Complacency is a struggle to battle against, especially in cinema. The idea is if lightening strikes once, hopefully you can get people to see it strike again. Such was the case for the second Hangover film. However, for The Hangover Part 3, they try and move the lightening elsewhere although it looks exactly the same…
Not too dissimilar from the first two, Alan (Zach Galifianakis, The Campaign) has been off his meds so the rest of the ‘Wolfpack’ – Phil (Bradley Cooper, The Place Beyond The Pines), Stu (Ed Helms, U.S. version of The Office) and Doug (Justin Bartha, The New Normal) – decide to take him to a rehabilitation clinic. Along the way though, the crew get hijack and Doug is kidnapped by a gangster called Marshall (John Goodman, Argo). He’s after former Wolfpack associate, supposed international criminal Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong, Transformers:Dark Of The Moon), after a gold theft leaves him empty in the backpocket. The deal – get Chow for Marshall, the boys get Doug back safe and sound. Hilarity is meant to ensue…
Being the third instalment of a horribly rushed 5 year trilogy, it’s obvious to see Helms and Cooper not really giving a toss into proceedings as the two straight men to the ridiculous situation. The point of Stu as a character is he’s the usual “oh guys, I don’t think we should do this” person which something permanent happens to for humour, i.e. tattoo to the face in the last one. Nothing of the sort happens here so he’s an empty shell and whines his way through the film making him painfully grating. Phil should easily be carried off by the charismatic Cooper but not at all. He’s alright as the leader of the bunch but there’s a telling sign of CBA to his entire performance.
At least Galifianakis does his usual schtick as Alan which isn’t bad. In fact, this is Alan’s film with him finally learning to be a man and standing up for himself etc so he gets some interesting material to work with, no matter how out of place it is. Depending on your mileage on the character, Jeong’s third go as Chow comes across as awfully dark and there isn’t really much natural humour anymore. In fact, he’s just a horrible bastard for the most part.
I can’t buy into Goodman as a bad guy. Ignoring that he has Good in his name, he doesn’t have the real ability to play to a villain’s strengths. Here, he somehow makes a gangster sympathetic after shooting one of his head honchos in cold blood. Quite a skill that actually. Mike Epps (Faster), Jeffry Tambor (Arrested Development) and Heather Graham (At Any Price) turn up from the first film to add some form of continuity and supposed fan service but their roles are instantly forgettable, just like Bartha’s Doug character.
The first aspect you’ll pick up on is just how much darker the third Hangover in comparison to the other two. Of course there’s still funny lines or moments but it doesn’t do much to lift the mood of the film. With threats of kidnapping and murder, not to mention scenes where people get murdered in front of our hapless heroes, you’d be forgiven if you were watching a thriller or an alternative crime drama. At times, I was thinking whether the meetings of The Hangover Part 3 and Iron Man 3 were accidentally crossed over since both films would have benefitted from swapping tones massively.
The worst thing about doing this is that there’s no real sense of fun. Whilst the first two were enjoyable alcoholic treasure hunts to find friends who weren’t in any sense of danger for most of the film, the dark cloud of “we don’t do this, Doug gets killed!” deflates any enjoyment you could have. Sure it’s a “comedy” film and the good guys don’t die but the stakes are presented to us as being so high that it could happen and it shouldn’t find any joy in proceedings.
And you know what, it’s also dreadfully boring right in the middle. Chow directs our hapless friends to a villa so he can find the gold he stole and after an extended sequence with a particularly crap revelation and turn, he will notice it took a whole 20 minutes to get through. 20 bloody minutes for something you can see coming a mile off. Considering this is a COMEDY film, I find it a bit of an achievement to get something like this onto the big screen.
Like I said, there are funny and memorable parts to Hangover 3. The opening sequence with Alan’s intervention and the events leading up to it are enjoyable and I did find myself enjoying the ridiculous romance between him and the pawn shop owner. The post-credits sequence, although familiar, raised the most laughs too. But it’s all for naught since the funny is sadly few and far between.
The massive problem in the third Hangover is they keep going over the same old ground over and over again. Okay it bucks the trend somewhat with them not going on another “crazeeeee!” night out and finding out what they did the day after but they even resort to going back to the first movie’s stomping ground just because. Look, they go to Tijuana and don’t do anything there. If that isn’t a sign of an unimaginative crew and staff headed up by stale director Todd Phillips, I don’t know what is.
The Hangover Part 3 is a step above the poor remake we had in the second. The problem is it’s so bloody dark you feel guilty for laughing at times, when you get the opportunity to. With bred complacency and a complete lack of sense of fun, the later Hangovers will barely be remembered as poor shadows of the original. Stale, overused and a little bit glad to see the back of the Wolfpack.
Terry Lewis – @thatterrylewis.
