Movie Review: The Hangover Part III

The wolfpack is back for a third go-round and for once, they don't get hammered and lose someone. The Hangover Part III does everything possible to distance itself from the first two films and I felt like they did a pretty good job of doing so.

The Hangover Part III swamps out the drunken misadventures of Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper)  Alan (Zach Galifinakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) for the gang being forced to go on a giant manhunt for Mr.Chow (Ken Jeong). The gang is forced to look for Chow after being run off the road by a gangster/drug dealer known as Marshall (John Goodman) while trying to take Alan to a mental institution because Alan was the last person known to have to contact with Chow. Marshall kidnaps Doug as insurance and the rest of the gang has 72 hours to find Chow and the $250,0000 worth of gold bars Chow stole from Marshall.

The manhunt plotline gives the film an entirely different direction which was refreshing. I was in the small percentage of people who enjoyed The Hangover Part II, but they really needed to deviate from the "Have wedding>Get blackout drunk>Lose someone>Spend rest of movie figuring out where person while various crazy thing ensue" formula for this series to make any type of progression. If this was just another film of them getting drunk and losing someone, the series would have completely run its course (though some would argue that it already did before this film was released.) This Chow manhunt plotline lets them explore darker comedic territory  and the filmmakers are more than up to the challenge. The jokes aren't as constant as the first two and a few of them fall flat, but I applaud writer/director Todd Phillips and co-writer Craig Mazin for making the audience laugh in different ways than the first two. While there isn't as many of zany surprises you've come to expect with thi series, Phillips and Mazin manage to work minor characters Black Doug (Mike Epps) and Jade (Heather Graham) from the first film back into the series seamlessly and give new comedic superstar Mellisa McCarthy a brief but hilarious appearance as a Las Vegas pawn shop owner. Though they weren't necessarily as unexpected some of the stuff in the past films, they served as nice tributes to the franchise and it's always good to see someone as talented as McCarthy show up in a film, even if it's only for a couple of scenes. Even with the new comedic direction and solid supporting cast additions, the strongest parts of the film still center around the performances of Zach Galifinakis and Ken Jeong. Galifinakis was born to play the role of Alan Garner and his deadpan line delivery, use of facial expressions and impeccable comedic timing makes his character endlessly entertaining. Jeong is equally priceless as psychotic criminal Leslie Chow. Jeong gives Chow this warped energy and the darker tone of the film lets him run even more wild with the character. Ed Helms gets his fair share of laughs and Bradley Cooper is fine as the straight man (though he kind of fades more into the background in this film), but this film/franchise belongs to the elite comedic talents that are Zach Galifinakis and Ken Jeong. The Hangover Part III is unlike the other films in the series yet serves as an oddly fitting conclusion to the series. It never reaches (nor did I expect to) reach the heights of the first film, but its still a very amusing and worthwhile swan song for the Wolfpack.

4/5 Stars