Pitchforks: 3/5
Rated: R
Released: May 23, 2013
Most of the time, sequels are stepchildren to the first film.
Seldom do they interject anything new, instead perverting the initial ideas, especially as new subsequent entries follow.
Thankfully, "The Hangover Part III" sidesteps the error of its predecessor by not blatantly copying the tropes of the original.
Instead of relying on the tested formula of “three friends wake up after a hard night of partying and drinking with no memory of the night before and missing a friend,” it changes its game up.
After an unfortunate incident involving a domesticated giraffe and an approaching low underpass causes their friend Alan (Zach Galifianakis) to be committed to a mental institution in Arizona, his friends (“The Wolfpack”), Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Stu (Ed Helms) and brother-in-law Doug (Justin Bartha), decide to drive him to his final destination.
Along the way, they’re intercepted by crime boss Marshall (John Goodman, on autopilot), who takes Doug captive in exchange for gold his heavies plundered — which itself was seized by Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong), a coked-up, sociopath acquaintance from the first two films.
Portrayed by Jeong and voiced with an Asian accent of indeterminable origin, a little of Chow goes a long way. Mercilessly, he flees to Las Vegas after double crossing the gang. This almost seems like a conciliatory gesture by screenwriters Todd Phillips and Craig Mazin, who perhaps realized a full 110 minutes of him would lead to mass revolt.
Some of the highlights include Alan listening to Billy Joel’s "My Life" while his father suffers a fatal heart attack, Chow smothering one of his many cockfighting roosters with a pillow (which he admits to feeding a steady diet of cocaine and chicken), and Alan reuniting with the baby from the first film, whose sunglasses-covered face became part of the zeitgeist.
The film even allows for a romantic encounter with pawnshop owner Melissa McCarthy, who discovers her soul mate after Alan seductively exchanges a lollipop.
If it sounds like the inmates run the asylum in this installment with the above paragraph, then that’s a correct deduction. Cooper and Helms aren’t given much to act out besides play the straight men to Galifianakis and Jeong, an unfortunate byproduct of the former’s newfound celebrity.
Once the Wolfpack reaches Las Vegas, the laughs become more rationed, a common ailment of many directors who want to squeeze action into their comedies.
Director Todd Phillips's filmography is a mixed bag of his usual array of lowbrow, vulgarity-laced humor that often pushes the envelope of what audiences will find funny.
"Due Date," possibly his best film, found a median by actively attempting not to be edgy instead focusing on the relationship of between the motivated Peter Highman (Robert Downey, Jr.) and spacey Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis).
He’s often a competent director when he favors character over laughs a minute.
For this reason, "The Hangover Part III" mostly works because of its palatable humor, with the exception to an obvious credit cookie — a prelude to the hopefully nonexistent sequel.
The scene simultaneously manages to integrate the titular hangover and cosmetically humiliate Ed Helms worse than the Mike Tyson facial tattoo from the second film, and it provides Ken Jeong with one last opportunity for full-frontal nudity.
Although the first two were unseen by me, the law of sequels dictates the initial film played with far more humility and its gags were not constructed by a lazy screenwriter seeking a cheap laugh.
The scene is the only moment of real shock value in an otherwise innocuous concluding chapter of this comedic trilogy, and to paraphrase Marshall, “Sometimes you need to trap madness in the trunk of a limo and shoot it.”
Even if said sequel teases the always welcome Melissa McCarthy.
Reach the reporter at tccoste1@asu.edu
