The Hangover Part III
I was a little wary of seeing The Hangover Part III, because Part II was very formulaic and pretty much followed the first Hangover movie to a T; only the location was different (Thailand, instead of Vegas). Diehard fans of the series may complain that Part III is very different from the other two movies and aims to be more narrative-based (ie, like a "real" movie) than going for "shock value," but I was pleasantly surprised with how the movie turned out, and it manages to keep funny moments throughout.
Alan (Zack Galifianakis) has been off his meds and out of control lately. He buys a giraffe and drives it home on the freeway ... but, sadly, giraffes are tall and there are a few low-hanging bridges, so that was not the best idea. His father (Jeffrey Tambor) then dies of a heart attack shortly after, and Alan's sister (Sasha Barrese) and the Wolfpack (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Justin Bartha) decide to stage an intervention, in the hopes of convincing him to go to a rehab program. He agrees to go if his friends drive him there, but on the way there, they get carjacked by a man named Marshall (John Goodman), who wants to know where Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) is, as Chow stole half of his money, in gold bars. Marshall keeps Doug (Bartha) as a hostage, and demands that the rest of the Wolfpack find Mr. Chow and deliver him to Marshall. What ensues is an interesting, albeit not as crazy as the previous movies, trip through the desert, where they eventually end up in - you guessed it - Las Vegas.
This movie was definitely the Alan and Mr. Chow show, and because of that, they had the best lines; the film managed to be consistently funny throughout it even while leaving out most of the craziness of the other two films in the series. You don't have to have seen the other two to enjoy this one, but fans who have seen them will get more of the "inside" stuff in this one; Black Doug (Mike Epps) is back, as are all of the regular cast members. There's a few flashback moments as well to The Hangover and The Hangover Part II.
Yes, see this movie. Some may complain that it's not as crazy as the other two, but I actually enjoyed it a lot. Except for Alan, these characters are now more mature - they're either married or dating, for the most part - and the movie seemed to reflect that. Melissa McCarthy also has a hilarious extended cameo, as a woman in a pawn shop with whom Alan is instantly infatuated, and she helped make the film even funnier than it already was. I was thinking that there wasn't much nudity in this film as compared to the last two, also, but if you stay put during the credits, there's a scene that definitely will have you reconsidering that - an epilogue scene of sorts.
The Hangover Part III is in theaters today, May 23rd, and is rated R with a runtime of 100 minutes. 4 stars out of 5.