MOVIE REVIEW: THE HANGOVER PART 3

The Wolfpack set out in search of Mr. Chow after Doug is kidnapped by a criminal seeking to recover $21 million from the diminutive hustler as the decadent Hangover trilogy winds to an outrageous close. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, John Goodman, and Melissa McCarthy star in this Warner Bros. release from director Todd Phillips. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Todd Phillips

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, John Goodman, Melissa McCarthy

Release Date: May 23, 2013

Rated R for Drug Content, Brief Graphic Nudity, Pervasive Language, Sexual References and Some Violence

Runtime: 1 hr. 40 min.

Genres: Comedy

Review:

“The End.” “It All Ends.” “It Ends.” Etc… I really hope those taglines at the top of the posters are a firm promise. Some series really shouldn’t go past its original film. It’s fairly apparent that The Hangover was the kind of movie that never should have been a franchise. It would have been a smart decision to avoid sequels, like Phillips did with Old School. Instead we were dealt one of the laziest sequels ever. This 3rd film is only marginally better. I do give Phillips credit for mixing up the formula this go around even though it creates a weird serious / comedic tone throughout. As a comedy, it’s never consistently funny. At best it, delivers a handful of chuckles here and there along with long stretches of nothing. By nothing, I mean nothing. No fun, no thrills, no suspense. The audience is just left wading through uninteresting exposition until we get to the next set piece. The cast is just as disinterested as most of the audience, Cooper and Helms in particular. They both seem content in delivering lines from the past films and not much else, not that I really blame them. Zach Galifianakis and Ken Jeong both get larger roles here and are given free reign to do whatever they want. Both take their characters to extremes with grating results. John Goodman and Melissa McCarthy are terribly underused in one note characters. The film has a strange feel about it, like it’s disinterested in itself. The few chuckles that come through don’t last long enough to reach a zenith. It only finds a tad breath of energy in a post credit scene which comes after an awkward slow-mo montage. Let’s hope they don’t renege on their promise to let it end.

D+