The Hangover Part III will mostly be remembered for being a not so memorable conclusion to a one-joke series.
Within the first 5 minutes of The Hangover Part III, a giraffe is decapitated on a busy freeway. Vulgarity has never been in short supply in this comedy franchise, yet writer/director Todd Phillips pushes boundaries with this outing.
It’s not only in terms of faux animal cruelty (with Phillips sure to once again ruffle the feathers of PETA) but also with his titular Wolfpack – hard partying school teacher Phil (Bradley Cooper), glutton for punishment dentist Stu (Ed Helms) and bearded man-child Alan (Zach Galifianakis) – who once again find themselves in dire straits, with the shenanigans of their first Hangover adventure still haunting their lives and threatening their livelihoods.
Yet much like the Bangkok set sequel, Philips cannot re-catch magic in a bottle not matter the elements presented. No matter who is kidnapped, what seedy location is used, which Danzig song blurs over the speakers (that’s the pint sized, muscle bound goth-rocker whose songs are used in all the Hangover soundtracks), which taboos are broken and what irritatingly stupid remark is uttered by Galifianakis’ Alan, The Hangover Part III is the cinematic equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders and the roll of the eyes, a “been there, done that” which tries too hard to recapture old glories.
The Hangover Part III also marks Phillips third dud in a row. No doubt The Hangover marked a significant artistic and financial windfall for Phillips, but it has also shown him to be a lazy filmmaker who has tapped the well beyond dry.
It has become very apparent that Phillips needs to reassess his career. The first step to recovery is to scrap road trip movies. The second is to move on from casting the vastly overrated Zach Galifianakis (surely the “Fat Jesus” shtick has grown old by now?).
Third (and last) is that it’s time for Phillips to try his hand at another genre. A suggestion would be a crime thriller, for while The Hangover Part III is bereft of solid laughs, it does work in some spots as an askew gum-shoe mystery.
Phillips has to do something, really, to save himself and us from this sluggish carousel of recycled ideas. Hangover’s are quite seedy things, but nothing compared to the grotesque experience of a one not joke trapped in a never ending cycle. |