'The Hangover' nothing but a huge headache

June 5, 4:38 PMLA Movie ExaminerJim Luksic

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Hang time: The cast of The Hangover (AP)

You've got to hand it to The Hangover's main players: They do more within two days than most people accomplish during a lifetime.

In fact, Todd Phillips (who brought us Road Trip, Starsky & Hutch and Old School -- you get the idea) piles the outlandish antics so high, discerning viewers may wonder if he directed while blindfolded.

When four pals venture to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, realism goes off the rails. The checklist of lewd and crude behavior includes, but isn't remotely limited to: vomiting, two characters urinating in plain sight, dry-humping and no fewer than three men baring their backsides. (Rest assured, the nudity equation balances out when Heather Graham resorts to a breast-feeding moment.)

The movie also trots out livestock, a circus animal and an abandoned infant (is this Three Men & A Baby?) -- as if testing filmgoers to see how many endless escapades they'll tolerate. What's more, its pair of screenwriters don't refrain from bumper-sticker dialogue: Actors actually have to say "S-word happens" and, of course, "What happens in Vegas..."

To his credit, star Bradley Cooper (in another Wedding Crashers dilemma of sorts), remains focused throughout the perpetual mayhem. His character proves less sincere: Although a schoolteacher, he thinks nothing of dropping the F-bomb while standing before kids on a field trip at a police station.

But then, nothing on screen herein amounts to more than phony baloney.

Early in the game, for instance, there's obvious foreshadowing in the form of a mattress on a rooftop -- only this story's three stooges can't put 2 and 2 together until the waning minutes. Similarly, audiences won't have a clue how these clowns purportedly slipped ex-boxer Mike Tyson's pet tiger past hotel security.

The Hangover's only honest achievement is blatantly boosting our suspension-of-disbelief to dizzying heights. The fact that more than one participant utters "I can't believe this" (as if speaking for us) is no remedy.