The Hangover

                     (Red Band Trailer)

If you see one movie all summer, make it this one. In that statement, I am referring to all the movies I have seen so far (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, State of Play, Star Trek, The Girlfriend Experience), and all the movies that have come out or will be coming out that I haven’t seen yet* (Up, Moon, Year One, Fireflies in the Garden, among many others). This is it. This is the movie that will be the best one out of all of them.

See this movie.

I can’t stress that enough. Make sure this is the next movie you see. This is, categorically, one of the funniest movies of the 21st century. You can tell how I feel about the movie by now, I’m sure, so I’ll stop raving (by the way, see this movie). This is the immature, men-acting-as-boys, pure-id-unleashed extravaganza that Hollywood has been trying to get this movie right for years. It gave it a good shot with Old School, got even closer with Wedding Crashers, and f*cking nailed it with The Hangover. (Maybe because they got rid of Vince Vaughn? Could be. Worth some thought.)

Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms, normally relegated to supporting roles, all have equal chance to shine marvelously in this masterpiece of an ensemble comedy. A lot of people are giving the credit to Galifianakis, and while there may be some truth in that, this movie works due to the three of them playing beautifully off of each other. They fit their characters incredibly well- Galifianakis as the inept man-boy, Helms as the neurotic, pushover dork, and Cooper as the epitome of cocky, frat-boy swagger. To be honest, I never saw Cooper as a comedic actor before, and really thought of him as more of a poor man’s Matt McConaughey, but now I’m seeing McConaughey as a poor man’s Cooper.

The reason this movie worked so well, while other movies that tried so hard didn’t, comes right from the actors and the characters they portrayed. Specifically, from what they didn’t do. Old School, Wedding Crashers, and movies like them have traditionally gone for one-liner-driven comedies filled with zany, wild characters (Frank the Tank, Chazz Reinhold). Where The Hangover differs is in its characters- they’re actually pretty normal. We all know someone like Phil or Stu, and we’ve all at least met one or two people like Alan (and if you haven’t, then sorry to tell you, but you’re Alan). These are characters that aren’t over the top caricatures, they’re real people going through absolutely insane situations. The audience sees that, relates to it, and it just makes it goddamn flippin’ hilarious. That’s the fine balance of comedy- either have real characters in ridiculous scenarios (The Hangover), or ridiculous characters in real scenarios (Arrested Development). Also, dick jokes.

I guarantee you will laugh your ass off at parts of, if not all of, this movie. Yes, there are fart jokes and masturbation jokes and dudity and drugs and alcohol (see: the title) and boobies and hookers and a tiger. It’s the gross-out, male bonding, ultimate id unleashed, blah blah blah movie of the summer. But it’s that movie done really, really, really well.

*Ok, except for Whatever Works. I’m not sure if I’m including that movie yet.