One Hell Of A Hangover

You could quibble a lot with "The Hangover."
You could say the characters never really grow beyond the one word archetypes in the script.
You could say the plot is just a ratty clothesline to hang the gags and set pieces on. But there's no denying that I laughed consistently and heartily throughout.

It's a raunchy what-happens-in-Vegas tale that only gets more deliriously weird as it goes along. A groom, his fiance's oddball brother, and his two best college buddies head to Vegas for his bachelor party. But things get out of hand and they lose him somewhere in Vegas. Nobody can remember anything about what happened. But apparently it involves a chicken, a late night trip to a wedding chapel, a baby, Asian gangsters, and Mike Tyson's tiger.

Stand up comic Zach Galifianakis has just the right unnerving presence and comic timing to make even jokes about sex offenders seem funny in just the right unsettling way.

"Daily Show" and "The Office" alum Ed Helms does a fine job as a henpecked dentist under the thumb of a controlling girlfriend. Only Bradley Cooper seems to be playing the same smarmy douche bag persona over and over again.
It lacks that special human touch to make these characters entirely relatable. But for a film from "Old School" director Todd Phillips, it's pretty good.
And you'll be quoting lines even after the movie becomes a hazy memory.

"The Hangover:" B