Vince Vaughn | pinartarhan.com

The Hangover starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. Also starring Justin Bartha and Heather Graham. Directed by Todd Phillips. Image via abrilosojos.com

I really have to see this movie again. Not too soon, but after I forgot some of the jokes. I don’t know why a friend of mine said this film wasn’t that funny: I was laughing my butt off during the entire movie.

I like Bradley Cooper. I have been watching him act since Alias (2001-2006). The first role I had seen him was of a very nice guy. He played the best friend to Jennifer Garner‘s Sydney. Then I saw him as the ultimate asshole in the Wedding Crashers that gave hell to Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s characters. His roles haven’t exactly been very difficult or diverse but he is believable and fun to watch whether he is a nice guy or the jackass. He has given the performance that his roles required him too. In The Hangover, he is neither a sweetheart like his Alias character Will Tippin nor a psycho. He is a nice guy at school- he is a school teacher. And with friends, he is the ultimate party animal who is never shy of speaking his opinion or making fun of his friends.

The plot gives enough potential for a good time: The groom-to-be Doug (Justin Bartha), Doug’s future wife’s wacky brother Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug’s two oldest best friends Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Stu (Ed Helms). Phil is married with a kid and there’s no way he is going to miss a bachelor party in Las Vegas. Stu has been with his dominating, bitchy and controlling girlfriend for 3 years and though he is planning to marry her, he is also more than glad to be in Vegas whereas she thinks he is in Napa Valley. Alan is….Alan is a hilarious sight to look at. He is not normal and not very predictable, to say the very least. Doug seems like the most normal man among them. He is ready to commit and is happy to be getting married, despise Phil’s ranting about how awful marriage is. So they get on the car Doug’s father-in-law gives him they head out.

It all starts harmlessly but funnily enough. They get dressed, have drinks and go out. The movie cuts to the morning after. The room has been thrashed, there is a hem walking around, there are women leaving and when Alan goes to the bathroom there is real,life-size tiger waiting for him! In a panic he wakes Phil up. They are all suffering from the worst hangover, and worst of all Doug is nowhere to be seen. There is a baby in a closet and no one can recall anything!

So they put they heads together and try to trace their steps back. Three best-men and no groom!

When the movie finished, my stomach was hurting from laughing too hard. While the concept of a Vegas bachelor party gone awry is not original, what happens to the guys are. Another interesting thing about their story is that we don’t know what happened and they don’t know what happened. Every piece of the puzzle is more entertaining than the one before. Of course it is below the belt, crude and sometimes well…the movie takes it too far but it doesn’t matter in he end ’cause you just had a blast watching it! One of the funniest movies I have ever seen.

END NOTE: The movie was written and directed by Todd Phillips who also co-wrote and directed Old School and Road Trip. Road Trip was OK, and Old School was really funny. However I think I prefer Hangover. See it.

The Hangover by Todd Phillips with Bradley Cooper — The Hangover: The baby belongs to a woman who....Nah, I am not gonna say it. Just know that his mother is played by the gorgeous actress Heather Graham.

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Wedding Crashers

Return to Paradise, starring Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche and Joaquin Phoenix

Sheriff (Vince Vaughn), Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix) and Tony (David Conrad) are three pals who take a vacation in Malaysia. Enjoying the scene and getting a little high don’t seem like a bad idea. Tony and Sheriff need to get back to New York. They don’t hear from Lewis for a while…

Lewis is in big trouble. Drug possession is a major crime in Malaysia and he has been caught with all their drugs. Now he is facing death sentence, and being kept in prison under the most primitive conditions. Lewis’s lawyer Beth (Anne Heche) comes to New York to track the two friends down, because there is a chance to save Lewis. Since the some of the drugs were theirs, Malaysian court will not hang Lewis if they come back and admit to their crime. They will each get three years and then get their freedom back. If only one of them goes, he will get six years. However they see what an awful shape he is in through the video records. He is bordering on the verge of insanity. Now David and Sheriff have a life-altering dilemma. Should they go back, plead guilty and suffer the same conditions? Lewis seems like a lost cause and do they want to go through the same treatments and conditions? But if they don’t, their friend will be hung- because of a crime they helped commit. Beth has a very short time frame- 8 days- to persuade the two, and David has a fiancée (Vera Farmiga) that seems quite determined to keep David out of prison. Things also get more complicated as Beth and Sheriff seem to feel an attraction and connection towards each other…

It is one of the most haunting and thought-provoking movies I have seen and I find the script quite original and brilliant. The dilemma in itself is perfect. Can you risk losing 3 or 6 years of your life, trusting a government whose willing to hang a man for possessing drugs? And by drugs, we are not talking about heroin, but hashish. How much do they love their friend? But on the other hand, they are at fault as well. And by not giving up their freedom for a certain period of time, they will have caused their friend’s death. So which will it be? The agony of spending time in a jail that is disturbing enough to make their friend into someone they don’t recognize? Or will they live with the guilt for the rest of their lives?

It is an excellent what if question. The question is awfully difficult and the choices are terribly unpleasant. It is easy to say you’d of course go and help your friend, and claim you’d do the right thing, but we don’t really know if we could do it, if/when push happened to come to shove. David suffers from it. Sheriff suffers from it. The existence of dilemma makes the characters to go through a conflict. It will also show them who they really are. Beth’s situation isn’t that easy either, especially after she starts to fall for Sheriff.

The acting is just intense enough. The characters are not over or underplayed. It is one of those movies that glue you to your seat without any action scenes. If any of you have taken a disliking towards Vince Vaughn because of the same type of fast-talking comedic characters he seems to play too often (Old School, Wedding Crashers, Mr. and Mrs. Smith), this movie is going to persuade you that he can act. In fact, this one is the first movie I have ever seen Vince Vaughn and I’ll always be a fan. I wish he could make more movies like this. And it is no secret that Joaquin Phoenix (The Gladiator, Walk the Line, Quills) is a great actor. Even though he is the younger brother of the deceased River Phoenix, I always seem to make the mistake of thinking Joaquin as the older one, since River died at the age of 23. Talented family.

Anyhow, please make time to see this film. It’s modest yet powerful. It’s worth it.

Wedding Crashers Review: https://pinartarhan.com/blog/wedding-crashers/