I saw ‘The Hangover’ today, after hearing multiple rave reviews from friends over the weekend. Everyone said it was amazing, and I even heard a few supposedly hyperbolical “Funniest movie I’ve ever seen” statements.
Because it’s so close to ‘I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell‘ in terms of audience and subject matter, I thought I’d write down a few thoughts on the two movies. [Quick warning: This post contains a couple minor spoilers for 'The Hangover.']
- It seems like the writers took on this mindset when putting the screenplay together: “Let’s think of a bunch of really crazy situations that cool people would probably get into if they spent a month blacked out in Vegas, then we’ll compile it all into a 12-hour time slot. They’ll find a baby, a tiger, and a live chicken in their hotel room, steal a cop car, lose a tooth, marry an escort… AND THEY WON’T REMEMBER ANY OF IT! Oh my god, these guys will be so crazy and hilarious!!!” Almost all of these situations seem cliche and, to a large extent, predictable. But if you think situational humor is the greatest thing on earth, then you’ll probably love this movie. You’ll probably love this next sentence, too: Picture a guy waking up naked in a cornfield with a shoe… on his hand! Hilarious, right? I’m cracking up just thinking about it!
- I love Zach Galifianakis — he’s one of my favorite comedians — and I thought he was the only truly enjoyable character. I’d even say he carried this movie, and produced 80% of the biggest laughs from the audience. After following Zach’s career for 6+ years, seeing him live, and owning two of his live performance DVDs, I’m thrilled to see that he has successfully broken into the mainstream and people are digging his style. [SPOILER] The part where he reads his speech on the roof is the funniest scene… and it happens in the first 30 minutes. All downhill from there.
- [SPOILER] What was with The Rainman sequence? It seemed like it was slapped into the script as a half-hearted attempt to make other plot points cohesive with the story. From a stylistic standpoint it was pretty cool, but overall it was just weird and mostly unnecessary.
- [SPOILER] They stole a tiger… from Mike Tyson… while they were completely blacked out… and managed to sneak it into Caesar’s Palace… a Las Vegas high-security casino… UNDETECTED. That’s the equivalent of getting through airport security with an AK47 duct taped to your face.
- [SPOILER] The groom was on the roof for two days… and he was still passed out when they found him? What?
Now that I’m able to make a direct comparison of Tucker’s movie with one that’s kinda similar, making a ton of money, and getting rave reviews, I’m even more excited. We’re working with a film that’s, no exaggeration, at least 10x funnier. It truly makes me sad to hear people say this was one of the funniest movies they’ve ever seen, because that means their standards are in the gutter. Comedies these days just aren’t that great. ‘The Hangover,’ relative to many modern comedies, is actually pretty solid. But look at the slop it gets to compete with — all lowest common denominator drivel.
Now, you might be thinking I’m just being harsh because I had high expectations going into it. Not true. I’ve gone into movies before with tons of hype, always skeptical and worried that people building them up will ultimately lead to my disappointment, yet I’ll still come out more than happy. Like with ‘The Dark Knight,’ ‘Wall-E,’ or ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ for instance. Everyone was saying those were brilliant, and they were right — no amount of exaggerated claims would have resulted in me walking out of the theater feeling let down. But ‘The Hangover’? Come on. It’s okay, but if it’s the funniest movie you’ve ever seen, then I just feel sorry for you.
Tucker’s movie has a similar storyline, generally speaking, but it has several things ‘The Hangover’ doesn’t have. A really good story, actual depth to its characters, an endless stream of funny lines (in addition to funny situations), no ridiculous plot points, and heart. It’s a solid A-grade movie, no B.S.
I give ‘The Hangover’ a C. Maybe my standards are too high, I don’t know. But I do know that I’m excited to watch the nation’s response to ‘I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell’ in a few months. Like I’ve said before, it’s going to be BIG.
Since you say “relative to many modern comedies” and that “maybe [your] standards are too high,” I’d love to know what your standard is. What modern comedies are great? What comedies, in your opinion, are great at all?
Tucker Max says the something similar, that there are no great comedies from the past 10 years. I’m fine with disagreeing and having different taste but I find it puzzling.
For example, both Borat and Super Bad had me laughing the whole movie through. For me, if I’m laughing hard for 90 minutes, then I’d say, that is a great comedy.
So, what, to you, is a great comedy? Do any modern comedies compare to whatever YOU consider to be the greatest comedies of all time?
By: JRM on June 11, 2009
at 6:25 pm
This is a great question, and one I’ve thought about quite a bit. Above all, I think a comedy just needs to be really funny. You can get into how subjective everyone’s comedic tastes are, but truthfully, most people laugh at the same stuff. If something really resonates with a large group of people, has a fairly fresh storyline, and holds up particularly well over repeated viewings, then I think it’s a great comedy.
So here are some of my favorites:
1. Dumb and Dumber
2. Big Lebowski
3. Windy City Heat (will never be considered a great landmark comedy, but I think it’s hilarious)
4. Office Space
5. Airplane!
6. Naked Gun
7. Ace Ventura
8. Anchorman
9. Christmas Vacation
I think Borat and Superbad are very funny, but both have gotten substantially less funny for me on later viewings. Borat, when it first came out, was brilliant. I think that will probably go down as a great comedy. Superbad was really funny the first time I saw it, but it lost its magic for me now that it’s been out for a couple years.
So I guess my standards can be boiled down to: how funny is it, and how funny does it stay on repeated viewings and over the course of my life.
By: charhoehn@gmail.com on June 11, 2009
at 7:18 pm
I follow the IHTSBIH movie blog, and as much as I want to believe you, I have to keep in mind that you are part of the marketing team for this flick. I want the movie to be as great as you say, but I can’t help but hold judgement till it’s out.
By: jake on June 18, 2009
at 8:04 am
Fair enough, I can appreciate that. Just understand though that I’m not getting paid to do blog posts — I’m getting paid for building a database and coming up with ideas. That’s it.
You’ll see once it comes out. No need to take my word for it.
By: charhoehn@gmail.com on June 18, 2009
at 9:01 am
Good review Charlie. Totally agree with all your points. Glad someone is pointing out the problems with “The Hangover.” For me, the “Bruno” trailer was the only funny part of “The Hangover.”
By: Aaron on June 18, 2009
at 11:01 am
Even without seeing the Hangover your take is really convicning and sounds spot on – Beer in Hell busts the envelope on frat brat bachelor booze up crazy pre wedding high jinks but it all comes off brilliantly because the film is genuinely smart and has a plot driven character driven story line which makes sense throughout and thus is worth seeing more than once and holds up 90% (the 10% being the toilet gross out scene which flies the first time because like all the other material the intelligence of the dialogue and narrative enables the film to soar above its outrageous and disgusting stuff and make doubly humorous what would otherwise be revolting if contemplated too long (as the second time around inevitably means).
Good comedy like wit is smart but also has oodles of good humor and that is what makes Beer in Hell an instant classic. Just a pity some people will avoid it because they will wrongly think it just another sophomoric grossout. Tyhe difference here is that lawyers have brains and Tucker made this thing work perfectly by rewriting 12 times till they hit a bullseye.
Nice review which says as much for the reviewer as it does for the film.
By: criticnyc on September 27, 2009
at 8:50 am
Wow, 5 months later and The Hangover edges toward $500 million, IHTSBIH struggling to get to $2 million. The nation’s response…. this movie blows.
By: Matt on October 12, 2009
at 12:50 pm
Yeah, it is fun actually. You ever work in a job that is perfectly suited to your skills and ability, that just hits your sweet spot in terms of being challenging enough to really test you, but not so hard that you can’t do it? That’s kind where I am with this project right now. But I won’t really be happy with it until the returns start coming in on the opening Friday and we are projecting a 25+ million opening weekend of something.
-Tucker Max
I am going to consider my movie a success based on two things:
1. Do I think it’s good? Nils and I have done a great script, I know what it should look like in my head, and if it looks like that, it’ll be a success to me.
2. Did it reach a certain amount in domestic gross? To me, this is HOW I judge whether or not my fans liked it–did they spend the money to go see it. If so, yes, they liked it. If not, no, it sucked.
-Tucker Max
According to Tucker and his fans, the movie sucked. After 3 weeks it has made $1.3 million and will likely be pulled from all theaters before November hits.
Complete Tucker Max Fail.
By: Ed on October 18, 2009
at 6:09 pm
Charlie I couldn’t agree more with your views on The Hangover!!!!!!! I haven’t seen Tucker’s movie but thats too bad it flopped. Also agree Dumb and Dumber is the funniest movie of all time hands down!
By: Dave on January 18, 2011
at 7:11 pm