A film about four men on a bachelor’s weekend off to Vegas spells a whole lot of trouble. Read on as we dish the dirt on these men and the film.
By Penny K
Trying desperately to find Doug.
The Hangover is a film that takes its viewers on the road trip of four men, Doug (Justin Bartha), Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), as they embark on a weekender to Las Vegas. The occasion? Doug is about to be married. It’s the classic savour the last of your freedom way of celebrating a bittersweet end to one’s bachelorhood.
Each man stands for the various male archetypes. There’s Doug the almost married Mr. Nice Guy fiancé whom, I suspect, would do anything for his rich girl fiancée- princess. There’s Phil, who’s Doug’s best friend, a high school teacher bored out of his mind with his job and marriage. Played by Cooper, Phil is the typical good-looking smooth operator who has to hold the fort together when shit hits the fan. Stu, a dorky and panicky dentist, has a live-in girlfriend who’s nothing short of a control freak and ensures that the poor guy lives up to her standard in every way – even if he has to lie about it. Finally, we have Alan the social retard. How funny his one-liners are is inversely proportionate to the amount of sense they make. Even the villainous Chinese gangster Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) is a shining image of the stereotypical Asian male – scrawny and effeminate.
The first toast of the night.
I walked into this movie expecting a typical bros before hos kind of storyline. Well I wasn’t wrong about that, but this one puts a spin on it. Instead of tracing the different shenanigans the men get into from the time they check into the hotel, the plot unfolds from the following morning hence, The Hangover. The story is told from the lack of memory and a suite full of junk, a very cute baby and a tiger in the bathroom. It leaves lots of room for bewilderment on the audience’s part and this is the key to the film’s success.
Filled with endless thigh-slapping funny moments, The Hangover thrives on the comic timing and idiosyncrasies of each of the four principal characters. Lots of cussing involved thanks to countless moments of being in deep shit and various other freak-outs. Also, quite a fair bit of partial nudity involving Black women, fellatio, and this one I know you like: Heather Graham. If you’re sensitive to swearing and men and women and their bits, please avoid, otherwise ditch your brains for a while and indulge in some hangover humour.
*All images are used for the purpose of publicity. Penny's Daybook does not own them.
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