Josh and Violet provide their side-by-side, male vs. female reviews for The Hangover Part 3, the end to the Hangover trilogy which began in 2009. How did it compare to the previous two Hangover movies? See what they each had to say after the jump!
His Review:
The Hangover 3 attempted to reinvent itself after the highly criticized Hangover 2, which was clearly a rehash of the original Hangover movie. While the new direction taken in the third movie is much better than the trilogy’s second attempt, it unfortunately still misses the mark. Much of the humor in this movie fell flat, and the storyline was mildly entertaining. For those unfamiliar with the trilogy, it is directed again by Todd Phillips, and follows the “zany” adventures of Phil, Stu, and Alan, all members of the “Wolf Pack”.
The story begins with Mr. Chow, escaping from the Bangkok prison he is being held in. This scene felt like a rip-off of Shawshank Redemption. I am not sure if this was intentional, but it felt like it may have been.
After Chow’s prison break, we see Alan (Zack Galifianakis) bringing home a giraffe (being towed by a Mercedes in an open trailer). He’s driving rather erratically and drinking, and as we see in the previews, this giraffe is not going to make it to its new home.
Back at home, Zack’s father, Sid (played by Jeffrey Tambor) has a heart attack, and passes away trying to convince Alan to straighten up after Alan’s “snafu” with the giraffe. This leads to the conclusion seen in the previews–the “Wolf Pack” is going to convince Alan to go some sort of rehab facility to help him get well, after they stage an intervention. Alan eventually agrees, and they head out in Phil’s (Bradley Cooper) minivan.
On their trip they come across Marshall (John Goodman) however, who “convinces” them to find the infamous Chow, and of course, Doug is kidnapped and not seen for most of the movie (I am really curious why this became the trilogy’s “thing”), and the manhunt for Chow begins, stretching from Tijuana to Las Vegas .
While The Hangover 3 had its chuckle-worthy moments, the movie was still not able to capture the hilarity of the original. I am not sure if the reason being is this movie was trying to be a little more serious, or if the humor simply wasn’t resonating the way the writers/director wanted it to. In fact, some of the humor went past humor it to just simply crude. One example: animals being needlessly killed several times throughout the film. While I understand these were supposed to be funny moments, they really did not come off that way, and seemed more sadistic than anything else.
The Hangover series might have been better just left as a single film, as the biggest thing going for the original was the “shock” value, and unique story. But given the money both sequels have made, it is hard to argue to not make sequels, regardless of how they do critically. Oddly enough, there wasn’t a “hangover” in the beginning of the movie, as with the other two, making it not really feel like a sequel anyway.
As for the good, it was interesting how the movie tried to pull the trilogy together, bringing back “Black Doug” from the original movie, and how his storyline affected the current predicament that the Wolf Pack is in. Also, the scene between Alan and Cassie (played by Melissa McCarthy) while very awkward, was probably one of the funniest of the entire movie. It would have been nice to see those two have a little more on screen time together. Stu provides his usual over-the-top panic attacks, while Phil provides the “cool headedness”. Alan is still simply Alan, and Chow is annoying as ever. Oh and Doug? He is still as absent as ever. The overall story was put together well enough that it kept my interest, but could have been written a lot better.
I had high hopes that the Hangover 3 would be better than the second, and while it was significantly, it still doesn’t compare to the fun that the original provided. It feels unclear whether this film was intended to be more serious, and be more of a “drama”, but regardless, it just wasn’t that funny. My movie review would be a 5 out of 10. As for the funniest scene in the movie? Make sure you stay in to the credits. It is unfortunate that the funniest part of the movie had to come after the credits have rolled. It is worth the watch though!
Her Review:
The Hangover Part III, directed by Todd Phillips, is the final installment of the Hangover trilogy, and welcomes back Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, and Justin Bartha in their roles as Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug. Unlike The Hangover Part II, which was the exact same story as the original, except set in Thailand rather than Vegas, The Hangover Part III has a whole new story. However, the Wolfpack does run into old friends and enemies along the way, as well as make new ones.
The movie starts off at a prison in Bangkok, Thailand, from which Mr. Chow (played by Ken Jeong) has just escaped. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Alan has just bought a giraffe and is driving it home. This ends up causing a major accident on the freeway, later angering Alan’s father, who has a heart attack and dies. At this point, Alan has been off his meds for six months, and his behavior is getting out of control, so his family and the Wolfpack stage an intervention for him to take him to a facility in Arizona. Alan agrees to go when he learns that Phil and the entire Wolfpack will be driving him there.
However, they never make it to the facility, as they are forced off the road by men wearing pig masks, one of which is “Black Doug” (played by Mike Epps) from the first movie. We then meet the villain in this movie, Marshall (played by John Goodman), who explains that he had organized the theft of $42 million in gold bars, and Mr. Chow stole $21 million worth of those gold bars from him. Marshall wants his gold back, and he thinks his best chance of finding Mr. Chow is through the Wolfpack, as Alan is the only person that Mr. Chow corresponded with while in prison, through letters that frequently talked about the Wolfpack. He takes Doug as collateral, giving the rest of the Wolfpack three days to find Mr. Chow, or else he’ll kill Doug.
The trio ends up tracking Mr. Chow down in Tijuana, where they have to break in to a mansion which used to belong to Mr. Chow, and where Mr. Chow hid the gold behind a brick wall. However, something goes wrong and the trio then has to find Mr. Chow in Vegas, where Stu swore he’d never go again, and where they employ the help of Stu’s ex-wife Jade (played by Heather Graham) to find Mr. Chow. At Jade’s house we get to see the baby, Tyler, (or “Carlos,” as Alan called him) from the first movie all grown up into a little boy (played by Grant Holmquist, who is in fact one of the same actors who played the baby in the first movie). Of course, this leads the trio back to where the original story began — Caesar’s Palace.
I would like to say that hilarity ensues throughout the movie, but this would be a bit of an exaggeration. Sure, there were funny parts, but I think the only responses elicited from me were chuckles or very light laughter, and it seems like many of the scenes that were intended to be hilarious were not quite as funny as they were supposed to be, based not only on my response, but on the entire audience’s response as a whole. This could be because many of the funny parts were shown on the previews, so the audience already knew they were coming. Overall, it seemed like the movie had more of a serious tone to it than the previous two installments, as a significant portion of the movie consists of John Goodman standing around explaining things and giving orders, with very little comic relief.
I found that I liked this third film better than the second one, as I appreciate the effort of providing a new story, while also giving us throwbacks to the original. However, at the same time, I seem to remember laughing quite a bit more during the second one than I did during this one. Unfortunately, neither the second nor third films were able to live up to the fresh new concept that was provided by the original, and Galifianakis’ character just doesn’t seem as funny as he once was. Arguably, the funniest part of the movie was the scene that’s a minute or two into the credits, so make sure you don’t leave right when the credits start.
My rating: 5/10
I think it went downhill after the first. The concept of the movies is great, but it grew stale quickly, and two more movies wasn’t warranted. I’ve heard they ripped the idea from The Simpsons as it is.