The Hangover Part 3 – 3/5 – Movie Reviews by Ry!

The Hangover Part 3 – 3/5 – Another movie, another one in a trilogy.  As mentioned in other post regarding trilogies, sometimes the story stays strong, the characters stay awesome, and the movies still entertains.  Other times, things drag out too long, and you know it’s a money grab.  In part 3, we get a mix of both these contexts.  There is a decent story to follow, the comedy is better than the second, but you feel as if, the movie has run its course.  Overall, The Hangover Part 3 is a wonderful comedic film; a fitting conclusion rather than an everlasting farewell.

Premise: With the death of Alan’s father, the wolfpack decides to take Alan to get treated for his mental issues. What seems like a regular intervention from family goes wrong, as they are assaulted and Doug is kidnapped by gangsters. Now they must find Mr. Chow again in order to surrender him to the gangsters who kidnapped Doug.  What ensues is a trial of life and death, and a story of Alan becoming the man he should be?

With The Hangover, the film has always focused on the big three; Phil, Stu and Alan.  They are played by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifiankis.  In these roles for a third time, you can see they have found their niche with these three characters.  They know exactly how to act in these roles, and how each of the three work together in this ‘wolfpack’.  The best part of watch these characters is the interaction with themselves.  You know that there strengths are when together; no matter if it is them planning, bantering or just conversing.  It’s funny and real, and you feel like there is a genuine connection between them.  Out of the three, Alan (Zach Galifiankis) is the one that the spotlight shines the most in Part 3.  He turns the table in making Alan less dumfounded and more of an ‘asshole’ type of character.  I think this change helps lift the comedy that he provides.  It’s crude, vile, but hilarious and on point for most the movie.  The funniest moments are with his character.  When it comes to the rest of the cast, the stand outs of this part of the film in the supporting roles is Mr. Chow and Marshall.  Mr. Chow is played again by Ken Jeong and Marshall is played by John Goodman.  Like the other two films, Chow is an ‘over-the-top’ clichéd gangster, but his dialogue and timing is still top notch as before.  One of the bright spots, he makes the film move along, and keeps the pacing at a good medium when the screen switches from the wolfpack to him.  As Marshall, we get a new character that has ties to the previous films.  He is a gangster that has been wronged by Mr. Chow, and he will do everything to right things.  Goodman is staunch and riveting when on screen, but he is underused in the film.  I felt like they could have done more integrating him into the film.  When it comes to the rest of the supporting cast, you have some returners from previous film, like Justin Bartha as Doug, Mike Epps as Black Doug, and Heather Graham as Jade, and a new comer with Melissa McCarthy as Cassie.  They are the typical ‘supporting character’ as they do nothing but move the story along, like points of interest on a map for a road trip.

With the direction of the film, Todd Phillip flips the script from the other two.  Instead of having a ‘party’ that leads to a ‘disappearance’ and the three must ‘retrace’ steps backwards, he provides a simpler, linear comedy.  You have the basic setup (Marshall wants Chow, and task the Wolfpack to find him) and the film is set off from this point.  Within this setup, you have a typical foray into the use of dark and slapstick comedy, as it’s woven through their journey.  The film in the beginning never seems to settle on what it wants to be with these two comedic tones.  Even for this little fragment in tone, you see that the story is less about the Wolfpack finding Chow, and more on about Alan growing up.  This helps keep the film on a steady pace, and give it a strong but common plot thread.  Once the film kicks into high gear and pass the first act, the bulk of it is a typical ‘cat and mouse’ game, with the Wolfpack trying to stay up and catch Mr. Chow.  Through it, you get some over-the-top scenes, funny one-liners and pleasing comedic moments.  As mentioned in the character description, majority of these scenes that are hilarious will either involve Alan or Mr. Chow.  Even with the hijinks involving everything in the film, it is well paced, and doesn’t delegate unnecessary time to side stories or characters that have no point in the film.  With many convenient plot devices marked along their path, The Wolfpack eventually gets Mr. Chow.  Once the climax hit, it is a mix of a relief and revelation for both the Wolfpack and Alan.  In it, you finally see the films come full circle, as well as the Alan character.

The visuals of the movie are modest and real.  You have a typical look at Tijuana and Las Vegas, as you see both places in their true form.  The score adds flavor to the comedy.  With some situations being ‘action’ or ‘dramatically’ oriented, the music emphasize on these particular scenes are over the top, but the satire nature of this brings a funny amusement.  There are times where it felt unnecessary, but the timing of it was enough to drown out these flaws.

Overall, The Hangover Part 3 is a decent conclusion to a film that probably shouldn’t have had sequels.  Even in saying that, the film was entertaining, funny and provided enough to make it worth watching.  If you’re a fan of the films or the actors in the movie, you should check it out.   You will laugh till you can’t laugh no more.  (There is a post credit scene that will blow your mind away)