The Hangover (15)

Alison Rowat's Review

Todd Phillips, the director of this terrifically likable comedy, knows funny when he sees it. One of the team Oscar nominated for the Borat screenplay, he also knows how to go over the score and then some. He exercises both talents here to the max.

Phil, Stu, and soon to be married Doug (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Justin Bartha) are off to Las Vegas for a stag weekend. Joining them is the deeply weird Alan (Zach Galifianakis), the bride’s brother.

Putting all thoughts of domestic responsibilities behind them, the buddies go out on the town. Cut to next morning and a trashed hotel suite with a chicken roaming around, a member of an endangered species in the bathroom, and an abandoned baby in a cupboard. With no memory of what happened, and one of the party missing, the amigos must gather what’s left of their brain cells and retrace their steps through sin city.

Jon Lucas and Scott Moore have put together a screenplay that offers serious bangs for the cinemagoer’s buck. Just when you think they’ve turned in a sweet line or pulled a nice surprise in a scene, along comes another winner. One Phil Collins-loving guest star in particular is a knockout.

Gags aside, it’s the characters that make The Hangover work so well. At first perusal they are the usual suspects - the sensible one, the good looking devil, the geek and the wacko - but they go together handsomely, with Galifianakis, channelling John Belushi, a pudgy joy.

The humour is extremely laddish, but endearingly so. Be sure to stay for the end shots of the quartet’s stag night photos (but not if you happen to be watching with an easily shocked mother).

Paul Greenwood's Review

When Las Vegas bachelor party gets seriously out of hand, three bleary-eyed reprobates awaken to the morning after to discover a baby in the cupboard, a tiger in the bathroom, and a missing groom.

So begins a quest to piece together the shenanigans of the night before in order to avoid some mobsters, find the groom and get them all back to LA in time for the wedding.

When The Hangover is funny, it can be very funny. The laughs are big and regular, with a nice mix of physical humour and sight gags, and the variety of the characters helps with the chuckles - there’s the dumb one, the anxious one and the cool one and they each get a chance to shine.

But there's too much downtime, jokes that run out of steam early, and enough attempts to rely on the hilarity of bare bums to warrant caution.