Possibly still haunted by the reaction to the last film, with both critics and fans calling it a pale copy of the original, director Todd Philips completely overhauls the plot vehicle that drove this series by leaving out one crucial factor. Forget the weddings and bachelor parties; in The Hangover III, there is no hangover.
After the death of his father, spoilt man-child Alan (Zach Galifianakis) faces a crossroads in his life when his reluctant band of friends Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Doug (Justin Bartha) encourage him to seek help at a rehab clinic.
The Wolfpack are drawn into a world of criminal escapades by a Vegas mobster (John Goodman) who takes the group’s long suffering fourth member, Doug, hostage in exchange for the remaining three locating sociopathic madman on the lam, Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong).
The film relies on two things – star power and self-reflective tropes harking back to the previous films. Any originality is immediately lost, thanks to the bombarding advertising campaign cinema goers have been subjected to over the past few months. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen least bad parts of the film.
Whilst you can’t blame the director for wanting to completely change direction, he also finds himself at somewhat of a crossroads. On the one hand he wants to replicate the humour that made the first film such an enjoyable watch (and the second such a financial success), whilst on the other he doesn’t want to simply reuse the Hangover template for a third time running.
What’s left is a film that tries too hard to out-ridiculous the situations of the first two films that are already close to, if not beyond the borders of good taste. Padding out the rest of the film are various nods and “remember when” moments that aren’t particularly funny because simply we’ve already seen them before.
In fact, The Hangover III is a darker, much more violent affair compared to the last two instalments. Running between Tijuana and Las Vegas, the gang find themselves orchestrating heists and outmaneuvering ruthless mobsters in order to send a man to his death, without so much as batting an eyelid.
It’s not one for animal lovers either. If you thought the chain-smoking, drug dealing monkey from The Hangover II was in poor taste then prepare to be outraged by some disturbingly violent scenes that leave no dog, chicken or even giraffe unharmed.
Bradley Cooper looks noticeably more uncomfortable reprising this role. It seems like a step back for the actor, with much more engaging films such as Silver Linings Playbook and A Place Beyond the Pines under his belt. At one point his character shouts, “Why are we watching this?” leaving me asking myself the same question.
For the most part, Cooper and Helms spend most of their screen time simply reacting to the immature antics of Galifianakis or the crude, despicable humour of Jeong, both of whom are coming dangerously close to being typecast thanks to their characters.
In particular Jeong’s cocaine fuelled cackles and high-pitched rants become increasingly annoying as the film hurtles through the Vegas skyline towards its anti-climax of a finale.
The reason why the first Hangover film was such a success is that it took a situation we can all relate and mixed it up with some rather preposterous yet still strangely plausible capers. A sequel was inevitable, but no one expected it to become one of the biggest selling comedies of all time at the box office. In the case of The Hangover III, much like the booze induced hangovers we endure week in week out, we only have ourselves to blame for this unfunny, unnecessary blatant cash cow.
Reviewed for The Big List NI
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