The marketing collateral and trailers for the The Hangover III all promised that this final chapter would be “…the epic conclusion to an incomparable odyssey of mayhem and bad decisions…” As adverts always say the truth my expectations were set high.
The Hangover Part III reunites Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha and Ken Jeong as Phil, Stu, Alan, Doug and Leslie Chow. Now two years later all the members of the “Wolfpack” are settled in their uneventful lives… The only member of the pack who’s not content is Alan, who has been of his meds and seems to have lost all sense of purpose. The events start when Alan’s father, played by Jeffry Tambor, died of a heart attack following his son being responsible for a highway pile up caused by his beheaded pet giraffe.
Following this hilarious event the three friends step in to make sure Allan seeks the help he needs. This will take the boys on an unplanned road trip to Mexico and Vegas on the hunt for Chow and the lost gold of bad guy, Marshall, played by John Goodman.
This time around there are no crazy tattoos, unplanned weddings or drug fueled nights that lead to mass amnesia….
Unlike in the first two Hangover movies Helms and Cooper mainly have supporting roles. This allowed for Zach Galifianakis’s character to become the lead closely followed by Ken Joeng. Galifianakis hilarious unpredictability makes way to expose a sensitive and needy side that paves the way to an unexpected romance, while Chow evolves from a crazy cokehead into a full blown psychopath.
The character chances also mean that most of the slapstick humor, that made the first two movies a success, made place for a more robust, albeit predictable story. This makes The Hangover III, more of a comedy thriller that can be enjoyed on many different levels.
But let’s get back to what The Hangover’s spin-doctors want us to believe. Is this truly an “Epic Conclusion” to The Hangover Trilogy? Well, it isn’t. It isn’t Epic nor is it a “final conclusion” and I predict we will see a fourth installment in the years to come.
That being said, The Hangover III did not disappoint it was really enjoyable and at times even managed to make the entire theatre laugh in unison. If you’re not into Leonardo di Caprio or Science Fiction then The Hangover III is probably your best bet if you’re looking for a movie that the whole family will enjoy on a rainy bank holiday weekend.
The Hangover 3 is in UK theaters now!
For the Epic conclusion of this film we had to bring in an epic fan of the movie to write this up,you can follow our guest blogger, Stephane on twitter by clicking here.
