Review Tuesday: The Hangover Part III

The third and final installment of the franchise that no one knew was a trilogy, nor really were really looking for it, is called THE HANGOVER PART III.

The Wolf Pack is reunited after Alan (Zack Galifianakis) goes off his meds for six months for a intervention. While driving cross country to get Alan some treatment an event occurs that sends the guys on an adventure to save Doug's (Justin Bartha) life.

I'll start this review the way everyone seems to. Did we really need a Hangover 3? Did this need to be a trilogy? Of course the answer is no but how many sequels really need to be made anyway? As long as the franchise remains profitable the needs of the audience rarely come into play. After the success of the previous installments I suppose the studio wanted to wake up with one more bad headache with this movie.

Previously, Chow (Ken Jeong) had ripped off a crime boss, Marshall (John Goodman), to the tune of millions in gold bullion. Marshall wanted it back so he kidnapped Doug so that Alan, Stu and Phil are forced to track down Chow and the gold.

Despite what you may have heard, the movie IS very funny, even though it doesn't follow the formula of the previous movies. It doesn't start off with some casualty and a black out period. Instead, Alan gave up his medication and is insufferably obnoxious. If you didn't like Alan in the previous movies, you will pull your hair out with this one. He's certainly the star of this movie and it revolves around him. Everyone is is the supporting cast. I'm not kidding. You add Leslie Chow, who is also out of control after breaking out of prison in Thailand and made his way back to North America, and things start spinning out of control.

This third installment of the HANGOVER franchise didn't really follow the previous formula that made the previous movies so memorable, but it's the same crew. The actors are pretty well suited to their roles by now and are very natural. Bradley Cooper as Phil didn't come off as pompous as he did previously so I actually liked his character a lot more. Ed Helms as Stu had a somewhat diminished role and you really feel bad for him as Alan berates him time and again. I have a terrible feeling that Zack Galifiniakis is not acting and that he might truly be that annoying in real life. It's what he always plays in movies, that annoying guy you want to punch in the face. But he's just so odd and his actions are so unexpected that you feel compelled to watch his train wreck.

Definitely a funny movie. I don't think it needs to be seen on a big screen, however. Probably the DVD and Blu-Ray will have some crazy antics that were cut out, as the movie was just under two hours.

Oh, stay for the credits, there's a final clip that will shock you! I HOPE it's not foreshadowing for a part 4 in this trilogy...

More on IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1951261/