Hangover, The : Movie Review


In Todd Phillips' "The Hangover," Zach Galifianakis pronounces the word "retard" with the accent on "tard," as if it were a French seafood dish. It's a simple, fine-grained joke that reminds us how the mechanism of comedy -- even of crude comedy -- is delicate, like a teacup; the division between what makes us laugh and what doesn't is often just a hairline crack.

"The Hangover" -- in which a group of guys try to piece together what actually happened at a Vegas bachelor blowout so wild they can't remember any of it -- is crude, audacious and anarchic. It also fits squarely into the category of guy-friendship comedies, which means it's about guys hanging out, drinking, swearing, messing around and sharing or not sharing their feelings.

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Author : Stephanie Zacharek