A Tiger, A Chicken and a Baby Walk Into a Vegas Hotel Suite
The Hangover was fun.
The story is sort of an inverse quest story. The three main characters: Phil (an unapologetical sleazeball of a high school teacher), Alan (an emotionally stunted man-boy who just desperately wants acceptance) and Stu (the incarnation of whipped), wake up in a slightly on fire Las Vegas suite with a Tiger, Chicken, Baby and a missing groom from the bachelor party the night before. They have to figure out what happened, and hilarity ensues.
This is one of the films where the plot is distinctly less important than the characterization. The plot itself is basically Final Fantasy: the characters have an artifact, they use that artifact to go on a quest for the next artifact and continue until they fight the boss, who in this case is an incomprehensibly gay Triad boss.
So the plot, on the whole, isn't that important, it's an engine to move the characters around the world and see how they react. The strength of the story is in the characters themselves, who reveal themselves through whip-crack-fast admissions or actions throughout the story. Phil , early on establishes himself as a combination of problem solver and face man, and relies on that up until the point he ends up volunteering to be tasered for a collection of high school kids. Alan is a type of socially dysfunctional geek I've known all too well. During the brief prelude, where they all dress up for their big night in Vegas, and Alan shows up in a t-shirt and shorts, all I could think was how many of them I've known, and how often I've been him. Although, in my defense, I am allowed within 200 feet of a Chuck E. Cheese.
There's a scene, about halfway through the story that summarizes its weird genius. Stu, sitting down at the piano in their dilapidated Vegas suite, starts playing an impromptu piece which summarizes where they are, and what they have left to do. In the meantime, a chicken (who is never explained, and just stays in the room) is sitting next to the piano listening to him play this piece which is simultaneously quite beautiful and also about how they're all gonna end up fucked up.
So, yeah, it's a dumb guy comedy. At the same time, it's a dumb guy comedy with a smart script that builds the characters well (the story has the common sense to ditch the one well-adjusted guy at the start of the plot), and I don't regret watching it.
The story is sort of an inverse quest story. The three main characters: Phil (an unapologetical sleazeball of a high school teacher), Alan (an emotionally stunted man-boy who just desperately wants acceptance) and Stu (the incarnation of whipped), wake up in a slightly on fire Las Vegas suite with a Tiger, Chicken, Baby and a missing groom from the bachelor party the night before. They have to figure out what happened, and hilarity ensues.
This is one of the films where the plot is distinctly less important than the characterization. The plot itself is basically Final Fantasy: the characters have an artifact, they use that artifact to go on a quest for the next artifact and continue until they fight the boss, who in this case is an incomprehensibly gay Triad boss.
So the plot, on the whole, isn't that important, it's an engine to move the characters around the world and see how they react. The strength of the story is in the characters themselves, who reveal themselves through whip-crack-fast admissions or actions throughout the story. Phil , early on establishes himself as a combination of problem solver and face man, and relies on that up until the point he ends up volunteering to be tasered for a collection of high school kids. Alan is a type of socially dysfunctional geek I've known all too well. During the brief prelude, where they all dress up for their big night in Vegas, and Alan shows up in a t-shirt and shorts, all I could think was how many of them I've known, and how often I've been him. Although, in my defense, I am allowed within 200 feet of a Chuck E. Cheese.
There's a scene, about halfway through the story that summarizes its weird genius. Stu, sitting down at the piano in their dilapidated Vegas suite, starts playing an impromptu piece which summarizes where they are, and what they have left to do. In the meantime, a chicken (who is never explained, and just stays in the room) is sitting next to the piano listening to him play this piece which is simultaneously quite beautiful and also about how they're all gonna end up fucked up.
So, yeah, it's a dumb guy comedy. At the same time, it's a dumb guy comedy with a smart script that builds the characters well (the story has the common sense to ditch the one well-adjusted guy at the start of the plot), and I don't regret watching it.