The Hangover Part III (2013) Directed by Todd Phillips
Well, I'm kind of weird about The Hangover movies. I liked the second one better than the first and I'm also quite fond of this movie, while it seems that I'm a minority on this.
Guess that one of the main reason why this movie isn't as liked as much is because it isn't following the usual 'Hangover-formula'. So no waking up at a weird place, with weird things and animals surrounding our main heroes, while they remember absolutely nothing about what happened the previous night and try to piece things together, as the story moves along. I don't mind this formula and would have been happy to seen it used in this movie as well but at the same time I can also understand why they tried to do something different, this time around. There is of course a great danger that this movie would be nothing more but a rehash of the previous two movies, once it started using the same sort of formula. This was actually something that already started to bother a lot of people, when the second movie of the trilogy came out.
I kind of agree that this movie doesn't really feel like a part of a trilogy but it's still definitely a sequel, in the sense that it's a continuation of the stories of its main characters. The approach to the story is somewhat different but all of the characters and the humor are still definitely the same. No big surprise, since all 3 movies are done by basically the same cast & crew. Director Todd Phillips directed all three movies and I have always kind of liked his comedy and directing approach. He often picks some very formulaic and simplistic sounding comedy concept but always manages to turn it into something special and unexpected. It's also therefore why his comedies are often better and more effective ones to watch than the usual genre attempts, done by different people. It's therefore also absolutely ludicrous to call this movie a bad one, in my opinion. I can understand it being your least favorite one out of the whole trilogy but please don't mistake it for a bad movie as well!
Thing that it all eventually comes down to, is that I was simply entertained by this movie, all throughout It isn't necessarily saying anything about its quality or originality but it is saying something about its effectiveness. As a comedy this movie definitely serves its purpose and it serves it well! Some of the situations made me laugh, some of its dialog made me laugh, most characters made me laugh, so that all makes this a pretty effective comedy in my book!
Of course it's definitely not without its flaws or weaknesses. After all, this is also my least favorite Hangover movie out of the trilogy, so I still had plenty of problems with it as well. The story and comedy doesn't always feel like it's the best or cleverest thing ever and the movie and there's a bit of overkill in the movie. Sometimes less is more and sometimes some things are just funnier and better in smaller doses. This for instance goes for the Chow character. He plays a pretty big role in this movie but he's definitely better, funnier and more tolerable when he shows up for just a couple of minutes, as he for instance did in the first movie.
I also can't really say that this movie feels like closure. There is nothing about this movie that indicates that this could possibly be the last Hanogover movie. It's of course possible that we'll indeed get to see more Hangover movies in the future but the problem is that this movie loves to advertise itself as the end of the trilogy, like it's bringing closure and it's being the ultimate finale. None of that is true really but it's not really something that I'm holding against the movie. It's wrong advertising but you can't blame the movie itself for this.
Simply enjoy it for what it is; a good, quality, comedy. Don't expect the ultimate Hangover movie or one that plays by the exact same 'rules' as the previous two movie.
7/10
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