  
The Hangovera.k.a. “A Ressaca,” “Se Beber Não Case”MPAA Rating:
 for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material.Reviewed by: Ethan Samuel Rodgers Extremely Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:
Adults
Genre:
Comedy
Length:
1 hr. 36 min.
Year of Release:
2009
USA Release:
June 5, 2009 (wide—3,200 theaters)
DVD: December 15, 2009  
Relevant Issues
Drunkenness in the Bible Are you good enough to get to Heaven? Answer How good is good enough? Answer Christian living
What advice do you have for new and growing Christians? Answer How do I know what is right from wrong? Answer How can I decide whether a particular activity—such as smoking, gambling, etc.—is wrong? Answer Should I save sex for marriage? Answer How can I deal with temptations? Answer What are the consequences of sexual immorality? Answer
“Some guys just can't handle Vegas” It seems as though every time a new teen party movie comes out, people begin muttering “Hey, this could be the next Superbad.” Bad news, “The Hangover,” this isn’t the comedy you’ve been waiting for. Two words can sum up my entire review for this film: just don’t. I mean it, if there’s one ounce of your jiminy cricket conscience mumbling “maybe I shouldn’t see this,” run, don’t walk, in the opposite direction of the theater. The story is simple, too simple actually. Even for a “Film de Debauchery” this one lacks any sort of layering in its plot construct. Four friends go to Vegas for a bachelor party and, after a night of partying, lose the groom and have to find him in time for the wedding. That’s it, there’s nothing else, no side plots, nothing. By this I mean, turn down your dumb dial on the way in; you’ll just be miserable if you don’t. If the plot’s not enough to drive you crazy, the lack of intellectuality in the humor will make you want to rip your hair out, or go and slap the ticket boy at the front of the theater for allowing you to spend 8 dollars on this movie. Director Todd Phillips finds ways to push the envelope in nearly every scene of the film, and he relies heavily on “shock value” for laughs. Sure, the situations they get into are humorous, but how hard is it to generate chuckles when you’ve set yourself up with this premise? The script was also a letdown, as was the performance of Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha. Zach Galifianakis literally carried them through 96 minutes of “one thing after another,” and had he not been in this, the whole film might have been a bust as he earned nearly every bit of every star that I gave this film by himself. The most depressing part of it all was the trailer reveals a majority of the best sequences. If you watched the trailer like I did, you just lost 50% of the laughs easily, and honestly, what would have been the best ones. The rest of the film is mostly just Zach Galifianakis making nonsensical jokes while Ed Helms rants and raves about how terrible his life is while rubbing the gap where one of his front teeth used to be, followed by Bradley Cooper shouting a profanity about how miserable their situation is: i.e., “Man we’re so F____ed!” I won’t go into the moral details too much. Let’s be honest, it’s rated R; it’s a film about grown men partying so hard they can’t remember an entire night. You as a viewer don’t need me to spoon feed you or tell you that you should tread carefully. I will say that, if you have a problem with any curse word under the sun, male butts, topless women, or sexual innuendo, don’t bother. There’s a plethora of the above listed, as well as a few even more deeply disturbing photographs shown during the credits that I won’t even mention. I suppose the worst news of all is that it’s been announced that “The Hangover 2” will begin production next year, and considering I just saw the midnight showing of the first installment, that’s a little dismaying. So, for you comedy buffs out there that really are intent on seeing this, hey, who’s going to stop you (maybe your parents, I suppose), but believe me, the lack of layers in the story, the nonsensical dialogue, and the overall “wow, I can’t believe that I just saw that while sitting in a movie theater” factor, probably will leave you at least a little disappointed. So to answer the now two year-old question “Is this the next Superbad?” Nope… Just nope. Violence: Moderate / Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Extreme See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.   Comments below:
Positive
Positive - What's surprising about “The Hangover” is not how funny it is--and mark my words, it IS funny. It is consistently funny, and I'm not just talking about the priceless one-liners. There is humor in the way the characters act and react (especially on Alan's part, played by Zack Galifianakis)--humor that takes an appreciation of subtlety to understand. Positive - I thought the film was funny. As a heavy-drinking white frat boy in college, I can relate to these characters. I laughed several times. The comaraderie and next-day reminiscing over (sometimes forgotten) drunken events of the night before is accurate. As a Christian, I wish I had waited for the “cleaned-up” TV version. The Lord's name is used in vain by a main character several times. There is nudity in the ending credits. Also, it is never acceptable to steal donations, lie, drug someone's drink, drive drunk or steal a police car. I no longer drink, and don't condone the behavior in the film. However, it does accurately portray some twenty-somethings' wild weekends. Positive - This is a tough movie to review. I see most movies and am not easily offended. The movie does prefer the use of the “F” word a lot. Perhaps its biggest problem, in my opinion, was the nudity. Now, the movie itself has one nude scene, and it's about 2 seconds, if that. The woman in it shows her breast when she goes to feed a baby. Not really sure if that's nudity, since its not sexual in nature. There's also a 1 second scene of an older man's, but being shown in a doctors office. But the “other nudity” takes place during the credits, and I was actually thrown off by what I saw. Besides 4-5 pictures of women topless, they also show a guy having something done to him, and I mean actually shown. That blew my mind, since this is a movie in theaters! Without that picture collage credits scene, this movie is amazingly funny, a guys movie. Definitely offensive to people that aren't used to this kind of humor, though.… Neutral
Neutral - “The Hangover” is as the title suggests a very linear film. It reminds me of “Dude Where's My Car” on so many levels, the least of which is the target audience. To be perfectly honest, both films have their golden moments (see if you notice the deliberate nod to “Rain Man” in Hangover), despite the debased paths the films take to get to ‘em. But what ruins the otherwise mildly offensive “Hangover” (and really substantiates its R) is the end. Where the credits should have been is a montage of the *actual* events that happened in Vegas. Use your imagination. Negative
Negative - Saw it with my wife. To be honest, we stayed through it hoping it would improve. It did not. It went from bad to worse with the credits and the photos shown during them pushing it over the edge. It could have been a great movie. But instead of taking potentially funny situations and making them funnier. The producers and actors went deeper into perverse behavior with each scene. Negative - Well, as far as comedies goes…this is funny…in a sick, perverted way! I went with a friend and since it was her birthday I didn't leave, my mistake. I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the swear words alone, and that is not talking about the times they took the Lords Name. The amount of Sexual Garbage in this movie is a disgrace, and the way these guys acted when intoxicated was stupid. The end clips of this movie was the worst, absolutely perferted and sick. Adults who love porn and swearing and who Don't know anything about whats right and wrong…might get a kick out of this movie. But for all others…How far do you have to go to see a good comedy…Not This Far! BTW: There was a parent in the movie with a 12 year old boy and they were loving it. Wonder what will become of that child when he gets older. What his priorities will be! Negative - All I can say is that my wife went to watch this movie with a friend. She is a little naive at times to the world. Not really focusing on the movie's title (which she had never heard of anyway), she went to comfort a friend who is going through very rough marital problems and gave no consideration, at least not at length, to the title. When she entered the house some three hours later, she was crying and extremely upset. The movie apparently has full frontal and rear male nudity in several positions, along with female top nudity. From what she explained, the movie was more NC-17 to XXX than it was ‘R’ (probably NC-17… I did see the commercial). If you take anyone, including yourself to see this movie, shame on you. We are Christians, not movie goers. It is time for us to lead by example.… Comments from non-viewers
I have not viewed this movie and have no desire to. But I have to say that I laughed my head off at Ethan Samuel Rodgers' review. It was very well written and if what he says about the movie is true, then very likely, the best part of this movie is this review. |
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