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| Review by Joe Yezukevich |
When one thinks of trilogies, one cannot help but think of the original Star Wars trilogy.
I, for one, think of that defining moment of modern cinema as two movies and a book.
You see, I was 7 when The Empire Strikes Back was released. Too young to bring myself, I had to rely on my mother who — as she told me years later in the theater before Episode 1 started — HATED the original movie.
So, I never saw Empire in the theater. Instead, I devoured every variation of the movie that I could get my hands on. I read the novelization, the graphic novelization, the Mad, Cracked, and Crazy parodies, listened to the audio books.
If there was a braille release, I might have picked up a copy just to get a better impression of Cloud City.
So, I walked into The Hangover Part III and realized, “Well Goddammit, I never saw The Hangover Part II.” It really was not the punch in the gut regret that I had about Empire for so many years. And as The Hangover Part III began, I realized that I was about to watch not the last of a trilogy, but a continuation of a concept.
I had walked into the 21st Century’s Police Academy 3.
This is not a perfect metaphor.
For example the 5 minutes or so involving Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis attempting to climb down a rope made of sheets to a penthouse balcony at Caesar’s Palace had several laugh out loud moments. The rest of the movie has these moments as well. However, said moments are rudely interrupted by long, awkward moments where director Todd Phillips (of both Old School and Hated: GG Allin & the Murder Junkies fame) attempts to build plot by mixing some serious LCD Asian and gay jokes into the stew.
The movie revolves around the fact that Chow (Ken Jeong) has escaped prison in Thailand, where the sequel apparently had taken place. The Wolfpack is derailed from delivering Alan (Zach Galifinakis) to a rehab center by a mobster, portrayed by John Goodman in his laziest performance to date. Chow ripped off the mobster years ago and somehow the Wolfpacks first misadventure ensured that revenge would not be his to have. He kidnaps Doug and forces the remaining three to track down, kidnap and deliver Chow to him…or Doug gets it.
Its a promising premise that is underexplored for laughs in exchange for half witted philosophizing and reminisces of past movies. Really, The Hangover Part III does not get good until after the credits when Ed Helms steals the movie in under 5 seconds. I will not go through my list of squandered opportunities, but I will present two items that Star Wars did in the first two sequels that The Hangover trilogy did not come close to doing: (1) introduce an awesome puppet sage named Yoda (I won’t even complain the Frank Oz is nowhere to be seen or heard in this movie) and (2) Warwick Davis.
The Hangover Part III is just another Hollywood sequel looking to continue making money on merchandising. It has some laughs that are not bottom of the barrel, but they aren’t the cream of the crop either. If it comes across a streaming site or maybe AXS TV on a Saturday, you could do worse than leave it on.
However, if there’s another sequel that brings a group to Russia, they had better just mix it up with the Three Men and a Baby trilogy by casting Steven Gutenberg, Tom Selleck and Zach Galifianakis.
Now that is a movie I want to read.
