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Pedromonkey's Dvd review Corner...Part 3 of 4 DEC 09

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Posted 5th December 2009 at 12:32 AM by pedromonkey

The third big release of next week, is a comedy that has been hailed as the most successful American comedy of alltime. It took $44,000,000 on it's opening weekend, The film i am refering too is......

THE HANGOVER

Okay, Comedy, that's a term that is thrown about quite a bit, and most of the time the film is unfunny, take a Will Ferrell film like SEMI-PRO a film so devoid of any humour that it is painfull to watch and a travesty that is is classed as a comedy. When i think of comedy, i think of Monty Python, I think of Blake Edwards, comedy that is actually funny, comedy that makes you laugh out loud.

You see the problem is that with american comedy's of now, every thing is the same, Fart jokes, dick jokes and other such sexist remarks. British comedy is more reserved, better written and generally better directed. Take a film like In The Loop, written by political saturist Armando Innannoucci, even though the plot is a bit ropey, some of the dialog is hilarious, some the remarks that come out of Peter Capaldi's mouth are indeed laugh out loud funny, this make me wonder why America can't take their time to actually come up with good jokes. Now if you look at Adam Sandler's 90s output, that stuff was funny, Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison were some of the best comedies to come out. Now look at his output for the last 10 years, excluding The Longest Yard becaue that was pretty good film, his stuff is generally Meh, but luckily the new millenium has braught along a new writer/produce/director in the form of Judd Apatow, a man capable of writing well writen comedy dialog and good characterisation, you can see this in his recent output such as the fantastic KNOCKED UP and FORGETTING SARAH MARSHELL which he produced. So every once in a while you will come across a Comedy that is clever, has good characters and well written comedy. This Brings me to the third big release of the week...the day after comedy...

THE HANGOVER

The film starts with the groom and his soon to be brother in-law getting fitted for tuxedo's. This introduces us to two of four main characters, then we meet the third and fourth.
They are played by National Treasure's Justin Bartha, Midnight Meat Train's Bradly Copper, The American office's Ed Helms and rising comedy star Zach Galifianakis, who steals the film as the grooms soon to be brother in-law, a slow dimiwited loner, who makes some of the stupidest cock-ups. The Four men have very good chemistry, they bounce off each other very well.

The start of the film is a bit of a letdown, it's not that funny, all that changes when the Hangover sets in. Our guys have gone to vegas for a bachelor party, Alan, The grooms bro in-law, slips some "Roofies" into their drinks thinking it is Ecstacy, they down a shot and the next thing we cut to then next day. The hotel room is trashed, there's a stolen tiger in the bathroom and the groom is missing. The three remaining friends head off on a quest to discover what exactly happened the previous night and where the groom is, this involves a stolen police car, a visit to the hospital, a random baby, a naked gay triad and an incredibly bizarre cameo from former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

The film becomes more enjoyable as their quest continues because everytime they discover a clue to what happened, things go from bad to worse, The comedy is clever, yes there are the obligitory wank jokes and sex jokes but its not as abundant unlike some movies. The direction is crisp, the dialog is good and the delivery is tight, Zach Galifianakis comes out with some surreal musings and sings a very odd Cartman style song about best friends. there is also a very good homage to RAIN MAN. Director Todd Phillips' previous films have been mixed, he made the very funny OLDSCHOOL, the pointless STARSKEY + HUTCH, and the shockingly bad SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS, so THE HANGOVER comes as a surprise, it's not the greatest comedy ever made, that would be LIFE OF BRIAN, but it's definately worth a look. So on reflection i ask you if America can make decent comedy films, why don't they and why do they keep giving Will Ferrell Material......

Not the masterpiece it was made out to be but not a complete waste of time....


Pedromonkey's score.....3/5 good but no Python...

Next Review is HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE....so stay tuned,,,peace out!!!
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  1. Old Comment
    Almar@Cult Labs's Avatar
    Hey Pedromonkey - loving the effort you're putting into these reviews and the regular updates - much appreciated.

    I have to say I was left quite cold by The hangover until about half way through it picked up and I started liking the characters better - it improved - mind you so did my drinks count! I thought Tyson was bizarre but quite interesting - he could do more of this kind of thing - very narrow role type but in the right film he's quite funny but scary - a hard mix to pull off.
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    Posted 6th December 2009 at 03:51 PM by Almar@Cult Labs Almar@Cult Labs is offline
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