Published: Monday, January 18th, 2010 @ 12:53 pm
By: Brandia Deatherage   ( More Entries )
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Comedy That Works ... But Send the Chirldren to Bed

    Who would have thought that in the highly evolved, intellectually advanced world of 2009, a sophomoric film called The Hangover would bring in $700 million (and counting) to become the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time?

    Definitely not Warner Bros., who welcomed the film's better-than-expected earnings as a 'hangover cure' for a less-than-stellar year. The surprise earnings from The Hangover easily helped Warner Bros.' parent company Time Warner beat its 2Q Wall Street projections.

    Currently the film is nominated for a Golden Globe in the category Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical. It also received a Critics' Choice Award nomination for Best Comedy, and was named one of the Top Ten films of the year by AFI.

    The Hangover may have been a box-office sleeper success, but its success may have had more to do with circumstance than substance. 2009 left viewers starved for comedy, which created the perfect environment for a mindless shocker-film to thrive. Other big movies in 2009 were either apocolyptic films, action films, children's movies, or a combination of the three: 2012; G.I. Joe: Rise Of Cobra; Public Enemies; Monsters Vs. Aliens; Angels and Demons; Up; Terminator: Salvation; Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen; Avatar; and Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince.

    So perhaps the financial success of The Hangover is somewhat misleading, perhaps it was a bit overrated, perhaps it isn't $700-million good. It does, however, deserve credit for a creative storyline that comes dangerously close to disappointment, then swings around to deliver an unexpected treat: a comedic mystery-story. Instead of giving the viewer what they think they want--to see the wild, sexy Vegas bachelor-party shenanigans--the movie blacks out before the party starts, and, later, only hints at what happened through revelations delivered to the hungover bachelors the morning after.



    There are some movies that are funny enough to keep you laughing out loud even if you're watching them alone. Other movies only provoke laughter when watched with friends, as you uncomfortably react to the movies' vulgar or weird jokes. Whether you're watching The Hangover alone or in the company of others, you will laugh and you will be uncomfortable, in that it uses both genuine humor and shock to create comedic moments.



    Bradley Cooper, as Phil Wenneck, and Ed Helms, as Stu Price, were funny; but Zach Galafianakis, as Alan Garner, had the best and (as is his style) most awkward lines, looks and situations. When Stu discovers that a stripper, played by Heather Graham, who he wed the night before is wearing his grandmother's Holocaust ring, that she had managed to preserve for her grandson, in his trademark innocent insanity, Alan says, "I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust."



    Later in the movie, a frustrated Stu tries to make Adam aware of his idiocy by sneering, "You are literally too stupid to insult," to which Adam replies, "thank you." This could possibly be the most perfect exchange of the movie.



    Of course, The Hangover is not a film to be taken seriously, but some may take offense to the masogynistic message lurking amongst the laughs. But after being schooled by films like Super Bad, American Pie, European Vacation and thousands of others, viewers should be onto the comedian's trick of persuasion, which typically marks dumb, sweet, complacent women as cool; and women with boundaries as bitches.

    So, this could be a movie that is not for some women; but it is most certainly a movie which must be shielded from children. Even if mom and dad are there to help explain the adult content, there are so many curse words that a young person's subconscious could be scarred forever.

    This article provided courtesy of our sister site: Better Angels Now