Rating:

Every so often, a movie comes out that defies expectations and pleasantly baffles movie critics, social grandstanders, and anyone else who tries to pin labels on it or predict how people will react.

This summer, The Hangover appears to be our first little surprise of that nature.  Except it’s not a surprise – anyone who saw the trailer or the early marketing knew that The Hangover was going to be a pretty funny movie, and certainly one which set itself apart from the run of the mill summer comedy dreck.

Still, the usual complaints are lobbed at it:  too masculine, too sexist, too immature, too oddball, too unpredictable.  And while plenty of you are probably sitting there and thinking “what’s wrong with all of that?” the reality is, the movie dodges all of them and manages to be smart, funny, and even a little heartfelt in parts.

And that is why it “surprised” everyone (except me) by having a huge opening and ousting the latest overwrought Pixar juggernaut UP from the number one spot after just one week.  And don’t even get me started on why it destroyed the latest awful-looking, 100% blue screen 3D-flop Land of the Lost.  (No really, you don’t want me to start.)

The premise is amazing.  It’s about four best friends out to have an amazing bachelor party in Las Vegas ahead of one of their weddings – except that’s not what it’s about.  At all.  The movie is actually about the day after, when they wake up to realize that they have been drugged and have absolutely no memory of the night before.  Worse yet, one of them – the one about to be married – is missing.

So the movie turns into a hilarious take on a classical mystery tale, with the three remaining friends being forced to retrace their steps, look for clues, and interview people they came across the night before so they can figure out what the hell happened and where their friend went before its too late.

The movie was made by the same fellow who made Old School, and you can tell.  It’s about four thirty-somethings getting into the sort of trouble that they should have left behind a decade ago (or so society says).

But that same connection is part of the movie’s downfall, as many of its sequences – just like Old School – are dependent upon the quirky dialog and the way the characters interact.  But where that was great when two of the characters were played by oddball clowns Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn riffing off of Luke Wilson’s straight-man character, The Hangover’s cast is far more sober (PUN!) than Old School’s.

Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms are both normal guys, and their characters are both normal guys.  So the jokes from them are in pretty short supply.  Zach Galafianakis steals plenty of scenes with his awkward man-child character, but he doesn’t have many lines to work with.

So the funniest parts of the movie are the circumstances the men encounter and the unusual characters they meet along the way.  Unfortunately, I can’t tell you about any of them.  It’s a mystery, remember?

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