The Secret Stand Up of Alex Mac

It is one thing to laugh yourself breathless. It is a whole different thing to laugh yourself breathless in a theater while a dozen friends and countless strangers do likewise. The Hangover delivers this experience with waves and waves of controlled chaos that will leave audiences' lungs aflame. Okay, maybe I am being too poetic here but the fact of the matter is this: The Hangover is funny. Like, sidesplittingly funny. I havn't heard an audience so involved and expressive while watching a film since Snakes on a Plane. The film is filled with so many unexpected moment, so many crazy scenarios and outlandish moments that pile on top of each other with such speed that it is down right absurd.

The story? When soon to be married Doug (played by an underutilized Justin Bartha) and his friends Phil, Stu, and Alan (played by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis respectively) run off to Las Vegas for Doug's bacherlor party, they except a simple night of gambling, women, and booze. When they wake up the next day, unable to remember a thing OR find Doug, they set off on a search for their friend and for clue about what the hell happened. The result is a mixture of Asian gangsters, tigers, tasers, Mike Tyson, missing teeth, and a lone baby left in their apartment.

The most important thing to make this work are actors of the highest comedic quality and The Hangover is well served by Cooper, Helms, and Galifianakis who respond to each new hurdle with such aplomb that the whole movie would feel overly formulaic without them. However, the best of the three is undoubtedly Galifianakis. At first, I wondered if his odd sense of humor would translate well to the screen and I was glad to find that he was given some of the best lines of the film and that he delivers them with characteristic dry wit. That is not to discount the others in our herioc trio. Helms and Cooper round out this pack of Stooges. The three of them complementy each other so well and with such ease that we honestly believe they've been tossed into these crazy scenarios.

The Hangover's biggest flaw then is the fact that it relies mostly on the strengths of its actors. The structure of the plot is nothing groundbreaking or overly original. What makes it succeed is that ever actor in every part is able to bring their own personal touches to the role from Rob Riggle's loudmouth cop to Ken Jeong's oddly effeminate Asian man.

Summer's sleeper hit might have finally arrived.

Bottom Line: The Hangover is a comedy whirlwind that is fortified by a strong and funny cast and moment after moment of increasingly unbelievable anctics. It is not groundbreaking or genre defining but it doesn't need to be. It just need to be damn funny. It is.