It’s amazing that no one ever attempted to make a movie like this. But maybe that’s the twisted comedic genius of Todd Phillips, the frat boy hero (he directed Old School). Merging two growing up rites of passage – the drinking blackout and the bachelor party – Phillips also merges an R rated comedy with a mystery caper, with brilliant twisted results that culminate in one of the best movies of the decade.
Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifanakis) wake up in their suite in Vegas after an insane night that none of them remember. The worst news? The bachelor Doug (Justin Bartha) is nowhere to be found. His 3 groomsmen now have 24 hours to find Doug to get him to his wedding. It’s not like they’re shooting in the dark though: clues are scattered about, including a newborn baby, live animals, and a police car among other things, that hopefully can lead the boys to their best friend before time runs out.
Comedies of the 2000s usually have no problems bringing the funny, but they lose people because there’s usually barely any semblance of a plot, using that time to tell jokes instead. Such is the marvel that is Phillips’s The Hangover, legitimately writing a great mystery, servicing the movie’s funny bone and making The Hangover legitimately exciting. Half of the fun of this movie is figuring out where each clue is leading to. This lets Phillips’s imagination run wild with crazy set pieces and effective use of its Vegas setting, including wedding chapel shootouts, naked gang members, and Rain Man homages. It also gives Phillips the element of surprise unveiling a series of wonderful cameos, especially a legendary one with Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight” playing in the background. The ticking clock was also smart, giving the audience a built in time frame to know when Doug has to be (hopefully) found by, pushing the movie’s manic energy higher and higher, then releasing it with a great movie credits sequence.
Helping Phillips along for the ride are Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifanakis, all of whom became household names after this movie. Cooper’s the everybro best friend, unapologetic and perpetually chill, despite all the crazy goings on around him. Helms provides all the movie’s nervous energy as the uptight Stu, who’s drunken persona is the exact opposite of his sober one. Phillips writes and Helms performs him just scathing enough so he doesn’t become too naggy, plus Helms gets to show off his musical chops, one of the Hangover’s highlights. But if anyone will be remembered first it’s Galifanakis. The great comedian crafts one of the weirdest funniest characters in recent memory, an isolated earnest man child with few friends, only invited to this bachelor party because Doug is his soon to be brother in law. Each new thing we learn about Alan plunges us deeper into his psychosis, as Galifanakis walks this brilliant line making him funny, stupid, unhinged, and salient, totally situationally dependent.
When DVDs were a thing, The Hangover was one of those ones boys would bring to college with them. Why? Because it shows you have a sense of humor. It shows you’re willing to get a little weird, and it shows that you like to imbibe a cocktail or 20 to your bros. God help any poor live animal enclaves anywhere near a fraternity after The Hangover came out. Recipe for disaster.