Director: Todd Phillips
Stars: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galafianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, John Goodman, Melissa McCarthy
After Alan’s (Galafianakis) father dies, the people around him decide to stage an intervention and send him to a rehabilitation center in Arizona. However, on the way, the wolf pack are assaulted by Marshall (Goodman), who kidnaps Doug and sends the rest of the guys on a mission to retrieve gold stolen by Mr. Chow (Jeong).
Perhaps one of the greatest swings in popularity between the first film and the sequel, The Hangover crew had something to prove coming into this; that they weren’t a one-trick pony. I’m not sure they quite succeeded but despite featuring some call-backs to the first film it doesn’t feel like a cheap re-tread, and The Hangover Part III is certainly an improvement upon its predecessor.
And yet it doesn’t feel quite complete. There’s a fine line between tragedy and comedy, and I feel this one veered too far towards the former. We begin with the decapitation of a giraffe and quickly segue into the death of Alan’s father, and the tone is very dark and grim. I don’t know about you, but the jokes at the expense of animals didn’t do anything for me. In fact the laughs throughout the film were few, and most of the comedic moments were amusing more than anything.
It doesn’t help that by now there are characters that are just unlikeable and tired. Helms and Cooper at times seem lethargic and Galafianakis, well, the schtick is old now. The film wants to present him as a loveable goof but I just found Alan to be annoying, horrible and almost irredeemable. He’s joined by Chow, who again is a completely unlikeable character who see-saws between ally and enemy.
The whole concept feels tired at this point, and there’s no sense of energy to the film. It’s an okay film to watch if you’ve seen the other two, but it doesn’t bring the laughs and unless you’re a completionist there are many other films you could watch instead.