The wolf pack is back in The Hangover Part III and ready to tie up some loose ends… especially since people have been begging for resolution. Ok, maybe there was no demand for another Hangover movie but how could you go wrong with another one? All one would need to do is follow the same formula as the first two movies: Alan and the crew wake up with a massive sized headache and then attempt to retrace their steps from the previous night. Boy was I wrong about that assumption.
To be honest with you there are very few things that they got right with the movie. Let’s start out with the things they got right. Somehow after the first two movies (probably because they made fistfuls of money) the producers got the original cast back. Everyone is accounted for Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Doug (Justin Bartha), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong). Mr. Chow plays a pretty significant role in this movie, which may be a good or bad thing. Other than getting the original cast back for this movie it’s really hard to find anything else good about this movie.
Now you are probably wondering how anyone could make a Hangover movie wrong. This is how they did that, the deviated from the formula. The movie does not involve the wolf pack trying to figure out what kind of wild night they had, instead you get this bad action movie that attempts to be funny during the story. This movie seemed like they were making it for the hardcore fans, there are tons of references to the previous movies but the overall delivery of everything was pretty poor. Also, some of the jokes used in the movie are just rehashes of what they have used before and there were very few original gags.
This movie was a major letdown, which is a pretty difficult thing to do since I didn’t expect it to be really good at all. If it was a movie meant for the fans that was executed well I wouldn’t complain, but all I got was a movie that attempts to get eyeballs buy sticking the Hangover name on it. The pacing of the movie was bad, there were some parts of the movie that was downright boring. They attempt to tie up some loose ends like showing what happened to the baby in the first movie and what happened to Mr. Chow. There is even a subplot for Alan and a possible love interest.
The writers attempt to redeem themselves by adding the traditional waking up from a hangover scene at the end of the movie. The scene at the end of the movie was the Hangover movie I wanted to see and I think it would have been so much better than what we got. This movie is supposed to be the end of the Hangover movies but I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a run of direct-to-dvd spin-off type movies.
If you haven’t realized by now, I wouldn’t recommend anyone see this movie in the theater. There are so many other movies released or soon to be released in the theater that would be better choices. As for a Netflix/rental, I’d say only watch it if you are a big Hangover fan, everyone else won’t be missing much. The Hangover Part III isn’t a horrible comedy but it definitely shouldn’t have had the Hangover name on it.
