine de Leon (aka Krish) is a Pinay journalist from San Francisco, current the Music Editor for M.I.S.S., and has been published in Rolling Stone, The Source, Mass Appeal, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Vapors, Ruckus Magazine in addition to online features for The Smoking Section and maintaining her own blog, Guerilla Busfare. She is now living in Los Angeles with her fiancé and son and makes music under the alias, Rocky Rivera.