THE HANGOVER PART III Review

THE HANGOVER PART III Review

By Darin Skaggs

     The movie sequel is one of the hardest aspects of film to try and pull off.  At first glance it seems lazy, they take the same characters and put them in a similar situation as the first movie with a similar conclusion.  This works only sometimes in the films like Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight and the first two Indiana Jones sequels.  Other times it falls apart like the Star Wars prequels, The Godfather Part III and the fourth Indiana Jones movie.  The Hangover, one of the better comedies to come out for a while, came out with it’s Part II back in 2011.  The film was panned, even by me, for being the same film with the same plot even down to the same realization at the end of the film.  The more I think about Part II the more I respect it. Now in 2013 Part III has come out it can be added to the good sequel list.

     In the first movie the characters go to Las Vegas and wake up forgetting everything that happened the previous night and try to figure it out.  In Part II they go to Bangkok, and then wake up not knowing anything from the night before, just like number one.  This time around Todd Philips, director of all three movies, skips over the reliving the same event over and over and he creates a new plot.  This time the characters Phil, played by Bradley Cooper, Stu, played by Ed Helms and Alan played by Zach Galkifinakis head off to a institution for Alan to go due to him being off his meds and him struggling with the passing of his father.  The very first seen however is Chow, played by Ken Jeong, who is the crazy criminal Asian man who is somewhat of a villain in the first two films who breaks out of the prison in Bangkok, where he was arrested in the second film.  While the guys are on their way to drop Alan off they are driven off the road and captured by Marshall, played by John Goodman.   He does this because Chow has stolen his gold and Alan has been writing him letters so he thinks that he would know where Chow was.  He takes Doug, who throughout all the movies has been called a good friend of all of them but always seems to get left out of the adventures. Marshall says he will kill him unless they bring Chow to him.  This is where the film takes off.

     The first two films are mostly played for comedy, and more shock comedy but this film while still having funny moments and the shock comedy is more of an adventure film.  The two others had adventure, but the first one was about 80% comedy and 20% adventure.  The third one is 20% comedy and 80% adventure.  When they get kidnapped it’s treated nearly like an action scene.  Some scenes are stylized to be tense and make you feel scared to what happens next including a break in to a highly secured home.  There is even an edge of you seat chase scene that makes you root for our heroes.  Now even though I said this film is only 20% comedy it does not mean the film is missing big laughs in it.  Again like the first two Galifanakis is king.  There are several great jokes from him like during a tense scene asking Phil where he got his shirt and sharing several scenes with the equally great Melissa McCarthy.  The other guys have good jokes as well, even Chow has some great lines, and even though I felt he was too over the top in the first two he has some solid gags including him preforming a monotone karaoke version of Johnny Cash’s “Hurt.” It’s a pretty funny film though every joke doesn’t land, but most of them do.

      The shock comedy in this film is dark, but not as dark as Part II.  That is one big problem I had with the second one.  I felt that it was trying too hard to gross us out and shock us that it misses a lot of the jokes and ends up being mostly offensive.  This film has some pretty shocking stuff like a giraffe is decapitated by a highway bridge and causes a pile up and later on some characters end up dead.  The film theme, which is in the other two but in this one focuses on it even more than the others, is friendship.  Alan who has always been a screw up is mostly together by the end and turns into a good friend.  Phil and Stu who sacrifice a lot for Alan feel less mad about it.  By the end of the film they are all grown up or at least as grown up as they will be.

     The ads having been saying this is the finale in this trilogy and with all the characters being better people and the last few scenes make it feel this way.  Also by making it sound like this it makes the stakes feel even higher.  Some of the characters mention death with worry and occasionally with glee.  Hopefully this is the last one because the film as a whole ties everything together with plenty of references to the other two.  It also makes Part II seem better.  Both endings to this film make it feel like Philips enjoyed making these films and loved these characters.  He is not a fan of humanity in general, but he loves these people.  This is why I left this film satisfied with the stories that were told and the characters I’ve gotten to know.

     The film is funny and works well with its suspenseful moments.  Hopefully it will be the last one and as time goes on could be considered one of the better trilogies.  It is a good time at the movies and I hope you check it out.