"The Hangover" is time well spent

July 8, 12:03 AMHonolulu Movie ExaminerKamuela Kaneshiro

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The Hangover movie poster

Rating 4 out of 5.

There have been a slew of films that try to show the good and the bad of Vegas.  These films have usually ended up showing just one of these sides successfully.  The Hangover is possibly one of the only films that I have seen that show the good and the bad perfectly. 

Directed by Todd Phillips who also made Old School and Starsky & Hutch.  The Hangover centers around a group of guys who decide to celebrate a bachelor party in the "City of Sin".  The group wake up in their trashed hotel room, facing danger, memory-loss of the night before and a baby, the guys need to quickly remember what happened to stay alive.  

While I was not really that impressed with the previous offerings of Todd Phillips, The Hangover was a pleasant surprise.  As mentioned above, this film perfectly represents Vegas.  While there are a few stupid moments, the film is very funny and be sure to look for a few film parodies.

The cast did a great job, fans of Heather Graham especially need to see this film.  The person I felt stole the show was Zach Galifianakis, while many may argue that he has played the same role in previous films.  I cannot help but agree with these masses, but the difference with these past films and Zach's role in The Hangover is that Zach's character "Alan" seemed more enduring to the audience. 

While the summer is just about over, I am willing to say that The Hangover just might be the comedy of the summer.  Word has it that a sequel is already in the works, which might be a bad thing since I'm not sure how they could make it work.