new release – ¦ ¦- THE HANGOVER – ¦ ¦- 7/10
Quick verdict, written the same night
Surprise box-office smash* about a Las Vegas stag-weekend niftily triangulates Swingers and Dude, Where's My Car? to consistently amusing – if never quite hilarious – effect (and those predecessors remain cuts above.) Full marks for eschewing the expected – and, one would think, given the premise, inevitable – flashback-based structure, however.
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BBFC synopsis
THE HANGOVER is acomedy about a group of friends who lose the groom during a stag night trip to Las Vegas. The film was classified '15' for strong language and sex references. The film contains multiple uses of strong language throughout, all of which are acceptable at '15' where the BBFC Guidelines state that 'there may be frequent use'.
At '15' 'there may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour' and the film contains many jokes about various characters having sex with others including references to a woman being 'grossed out by semen' and sight of a used condom being thrown around a car. There are also some visual images of bare breasted women dancing at a lap dancing club and a scene of full frontal male nudity in a non-sexual context when a man leaps out of a car boot with no clothes on.
The film also contains some comic scenes of violence, including men being hit with a metal pole and tasered by the police, as well as some verbal drug references alluding to the men taking rohypnol and and still photographs of one man snorting some cocaine.
This work was passed with no cuts made.
During post-production, the distributor sought and was given advice on how to secure the desired classification. Following this advice, certain changes were made prior to submission.
This film was originally shown to the BBFC in an unfinished version. The BBFC advised the company that the film was likely to receive an '18' classification but that the requested '15' certificate could be achieved by making one change to visuals in the closing credits. The BBFC suggested that brief shots in which a man is being fellated by a woman, with clear sight of an apparent erect penis in the woman's mouth, be removed. When the finished version of the film was submitted, the shots had been removed and the film was classified '15.'
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Written the next day
Now, what do I remember about The Hangover? Ken Jeong's "toodeloo" farewell, obviously. In fact, most of his lines – I especially liked the way he made so much out of just saying his character's name ("Mr Chow. Leslie Chow.") The edgily classy cinematography, especially noticeable in the prologue when the guys arrive in and get their bearings around Vegas.
Zach Galfiniakis – no, that's not how you spell his name. Galfikianis? Galifikianis? Anyway, Zach G – steals pretty much every scene he's in, though his character is far from the party-hearty doofus I'd expected from the poster {btw, that kid Ben/Carlos is one mighty expressive infant.}
And I strongly remember the biggest screen at Boldon Cineworld being surprisingly close to full – on a Monday night in July! Quite a tough-to-please, youth-skewing crowd, but they seemed to like it well enough – even if there weren't the gales of laughter I'd been led to expect.
Why is it such a word-of-mouth hit (and given the resilience of its box-office performance on both sides of the Atlantic – and beyond – that is most certainly what it is.) Beats me. Apart from the fact that this is a comedy of significantly above-average laugh-count, that's cleverer than it first appears, has some offbeat/unexpected touches along the way. Also an above average example of the what-happens-in-Vegas subgenre – especially Very Bad Things, which it most closely resembles.
But Todd Phillips' features often fall short of full potential (Road Trip; Old School) and there are some frustrating flaws this time: Jeffrey Tambor decidedly wasted as the errant groom-to-be's dad; Rachael Harris stuck with a disappointingly one-dimensional "shrew" role as the ball-busting fiancee of one of the protagonists; a galumphingly broad sequence involving Vegas cops, tasers and schoolkids; uninspired as-himself cameo with Mike Tyson. As stated above, The Hangover ends up a cut or two below both Dude, Where's My Car and Swingers**, whose plots it essentially combines (along with the Vegas-set segment of Doug Liman's Swingers follow-up Go.)
Best thing about the picture is probably the screenplay structure – looks and feels sloppy, gradually reveals itself as clever and near-airtight. As written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore - a double-team previously responsible for Four Christmases and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past – a 'mystery' is established, clues are slowly pieced together, and then all is eventually "revealed" by the photographs accompanying the end credits (slightly bowdlerised by the BBFC as detailed above.) Although these whip past so quickly that even when they're over, only the most attentive viewer will know exactly what's transpired. And a crystal-clear head is, as the picture's hapless heroes would so ruefully attest, often an utterly priceless commodity.
Neil Young
6th/7th July, 2009
* and, I rashly predict, one of the first wave of beneficiaries of the decision by the Oscar folk to re-expand the Best Picture shortlist from 5 to 10.
** how come the perennially mighty-fine Heather Graham looks just the same as she did back in the day? In her 40th year? Huh??????!!!
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director : Todd Phillips
country : USA
year : 2009
run-time : 100m (BBFC)
seen : 6th July, 2009
cinema : Cineworld cinema, Boldon
format : 35mm
paid : £6.60
MVP : Zach G. or Ken J.
respected second opinion : Adam Nayman, Eye Weekly