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“The Hangover Part III” has a high body count for a "comedy", and not all the victims are human. Among the dead, I counted four people, two dogs, a giraffe and a flock of crazed, cannibalistic, cocaine-addicted cocks. Detailing the human casualties may count as a spoiler, so I’ll focus on the critters: The roosters are blown away, tossed out of windows, and smothered with a pillow. The dogs are poisoned with Demerol. Because you’ve seen the trailers and the commercials, you already know what happens to the poor giraffe owned by Alan ( Zach Galifianakis ), one of the franchise's recurring characters. What you may not know is that none of this violence is funny, not even when Mr. Chow ( Ken Jeong ) comments on the animal cruelty by asking Stu ( Ed Helms ), “What? You’re PETA now?”

“The Hangover Part III” is the second unnecessary sequel to 2009's " The Hangover ." It was preceded by the reprehensible “ The Hangover Part II ,” which catered to its scared, straight white male audience’s baser instincts and made even more money than the original. This one opens with two holes, one in a prison wall and the other in the windshield of a moving car. The first hole is made by Leslie Chow, who must have seen “ The Shawshank Redemption .” The second is made by the giraffe, causing a massive freeway accident. Both affect the Wolfpack, the group consisting of Alan, Stu, Alan’s brother-in-law, Doug ( Justin Bartha ) and group leader Phil ( Bradley Cooper ). After Alan’s highway mishap inadvertently kills someone, his mother and sister stage an intervention to get him sent away for psychiatric treatment. His Wolfpack buddies offer to drive him there. En route, they run afoul of Marshall ( John Goodman ), an incredibly pissed off thief looking for Chow. Marshall wants the $23 million in gold bricks Chow stole from him, and has reason to believe the escaped Chow will connect with his prison pen pal, Alan. Marshall sends three of the Wolfpack members to find Chow, keeping Doug as collateral.

The Wolfpack take a detour to Tijuana looking for Chow, but “The Hangover Part III” eventually returns them to the scene of their crimes in the original film: Las Vegas. During the journey, director Todd Phillips and company acknowledge the previous installments with cameos, lines of dialogue and visual cues. I found these to be hollow attempts at catering to hardcore fans of the series, but your mileage may vary. Heather Graham , Mike Epps and the smoking monkey ( the best thing about “Hangover 2” ) return briefly. Only the monkey emerges unscathed, and she doesn’t even get a loosey to smoke.

The main focus this time is on Alan and Chow, two characters who are better in small doses. Chow is a violent, drug-fueled madman who veers dangerously close to Asian coonery. Alan is a selfish prick whose charm passed its expiration date two movies ago. Both cause death and destruction wherever they go, but while the Wolfpack’s interaction with Chow is always under duress, there is no reason for them to continue associating with Alan. When Stu tells the group “We’re stuck with [Alan]. We’re gonna spend the rest of our lives with him because we’re all he has now,” it isn’t a poignant declaration of love for a friend. It’s a death sentence. The press materials claim that “Hangover” fans would love to have Alan as a friend, which is either a testament to the success of Galifianakis’s brand of comedy or some warped form of fanboy Stockholm Syndrome.

“The Hangover Part III” plays more like a caper film — “Alan’s Eleven,” perhaps — than a comedy. While Phillips ably handles the action sequences, he and co-screenwriter Craig Mazin can’t juggle both genres in the screenplay. While a scene atop Caesars Palace generates some suspense (and a rare moment of sympathy for Alan), I had to wait until halfway through the closing credits for my first, and only, laugh. I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it for you, except to say it involves the character I enjoyed most in the first “Hangover,” the high-strung, constantly violated Stu.

John Goodman is squandered in his few scenes as Marshall. The trailers led me to believe this was some kind of riff on Walter from “ The Big Lebowski ,” but Goodman plays the character completely straight. When the Wolfpack interacts with him, it’s as if they’re placing a call to a different movie. It’s not Goodman’s fault; Marshall needed more of a Christopher Walken –style quirkiness to fit into the "Hangover" universe. On the opposite side of the spectrum is Jeong’s Chow, who is so over-the-top he loses all menace. Jeong can be very funny (he’s the best part of “ Role Models ,” for example) but, like Galifianakis, he’s repeatedly typecast.

The other actors don’t fare much better. Cooper looks bored, as if he’d rather be trying to earn more Oscar nominations. Helms gets the film’s biggest laugh, but it has more to do with a sight gag than his acting. Melissa McCarthy's cameo aims to soften Alan’s grating personality, but you’ve seen most of her performance in the trailer; her appearance made me long for a better comedy, perhaps starring her and John Goodman as criminals on the lam.

Phillips says this is the final installment in the franchise, but I don’t believe him; if audiences make this one a huge hit, there will be “The Hangover Part IV.” It may simply consist of the Warner Bros. logo and 90 minutes of blank screen, but it’ll get made. And it’ll gross $100 million opening weekend.

Odie Henderson

Odie "Odienator" Henderson has spent over 33 years working in Information Technology. He runs the blogs Big Media Vandalism and Tales of Odienary Madness. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

The Hangover Part III (2013)

Bradley Cooper as Phil

Zach Galifianakis as Alan

Ed Helms as Stu

Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow

Heather Graham as Jade

Todd Phillips
Craig Mazin

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The hangover part iii: film review.

The third installment of director Todd Phillips' phenomenally popular series finds Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms back in Vegas.

By Stephen Farber

Stephen Farber

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The Hangover 3 Cooper Galifianakis Helms Elevator - H 2013

There are two deaths within the first five minutes of The Hangover Part III . One of them will not be described here since it involves a minor plot surprise. But the other is worth mentioning. Alan, the nerdy character played by Zach Galifianakis , is driving home with a giraffe in a trailer attached to his sports car. Since the animal has to duck under a couple of freeway underpasses, it isn’t hard to guess what might happen next. The poor creature is graphically decapitated, causing a massive freeway pileup.

“This is an early sign of the movie’s desperation. PETA and other animal lovers should be warned, as there are a few other dead animals on the horizon. Hangover III is so determined to defy political correctness that it breaks one of the last cinematic taboos. Any schlockmeister can slaughter hundreds of people on camera, but how many filmmakers dare to kill dogs, other mammals, and even smother a rooster?

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The Hangover Part III Reviews

With the final chapter, the gang’s all back for a movie whose superficial alterations in structure fail to distract us from the derivative plotting and the tired, by-the-numbers feel of everything onscreen.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 6, 2022

A disappointing stumble downward in comedic value.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 3, 2020

The Hangover 3 makes it pretty clear that sometimes it's just plain time for even the most welcomed guests to get on their way.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.0/4.0 | Sep 10, 2020

cCloses out the lucrative franchise with the most tedious, supremely unfunny installment yet.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Jul 9, 2020

The biggest problem is putting [Zach Galifianakis] and [Ken Jeong] in the spotlight... The rest of the cast appears to be disinterested, especially Cooper, who looks like he would rather be anywhere else.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Apr 10, 2019

[While] it's a slightly better entry than its predecessor, the third (and final?) instalment still lacks the spark of the original.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 26, 2019

For some, this will be one Hangover too many.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jan 26, 2019

Not as funny as The Hangover, which was a sui generis film no one could replicate, but better than The Hangover Part II, which stuck too close to the story of the original.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 21, 2018

The film perhaps stays most true to its namesake when I realize I have already forgotten much of it just days after seeing it.

Full Review | Aug 30, 2018

The first Hangover was hysterical: a superb compendium of all the worst nights we've ever had while still - by the skin of our teeth - being believable. This manages both to go right over the top, but also not add up to a hill of vomit.

Full Review | Aug 10, 2018

The Wolfpack have earned this final bow.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 31, 2017

Part III was an improvement on Part II, mainly because it wasn't a carbon copy of the original, but it's still pretty well a dud.

Full Review | Oct 21, 2017

... if director and co-writer Todd Phillips didn't run this once clever idea into the ground the first two times, he definitely did it the third time with THE HANGOVER PART III.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Sep 7, 2017

If you loved The Hangover but loathed its nastier, cruder, non-hilarious sequel - apart from that quite amusing monkey - you'd be right to approach this threequel with caution.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 5, 2017

It's such tired schtick, such a nakedly calculated play to be "controversial," for an increasingly irrelevant filmmaker to get attention. He used to do so by making funny movies.

Full Review | Jun 21, 2016

It's a more mature ending this time, a fitting way to wrap up the series and signal it's time for us to let go of these poorly behaved rascals.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 14, 2016

Ironically, the most subdued Hangover is perhaps the most watchable, too.

Full Review | May 10, 2016

Though the following might read like faint praise, "The Hangover Part III" closes out what's likely the best comedy trilogy of all time, and on a genuinely respectable note.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 12, 2016

A singularly unpleasant experience drenched in so much anger and frustration that the film almost becomes interesting. Almost.

Full Review | Apr 28, 2015

One of the most unnecessary trilogies in the history of motion pictures slump to its subdued and flavorless finale

Full Review | Original Score: D | Feb 4, 2014

The Hangover Part III Review

The end of the wolfpack..

The Hangover Part III gets points for changing the franchise formula, as well as for giving the lovably weird Galifianakis the spotlight. It never quite tops the original's comic hijinks, but it's interested in other things anyway. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN , on IGN at scottcollura and on Facebook .

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By Stephen Holden

May 22, 2013

The Wolfpack rides again. Or rather, it limps exhaustedly over the tundra in what is billed as the final edition of the “Hangover” trilogy. Defanged, with glazed eyes and creaking joints, these superannuated party animals try vainly to stir up some enthusiasm during a return visit to Las Vegas, the site of the first “Hangover” movie. But their heart isn’t in it.

As the expectant audience at the screening I attended waited for “The Hangover Part III” to explode into action with the usual lewd gross-out antics, only a few scattered laughs could be heard, along with much grumbling after the final credits. For “The Hangover Part III,” directed by Todd Phillips from a screenplay he wrote with Craig Mazin, is a dull, lazy walkthrough that along with “The Big Wedding” has a claim to be the year’s worst star-driven movie.

In case you need to be reminded, or somehow missed the earlier editions, the Wolfpack includes Phil ( Bradley Cooper ), Doug (Justin Bartha), Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), four of the unlikeliest on-the verge-of-middle-age buddies ever to join forces in search of adventure. Phil is the charmer, Doug the straight arrow, Stu the square, and Alan the infantile id.

“The Hangover Part III” concentrates more on Alan than the earlier movies did, and on their troublemaking sometime sidekick and nemesis, the whiny-voiced, sociopathic Asian gangster Mr. Chow ( Ken Jeong ). An early scene in which Alan is speeding home in his sports car with a giraffe in an attached trailer promises more comedy than is subsequently delivered. As Alan reaches an underpass, his long-necked pet is decapitated, and the accident causes a traffic pileup. It is the first of several acts of cruelty to animals. Dogs are shot, and a coked-up chicken is smothered.

After the giraffe mishap, the other Wolfpack members stage an intervention to which Alan reluctantly agrees. While taking him to a rehab center, they are intercepted by a hulking mobster named Marshall (John Goodman) and his goons wearing pig masks. Marshall blames Chow for stealing millions of dollars of gold bricks and takes Doug as a hostage until Chow is brought to him, along with the gold.

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The Hangover feels like a franchise created by a studio rather than a storyteller. The original film was a huge sleeper hit, and Warner Bros. wanted to chase that high. We get sequels because audiences presumably want more, and the assumption was that we wanted to see more of Phil ( Bradley Cooper ), Stu ( Ed Helms ), and Alan ( Zach Galifianakis ), a.k.a. "The Wolfpack". The Hangover Part II gave audiences more of the same to the point where it felt like a remake rather than a sequel. Once again, the filmmakers have responded not by really buckling down on a good story, but reacting to the response towards the previous movie. This time we would get an original story—a Hangover without the hangover. But The Hangover Part III is a case of being careful what you wish for, and even though sequels are supposed to provide more, Part III somehow gives us less. The chemistry between the Wolfpack is diminished, the pacing is lethargic, and the humor is sporadic. The only thing Part III gives us more of is Leslie Chow ( Ken Jeong ) in an attempt to personify the insanity of the previous plots, but who only serves to distract from what should be the franchise's last hurrah.

Rather than working with the Wolfpack as a whole, the story puts the focus on Chow and Alan. Alan has been off his meds for six months, he's becoming more unstable, and Doug ( Justin Bartha ) thinks it's would be best if his brother-in-law spent a little time in an institution. Bringing along Stu and Phil on the way to the facility, the friends are ambushed by Marshall ( John Goodman ) and his gang of thugs. Marshall has come after the Wolfpack because Chow stole $21 million in gold, and Alan has been in contact with the unhinged criminal. Marshall holds Doug ransom, and gives the Wolfpack three days to capture and deliver Chow. When the gang encounters Leslie, they're only drawn in deeper, and Alan is forced to slightly mature because that's what the script requires despite his constantly childish antics.

In The Hangover , the characters retrace the steps of their wild night. Similarly, director Todd Phillips and screenwriter Craig Mazin have made two attempts to recapture the glory of the original film. Even though the plot is walking a new path, the calculations are still there. The story focuses on Alan because he was the most popular character from the first movie. And audiences must love Chow far more than I expected since Phillips and Mazin choose to put the character front-and-center, and let Stu and Phil recede into the background. In an attempt to answer the criticisms directed at The Hangover Part II , Phillips and Mazin have still missed the mark. The complaints weren't about the chemistry between the three lead characters. The complaints were about copying the plot. Part III ends up throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

We're left to wonder if these characters can work if they're no longer in the framework of the original movie. The "Wolfpack" moniker really is appropriate since there's no single protagonist. We see Stu, Phil, and Alan get punished in equal measure, and the chemistry comes alive through their shared ordeal. But if you shake it up, then the repercussions throw the story out of balance. By putting the emphasis on Alan, we see Phil and Stu as nothing more than a jerk and a coward, respectively. They've always had these shallow traits, but they worked in the past because of their situation. The further you pull the characters away from the central action, the more uninteresting they become.

The original flame only begins to flicker once the gang goes back to basics and Chow is off their backs. They're a team that's woefully out of their depth, and when Phil tries to repel down a floor from the top of Caesar's Palace, it has the same level of comic threat as trying to move a car that contains a tiger. Phil, Alan, and Stu may not be directly at fault for their circumstances, but it's still funny watching them trying to deal with the situation. There are laughs throughout the movie, but they're far less frequent because the new plot doesn't have the frenetic pace of the original. Part III is far more methodical in pushing from scene to scene, and making the characters dance to Chow's beat. He's the driving force, and so the film rests on a character who works best in small doses. Galifianakis and Jeong deliver some great jokes (Galifianakis has one of my favorite lines of the year), but the scenes lack the flair we came to expect from the first movie. Ironically, since this is billed as the conclusion of the trilogy, the one scene that best evokes the spirit of the original comes during the credits.

Sometimes, individual elements come together in an unexpected way, and the result is something special. Recreating that formula can be difficult, and the last two Hangover movies have been trying to find the mix that made the original such a success. Part II thought it was the plot, and Part III thinks it's Alan and Chow. But sometimes you simply can't brew up that concoction again. It was something raw, vivacious, and spontaneous. I seriously doubt anyone expected The Hangover to be one of the biggest hits of 2009. The Hangover Part III shows there's no recapturing the magic of the original. At best, we can only look back fondly at that unforgettable forgotten night.

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The Hangover Part III Movie Review

For a franchise known for pushing boundaries, The Hangover Part III isn’t nearly outrageous enough. In his wild 2009 original, Todd Phillips goosed the stale men-behaving-badly formula, giving it a rude, hard-R twist. But his Bangkok-set 2011 follow-up felt like a road trip on cruise control. I don’t know why, but I came to the latest (and final) chapter with bullish optimism. It seemed like a perfect chance for a course correction, tapping back into the first film’s whacked-out Wolfpack spirit. Oh, well.

Hangover III is Alan’s story. Played again by the manic potbellied elf Zach Galifianakis, Alan has decided to go off his meds, which results in some bad decisions (even for him), including a joyride with an ill-fated giraffe. An intervention is staged, and it’s up to Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms, whose Maori face tattoo has been lasered off), and Doug (Justin Bartha, quickly sidelined again) to take him to rehab in Arizona. During a pit stop in Vegas, they hook up with some familiar faces: Mike Epps’ Black Doug, Heather Graham’s Jade, Ken Jeong’s Mr. Chow. They’re also introduced to Marshall (John Goodman), an ascot-wearing heavy who forces the boys to track down Chow and recover $21 million in gold bars that the cocaine-fueled imp has stolen. Mild mayhem ensues.

Part caper, part coming-of-adulthood story, Hangover III never settles into a debauched groove. As a Sin City romp, it’s too tame. And as a ”very special” ode to Alan’s journey to responsibility, it’s a miscalculation of what fans want from a series featuring a smoking monkey. That said, you should stick around for the end credits because there’s a Helms sight gag that’s absolutely priceless. The movie could’ve used more laughs like that one. B-

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Movie Review: The Wolfpack Returns, Minus the Laughs, in The Hangover III

The Hangover Part III opens on an elegant slow-motion shot of some guards running urgently, to the strains of classical music, through the corridors of a Thai prison. They make their way to a gate beyond which we see, still in slow motion, an elaborate, cataclysmic riot already in full progress. Amid the total chaos, they make their way to the cell of goofball Chinese gangster Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) and discover that he has fled, Shawshank Redemption– style. Purely on the surface, it’s a beautifully put-together scene — aestheticized and shot with uncommon cinematic grace. And right there is pretty much everything that’s wrong with The Hangover Part III .

Allow me to explain. The plot of this third installment in the guys’-night-out-gone-wrong franchise goes like this: Our heroes from the earlier films — alpha male horndog Phil (Bradley Cooper, who doesn’t really look like he wants to be here), straight-laced trouble magnet Stu (Ed Helms), and perpetual afterthought Doug (Justin Bartha) have to get the tubby, emotionally stunted black sheep Alan (Zach Galifianakis, looking healthier than usual) to a facility where he’s going to presumably get treatment for the fact that he lives at home and acts like a 12-year-old. To convince him to go, the three friends agree to make the drive with Alan. Along the way, they’re attacked and accosted by drug kingpin Marshall (John Goodman). Turns out the recently escaped Chow once made off with Marshall’s gold. No one can find him, but Marshall is convinced our heroes, and particularly Alan, who is still friends with Chow, can. So, he holds Doug hostage and threatens to kill him unless Phil, Stu, and Alan locate Chow and return him, and the gold, to Marshall. So off the Wolfpack goes to Vegas to try to track their man down.

Are you laughing yet?? No?? Let’s leave to one side the fact that The Hangover Part III inexplicably chooses to make Chow the focus of its story — Jeong is a terrific actor, but his character was always the weakest part of this franchise, the main point of his appearance in the first entry being its utter randomness. The film seems to relish the fact that it’s not trying particularly hard to be funny. There are set pieces galore here — a debauched penthouse party, an attempt to rappel down the side of Caesar’s Palace using a rope fashioned out of bedsheets, and a limo chasing a parasailing fugitive through the streets of Vegas. There are even some mildly chuckle-worthy moments during these set pieces — as when Alan gets stuck between the E and S in the Caesar’s Palace sign. But director Todd Phillips seems more interested in staging the action than in mining any genuine humor from it.

This is nothing short of a tragedy, at least for those of us who like the Hangover movies. One of Phillips’s great strengths as a filmmaker has always been the fact that he eschews the point-and-shoot style of most comedy directors today. There’s an old-fashioned smoothness and power to his images, which is why in many ways the first Hangover , with its noir-ish, mystery-plot structure, worked so well. Phillips brought to his comedy formal signifiers from other genres, like slow-motion and tracking shots and bird’s-eye points of view. It’s a self-conscious way of directing, to be sure, but it’s not gratuitous: The stylized depiction of Vegas early in The Hangover matched the jacked-up, sexed-up ambitions of the characters; while the nocturnal, otherworldly quality of the film enhanced their terrifying uncertainty. So that you weren’t just waiting for the next gag, you were genuinely sucked into the plot. (Okay, at least some of us were. I’ll admit that not everybody’s as keen on The Hangover as I was.) But this time, the director’s grandiosity gets the better of him. The Hangover Part III amps up the style and the action, but it forgets the jokes.

It truly is surprising how barren the movie is of humor. There’s one funny exchange early on that relates to Stu’s sexual travails in the second Hangover film; later, there are some bits involving Melissa McCarthy as a pawn-shop owner who sparks some chemistry with Alan. And that’s about it. Indeed, the film’s unfunniness may be the joke. Consider some of the advertising for the film, with posters showing Ed Helms carrying a seemingly lifeless Jeong with the words “It all ends here.” “ Wouldn’t it be funny ,” you imagine the writers and the director asking, “ if we went totally genre and forgot about the comedy altogether? ” So, this Hangover actually has a body count; as in, people die in this movie. “ But that IS the joke !!” you can hear the filmmakers insisting. “ But it’s not funny! ” you want to yell back.

Actually, I lied when I said those aforementioned gags were the only jokes. There is one very funny bit, and it comes courtesy of the end credits’ stinger, which has our characters waking up, Hangover 1 and 2 -style, from yet another debauched party with something clearly amiss. But ironically, coming this late in the game, the moment feels like a slap in the face. It’s a taunting reminder of the movie we might have had, instead of this turgid, unfunny catastrophe.

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Film Review: ‘The Hangover Part III’

It’s debatable whether 'Part III' should even be considered a comedy.

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

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Five minutes into “The Hangover Part III ,” a giraffe is gruesomely decapitated by a freeway overpass. While this unfortunate event is ultimately tangential to the film’s plot, it nonetheless marks its best shot at leaving a lasting legacy, with the phrase “beheading the giraffe” perhaps someday supplanting “jumping the shark” as the cliche of choice to mark a franchise’s official descent into pitiable pointlessness. Nearly bereft of laughs, this final “Hangover” should nonetheless generate lucrative business due to simple brand recognition and a desire to see the old gang one last time as they dutifully, distractedly wind down the clock.

Once the highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever made, the first “Hangover” was one of the best surprises of 2009; a thoroughly modern callback to the great politically incorrect bro comedies of the 1980s, enlivened with a novel narrative twist. A 2011 sequel reeked of laziness, reprising the original’s every beat with mechanical obligation, yet it still managed to squeeze out some quality gags. “Part III,” however, takes the opposite path to even worse results. Ditching the hangovers, the backward structure, the fleshed-out characters and any sense of debauchery or fun, this installment instead just thrusts its long-suffering protagonists into a rote chase narrative, periodically pausing to trot out fan favorites for a curtain call.

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At times it’s debatable whether “ The Hangover Part III” should even be considered a comedy at all, as it more often plays like a loopily plotted, exposition-heavy actioner. Despite a career-long devotion to low-brow comedy, director Todd Phillips displays a deft touch for the various jail breaks, heists and car chase sequences that arise here, while the film’s attempts at basic comic banter wither on the vine. One wonders how he would fare directing a straight genre project in which he could use dark humor to spice up the action beats, rather than the other way around.

But as for the film at hand, it focuses on goonish outcast Alan ( Zach Galifianakis ), then kicks into gear as he accidentally jumps the … or rather, beheads a giraffe and sparks a subsequent highway pileup, the aftermath of which causes the death of a minor character. One of the more subtle subversions of the whole “Hangover” trilogy is its notion that any real-life person who embodied the old “wild and crazy guy” comic archetype would actually be a terrifying psychopath, and that theme reaches its logical conclusion here, as the assembled returning characters stage an intervention. Wolfpackers Phil ( Bradley Cooper ), Stu (Ed Helms) and Doug ( Justin Bartha ) convince Alan to check into a psychiatric treatment facility in Arizona by promising to drive him there themselves.

No sooner have they reached the desert than they’re run off the road by a gang of pig-masked thugs commanded by crime boss Marshall (John Goodman). For reasons too confusing and irrelevant to relate, the Wolfpack’s first Las Vegas bacchanal four years ago somehow allowed the effeminate Chinese gangster Mr. Chow ( Ken Jeong ) to steal a truckload of Marshall’s gold bricks. Taking Doug hostage, Marshall gives the remaining trio three days to find both Chow (sprung from a Thai prison in the pic’s prologue) and the purloined gold, entailing a journey to Tijuana and then back to Vegas.

That the plot is convoluted and ridiculous isn’t really a problem, but by playing things completely chronologically — and worse, soberly — this film’s shenanigans feel witlessly arbitrary in a way that the previous installments avoided. Another key failing is the film’s centerstage placement of characters who work best on the fringes, like Alan and (especially) Chow. As unhinged as they were, both earlier “Hangover” films managed to keep the focus on Cooper and Helms, whose characters bore at least passing resemblance to actual adults, while Galifianakis and Jeong brought in desultory rushes of cartoonish anarchy. Reverse those proportions, however, and the proceedings become unpalatably frenzied, akin to being served a full plate of wasabi with a sushi garnish.

Having recently proved he can tackle roles of far greater sophistication, Cooper seems the most disengaged among the cast, and several of his disdainfully delivered lines can’t help but feel like meta-commentary on the whole affair — “who gives a fuck?” and “what the fuck are we watching?” in particular. Goodman brings surprisingly little to his heavy role, although fellow newcomer Melissa McCarthy, playing a deliciously vile Vegas pawn-shop owner, steals the one scene here that could be spliced into the original film without a loss in quality.

Tech credits are topnotch throughout, with special plaudits going to lenser Lawrence Sher and second-unit d.p. Josh Bleibtreu for crafting some genuinely elegant compositions where lesser work probably would have sufficed. Elaborate old-school aerial stunt work shot over Las Vegas Boulevard and on a (convincing) replica of the Caesars Palace facade leaves a strong impression.

‘ The Hangover Part III ‘ Photos:

Reviewed at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, May 15, 2013. MPAA rating: R. Running time: 100 MIN.

Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures presentation in association with Legendary Pictures of a Green Hat Films production. Produced by Todd Phillips, Dan Goldberg. Executive producers, Thomas Tull, Scott Budnick, Chris Bender, J.C. Spink.
Crew: Directed by Todd Phillips. Screenplay, Phillips, Craig Mazin, based on characters created by Jon Lucas, Scott Moore. Camera (color, Technicolor prints), Lawrence Sher; editor, Debra Neil-Fisher; music, Christophe Beck; music supervisors, Randall Poster, George Drakoulias; production designer, Maher Ahmad; costume designer, Loiuse Mingenbach; art director, Austin Gorg; set decorator, Gene Serdena; sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat/SDDS), Whit Norris; sound designer/supervisor, Cameron Frankley; re-recording mixers, Kevin O’Connell, Gregg Landaker; visual effects supervisor, Robert Stadd; visual effects, Hammerhead Prods., Hydraulx, Talking Bird Pictures, VFX Collective; second-unit camera, Josh Bleibtreu; assistant director, Jeffrey Wetzel; casting director, Mindy Marin.
With: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, John Goodman, Melissa McCarthy, Jeffrey Tambor, Heather Graham, Mike Epps, Sasha Barrese, Jamie Chung, Sondra Currie, Gillian Vigman, Silvia Curiel, Grant Holmquist.

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The hangover part iii, common sense media reviewers.

Wolf Pack "threequel" has tons of danger, crude content.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Friendship is the franchise's underlying theme, bu

Although they're always motivated by loyalty to th

Violent content includes a harrowing carjacking/ki

Many sexual references/suggestions. A few scenes f

Extensive swearing in almost every scene, mostly p

Several well-known car brands are visible, includi

Characters drink beer and wine in bars and at meal

Positive Messages

Friendship is the franchise's underlying theme, but there's a conflict between the message to be true to your friends (especially when they're in trouble and need help) and the fact that loyalty leads people into dangerous situations.

Positive Role Models

Although they're always motivated by loyalty to their friend, the three main characters make very poor choices that lead them into dangerous -- sometimes criminal -- activities, including lying, breaking into homes, stealing, attempted kidnapping, and more.

Violence & Scariness

Violent content includes a harrowing carjacking/kidnapping and several scenes in which criminals brandish handguns. Gangsters callously shoot each other and attack people with knives. Several men attempt to drug and abduct another man. Punching, falling off buildings, etc. Several scenes show people being cruel to animals, including a giraffe that meets a very unpleasant (and undeserved) end.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Many sexual references/suggestions. A few scenes feature brief glimpses of women in their underwear/possibly topless. Characters imitate masturbation/ejaculation. Sex talk/references. A flirtatious/sexual scene involving a lollipop. One character is a retired stripper. One unusual scene includes bare breasts and a naked man running around, his penis fully exposed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Extensive swearing in almost every scene, mostly permutations of "s--t" and "f--k." Also "bitch," "ass," "d--k," "a--hole," "damn," "hell," "goddamn," "oh my God," and more.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Several well-known car brands are visible, including Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Maybach. A character prefers Tab sodas, and several of the guys like Dos Equis beer. Many famous Las Vegas hotels are shown prominently as the characters drive through the town, and an important scene is staged at Caesar's Palace.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink beer and wine in bars and at meals in several scenes. Some people also smoke cigarettes; one smokes a cigar. While no drug use is shown, several sequences have strong drug references (especially to cocaine) -- and the whole premise of the Hangover franchise is people getting drugged and forgetting about their actions.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that while The Hangover Part III deviates from the structure of the first two installments, it doesn't skimp at all on the over-the-top, R-rated raunch that defines the franchise. After a harrowing kidnapping, Phil ( Bradley Cooper ), Stu ( Ed Helms ), and Alan ( Zach Galifianakis ) stumble into all manner of mishaps trying to rescue their pal, Doug ( Justin Bartha ). Expect tons of strong language ("f--k," "s--t," and more), violence (guns, knives, animal cruelty), danger, alcohol and drug use, and sexual content (including scenes that show bare breasts and male genitals). While perhaps not quite as over the top as the last installment , this is still iffy for anyone except the most mature teens and adults. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (9)
Kids say (23)

Based on 9 parent reviews

What's the Story?

After an unnerving pileup on the Los Angeles freeway triggered by a giraffe (yes, you read that correctly), Phil ( Bradley Cooper ), Stu ( Ed Helms ), and Doug ( Justin Bartha ) find themselves driving the fourth member of their quartet, Alan ( Zach Galifianakis ), to a rehab facility in Arizona. Suddenly they're forced off the road and kidnapped by a gangster ( John Goodman ), who demands they track down an old friend who may have hidden millions in stolen gold. The gang is forced into the mysterious underworld of Tijuana, and then it's back to their old stomping grounds, Las Vegas, where they careen from one crazy escapade to another. Heather Graham returns as a retired stripper, and Melissa McCarthy appears in a role that reveals an entirely new side of Alan.

Is It Any Good?

Here's the biggest takeaway from THE HANGOVER PART III: It's better than Part II . Better pacing, better storytelling, even better camera work in some cases. (There's a fantastic bit involving a parachute that showcases Las Vegas' glory.) That said, it's still nowhere near as funny as the original Hangover , a bromance that expanded the definition of the buddy movie and gave us an uneasy but potent mix of outrageous hilarity. There aren't as many seriously funny moments in the Wolf Pack third outing (though there are some) and too many attempts to characterize what's actually morbid and dreary -- a son's response to his father's death, for instance, and the smothering of an animal -- as comical. (There's actually more than one joke about killing an animal -- not funny, for the record.)

And the franchise is showing its age; the whole enterprise just seems duller, even the usually ridiculous Mr. Chow ( Ken Jeong ). Nonetheless, the Hangover films have always managed to uncover an essential truth about bromances, and this one's no exception. The chemistry is palpable among the leads, and capturing that onscreen is a fitting final tribute.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how The Hangover movies depict drinking , drug use, and wild behavior. Is the film condoning or glorifying any of this?

How does The Hangover Part III differ from the prior Hangover films? How is it similar?

Talk about the friendships at the core of this series. Do the men seem like real pals? What would you endure to save a friend in danger?

Movie Details

In theaters : May 23, 2013
On DVD or streaming : October 8, 2013
Cast : Bradley Cooper , Ed Helms , Zach Galifianakis
Director : Todd Phillips
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Comedy
Run time : 100 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : pervasive language including sexual references, some violence and drug content, and brief graphic nudity
Last updated : October 12, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Hangover III : Hang It Up Already

Christian Hamaker Contributing Film and Culture Writer
Updated Oct 04, 2013

DVD Release Date: October 4, 2013 Theatrical Release Date: May 24, 2013 Rating: R for pervasive language including sexual references, some violence and drug content, and brief graphic nudity Genre: Comedy Run Time: 100 min. Director: Todd Phillips Actors: Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, John Goodman, Melissa McCarthy, Jeffrey Tambor, Heather Graham, Mike Epps

Before seeing The Hangover Part III , ask yourself if a hangover is something you want to experience a third time. Wasn’t once enough, and wasn’t even that experience regrettable? Don’t you regret the repeat misery of The Hangover Part II ? Didn’t you vow, in the miserable aftermath, to avoid all future Hangovers ?

The first The Hangover , Todd Phillips 's hard “R” buddy comedy from 2009, was a giant hit that revolved around the ramifications of one crazy night of excess in Las Vegas. The sordid details of the night in question weren’t revealed until the film’s closing credits, when one outrageous photo after another filled in the gaps of debauched behavior. Audiences loved the movie, making it the biggest R-rated comedy ever at the time.

In 2011, Phillips dialed up a sequel that aped the original’s storyline and premise in a crass strategy to give audiences more of the same. The strategy paid off at the box office, leading to the inevitable The Hangover Part III . Would it be still another carbon copy?

The Wolfpack is back in action. Phil ( Bradley Cooper , The A-Team ), Stu ( Ed Helms , Cedar Rapids ) and Doug ( Justin Bartha , National Treasure: Book of Secrets ) have decided to confront Alan ( Zach Galifianakis , Due Date ), who, in the film’s opening minutes, buys a giraffe but doesn’t succeed in transferring the giraffe to his home alive. The notoriety caused by the giraffe’s death leads Alan’s father ( Jeffrey Tambor , Win Win ) to have a heart attack, but that doesn’t seem to phase his dependent, demanding son.

Alan leads them to Chow, but things, of course, don’t go as planned, as the friends wind their way to Tijuana and, eventually, Las Vegas. This time it’s Alan and Chow who dominate the proceedings, while Phil and Stu react to the story’s unexpected turns with variations on the lazy (but, at the movies , increasingly familiar) refrain of “What the f---?” Needless to say, a little of that sort of dialogue goes a long way.

Other characters are motivated by revenge, greed and, in Alan’s case, a sudden attraction to a store clerk ( Melissa McCarthy , Bridesmaids ) who finds him appealing in a way others before her have not. Alan’s moment with the clerk and his conversation with a young boy later in the film are the closest this movie gets to any heartfelt emotion.

The Hangover Part III , billed with the tagline "the epic finale," is neither epic nor, if it succeeds at the box office, likely to be the finale. Written by Hangover Part II scribe Craig Mazin, who also wrote the underwhelming (but financially successful) Identity Thief , The Hangover Part III aims low, but it at least hits the mark more often than Part II .

More disappointing is Cooper, who proved his acting chops in Silver Linings Playbook but phones it in for this Hangover . He, along with Helms, should cash their Hangover checks and find more promising, creative material to focus on in the future.

Language/Profanity: Lord’s name taken in vain multiple times; multiple uses of the “f”-word; numerous other obscenities; obscene gesture; verbal reference to oral sex
Alcohol/Smoking/Drugs : Drinking and brief smoking; drinking and driving; Alan is said to be off his meds; a character says he spends his time “doing blow”; chickens are said be fed cocaine; a character exclaims, “I love cocaine!”
Sex/Nudity: Reference to anal sex; crude sexual jokes and references; brief shot of topless women and a woman in her panties; kissing; Alan drops his pants and mentions he saw a similar act in a pornographic movie; an escort is a minor character
Violence/Crime: A prison riot; a man is seen having a heart attack; the Wolfpack have their hands bound and are kidnapped after their car is run off the road; chickens attack men, and one of the chickens is smothered; Alan reads various charges brought against him, including “masturbating on a public bus” and another for lewd behavior; gunfire and bullet impact shown; a man falls off the roof of a moving car
Religion/Morals: A character says, “I pray for you”

Questions? Comments? Contact the writer at [email protected] .

Publication date : April 25, 2013

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The Hangove r trilogy ranked highly with critics because of the wild antics and mischief the main characters got into. The first movie was a classic bachelor party gone wrong that encouraged the age-old statement “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” What followed were two sequels that continued shenanigans where the main characters don’t remember anything from the night before. With Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, and Ed Helms, leading the trilogy, The Hangover became a success.

However, three movies don’t necessarily mean that each film was better than the next. Sometimes high budgets can cloud the storyline with out-of-the-ordinary settings and expectations (and while The Hangover had funny scenes throughout its three movies, every movie isn’t created equally in rank). Award-wise, The Hangover was the only movie nominated for a Golden Globe, while the sequels were both nominated for cinematic failures at the Razzie Awards. They're viewed as financial successes but one is better than the next.

RELATED: What Really Happened On Doug's Stag In The Hangover Movie Timeline

3 The Hangover Part III (2013)

Phil, Alan, and Stu outside talking on The Hangover Part III

The Hangover III brought the gang together again to help Alan, as he went through a difficult time after the death of his father. To get Alan the help he needed, Phil, Doug, and Stu escort Alan to a treatment facility where they’re taken hostage by a drug lord looking for their friend Mr. Chow. Despite The Hangover III’s funniest quotes , it’s ranked as the lowest, respectively. The film brought in over $362 million at box offices worldwide (via The Numbers ), and while a financial success, it had negative reviews. Variety described The Hangover III as an "Official descent into pitiable pointlessness.”. Despite its success, publications found the movie nonsensical with its tiresome storylines.

2 The Hangover Part II (2011)

An image of Stu Phil and Alan looking nervous in The Hangover

The Hangover II was the highest-grossing movie in the franchise, reaching over $586 million (via Box Office MoJo ). It picked up where the first left off two years after their wild night in Vegas. Now that it was Stu’s turn to get married, the foursome flew to Thailand for a destination wedding and an unintentionally out-of-control bachelor party.

Despite its high box office numbers, The Hangover II couldn’t pull off what the original did. A movie that never needed a sequel , The Guardian gave The Hangover II one star out of five for repeating too many of the original’s jokes and scenes. They wrote, " All the fun has been drained from the movie, simply in repeating almost every trick. The same: but lame, and lame because the same.” Still, the humor and all-star cast proved to be great distractions.

1 The Hangover (2009)

The characters of The Office at Doug's wedding looking at a phone

The Hangover is the highest-ranked movie in the franchise because of its originality. The jokes were fresh, the storyline was out of this world, and the cast was even better. The film follows Doug, who is having his bachelor party in Las Vegas with his two best friends and new brother-in-law Alan. Wanting to have an epic night, Alan drugged the group but didn’t expect it to get so out of hand - especially as no one could find the groom-to-be and had to retrace their steps to find him.

RELATED: 10 Reasons The Hangover Sequels Could Never Top The Original

One of Todd Phillips’ highest-grossing movies , The Hangover earned over $468 million worldwide at the box office (via Box Office Mojo ) and was praised by critics. Although the story of getting drunk in Vegas and forgetting everything the next day is a cliché, The Hangover is a happy one as it won several accolades. The Hangover brought home a Golden Globe for Best Picture in a comedy or musical and a BAFTA for Best Screenplay - Orignal. It was a nominee for the Writers Guild of America for Best Original screenplay. In comparison to the others, this one was certainly more memorable than the others.

MORE: 15 Best Comedy Movies To Watch If You Like The Hangover

The Hangover (2009)
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‘The Hangover 3’ – Hypable movie review

As the final installment of the trilogy, The Hangover 3 is a bit of a fresh take on the franchise, but overall it’s nothing new from what we’ve already seen.

At the start of the film, we see Alan (Zach Galifianakis) worse than ever: he buys a giraffe, only to have it decapitated by an overpass and cause a highway shutdown. In such, he causes his father so much stress that he falls suddently falls ill. At the funeral, Doug states that his wife, Alan’s sister, is staging an intervention and asks the Wolfpack to also attend. Alan agrees to be taken to a mental institution in Arizona – but only if The Wolfpack accompanies him. While en route to Arizona in Phil’s golden minivan, they literally get driven off of the road by an unfriendly, yet familiar face. Due to a circumstance that happened in the original Hangover Film, the Wolfpack must find Mr. Chow – otherwise one of the four will be dead.

The Hangover 3 doesn’t follow the general “bachelor-party-gone-wrong” plot as seen in the first two films, but it does, unsurprisingly, have the same type of humor as the rest of the franchise. Because of this, there are no truly hilarious moments that are laugh-out-loud funny, but the plot isn’t really boring, either. I was entertained throughout the 102 minutes of the film and didn’t lose interest – I think that’s due the fact the plot wasn’t a completely mimicked from the first and second installments.

The acting was, like the style of comedy, not much different than the 2009 and 2011 films. It was satisfactory – not terrible, but no where near Oscar-worthy. John Goodman demonstrated his seasoned acting skills through his supporting role, and he easily was the best actor in the cast. Although yes, as we saw last year in Silver Lining’s Playbook , Bradley Cooper is an exceptional actor, his role in The Hangover 3 (and in the other two in the franchise) are only satisfactory – which is also due to the fact that his character, Phil, doesn’t have much depth. Melissa McCarthy also makes a few appearances in the film – and her character is relatively small and, as basically the rest of the cast, not very developed. McCarthy does a decent job with her character’s acting, but then again, it’s hard to live up to her breakout role in Bridesmaids , both from a character development and acting role.

Clearly, making a third installment of The Hangover franchise was simply a money-maker for director Todd Phillips. After record-breaking sales from the first film, it makes logical sense to make more films – although the second two were lacking in the same quality of the first. The originality and adoration of first Hangover probably would have continued to be highly respected if the second two films didn’t exist – and could have easily remained a stand-alone film rather than an obvious money-making franchise.

Although not as formulaic as the previous two films in the franchise, The Hangover 3 is mildly funny, unsurprising, yet it was slightly better than I anticipated and kept me engaged throughout its entirety. Unless you have nothing better to do, I would wait until The Hangover 3 is released on Netflix to watch on a rainy day.

Rated: R (for pervasive language including sexual references, some violence and drug content, and brief graphic nudity)

The Hangover 3 opens in theaters on May 23.

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Movie Reviews

This time, it's a dull ache of a 'hangover'.

Joel Arnold

Dazed And Confused (And Just Plain Lazy): Zach Galifianakis (center), with Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper, is back for a third Hangover film. Warner Bros. Pictures hide caption

The Hangover Part III

Director: Todd Phillips
Genre: Comedy
Running Time: 100 minutes

Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, some violence and drug content, and brief graphic nudity

With: Ken Jeong, Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, John Goodman, Justin Bartha, Melissa McCarthy, Heather Graham, Jeffrey Tambor, Mike Epps

Watch Clips

'What's The Worst That's Happened?'

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

'Chow Is A Cancer'

Well, they did say this one was going to be different.

After The Hangover II essentially duplicated the structure of the first movie --three guys piecing together a night of debauchery and mayhem none of them can entirely remember — director Todd Phillips promised that the third would go in a new direction. And, in a bold if unbelievable move in the era of never-ending sequels, he pledged that this Hangover would be the last.

A kind of encouraging predictive logic indicated that a third movie might embrace the franchise's better instincts: While its predecessors suffered from a sensibility mired in casual sexism and homophobia, the first also had an inventive conceit, a handful of talented comedians in memorable supporting roles and a Zach Galifianakis performance bubbling with unpredictable weirdness. With Phillips given the freedom to conclude this story of debauchery and blackouts on his own terms, you might hope for a mixed bag swinging toward decency.

Instead, there's Hangover III , an excessively violent action comedy that handily manages the tough task of feeling at once tired and aggressively heartless. You can almost see its underdeveloped soul shriveling away as the movie kills off any sense of fun the franchise used to have: Where The Hangover found its representative image in Galifianakis and that misplaced baby decked out in matching sunglasses, this movie offers ... a decapitated giraffe head.

Out is the formula, with no hangover and few comedic set pieces; in is much more nonsense involving Wolfpack nemesis Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong), a surprisingly high body count that's mostly mammalian, and a dark tonal shift that begins when the movie turns on the mostly benign oddball Alan (Galifianakis).

Alan's antics have occasionally walked the line between harmlessly mad-hatter and unintentionally destructive — his earnest desire that the guys have a good time together is what got them dosed with roofies in one movie and a muscle relaxants/ADHD meds cocktail in the other. But now his actions have consequences, and what The Hangover once asked its audience to read as eccentricity is now viewed as signs of a serious mental problem.

Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper), and Doug (Justin Bartha) stage an intervention in a scene that both tries to sell Alan's behavior as clinically unstable and still trading on it for jokes; it's a mixed-message perspective that's all the cheaper because up till now, the character's behavior has played a lot more like a loose mix of written and ad-libbed quirks carried by Galifianakis' talent than like any diagnosable disorder.

Aaaaaanyway: On their way to a treatment center, the guys are run off the road and held at gunpoint by a group of thugs. An overdose of exposition reveals a menacing John Goodman as Marshall, a mobster connected to a minor event in the first movie and now out for revenge on Chow, who's recently escaped from a Thai prison. Marshall takes Doug hostage, making him the MacGuffin once again — something the movie refuses to wink at. Only instead of being merely missing, he'll be dead in a few days unless the others find and deliver Chow.

This threat of violence sets up the movie's sensibility, fueled mostly by funny one-liners from Galifianakis tempered by the straight-up murders of chickens, dogs and even people. A franchise that began with successful gags involving guys getting tazed or punched in the face by Mike Tyson now offers up various unstylized, unfunny and objectively horrible things as the Wolfpack's remnants track Chow to Tijuana and thence to Vegas. Stu and Phil — blandly written wastes of Helms and Cooper's talents, who've never had much to do — are further reduced to reacting naturalistically to the grim things happening around them. They're just a couple of guys having a really bad couple of days.

It's the malevolent Chow of H angover II whose presence and worldview dominate this movie; he's identified as a cancer more than once, but his particular brand of evil is unspecific. He's a broad caricature even less defined than Alan: psychopathic, sex-obsessed, drug-obsessed, death-obsessed, colorblind, dyslexic and fond of karaoke — he's whatever the plot needs him to be, really, and whatever kind of insane Ken Jeong's mad-libs make him. The lack of a true characterization wasn't a problem when he occupied a minor spot in the first film, but elevated to driving story force, he becomes an unmotivated creator of chaos, and one too exposed for much of his nonsense to be funny.

There's something or other at the end about Alan's eventual growing up, a process helped along by his meeting a foil in a pawn-shop owner played by Melissa McCarthy. But the winning moments between them are too few, and in the end there's little joy to be gained from any of what happens in this third dull ache of a Hangover; in dumping his formula, Phillips throws out just about everything else that made the first movie even a little likable.

There's even a suggestion here that the group's cycle of lost nights and poor choices will repeat, with Chow in their lives forever. If that happens, let's hope they don't remember it — and we don't have to see it.

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Hangover 3 Movie Review

August 7, 2013 by Dawn McAlexander

Hangover 3 Movie Review ~

Hangover 3 finds our Wolfpack buddies, Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, once again in a world of trouble and no memory. Cool additions to this installment include John Goodman as the villain, Marshall, and Melissa McCarthy who portrays a disturbing love interest for Zach Galifianikis’ character. The Wolfpack must find Chow {Ken Jeong} so that Marshall can settle a score with him or he will kill one of their friends.

Hangover 3 Official Trailer

Hangover 3: Amber Thinks…

I personally thought this movie was the best one out of all three of them! Just when I thought they couldn’t make another movie that could top the last two, they did! This movie will have you laughing at every minute and wondering what they could possibly get themselves into next time.

Hangover 3: Jay Thinks…

I did not feel that it was quite as funny as the previous 2 films in this trilogy, however, Zach Galifianakis was hilarious. I think this may have been the performance of his career and it allowed Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms to play more of supporting roles in this film. I think that Cooper is great as the straight man in comedic films. Ken Jeong as Chow is always great. He is really talented. One thing the film was missing, though, was a funny animal – the monkey is only in it for a little bit and the giraffe piece could have been deleted altogether as it was just disturbing.

Hangover 3: Dawn Thinks…

I especially loved Zach Galifianakis and Melissa McCarthy. The scene between those two in the pawn shop was perhaps the best scene in the film. Stay for the end of the credits. 😉 Hangover 3 was marketed as the end of a trilogy, but I would not be shocked to see a fourth installment after seeing what comes after the credits.

Do You Plan On Seeing Hangover 3 Or Have You Already Seen It? If So, Please Share Your Opinions Below

About Dawn McAlexander

Dawn has been a music lover her entire life. She went to college in Boone, NC, an area that is rich in music and culture. She also worked as a radio deejay for 10 years and grew up in Southeastern, Va, a melting pot of different musical styles and traditions. She has been to more concerts than she can count in every genre you can imagine. She resides in North Carolina with her husband, Kenny, and their dog, Marley, and cat, TJ.

Reader Interactions

August 11, 2013 at 8:27 am

I love movies with John Goodman. I need to see this.

August 14, 2013 at 1:05 am

I do, too. He doesn’t get near enough of the credit that he deserves. He really makes movies, in my opinion.

August 11, 2013 at 8:28 am

I love Bradley Cooper. Might have to add this to the must-see list.

August 11, 2013 at 9:36 am

I saw this movie! I liked it but I thought the first two were better. It was still very funny though!

August 11, 2013 at 9:41 am

I would definitely check it out. I like a good laugh.

August 11, 2013 at 9:48 am

I saw the last two movies and they were funny so I am curious to see this one too.

August 11, 2013 at 1:24 pm

Have seen all 3 and I think they each can stand on their own, but work well as a trilogy. 3 was a little over the top, but that’s what made it so funny, I liked that there were points that were predictable yet still funny.

August 12, 2013 at 10:11 am

i dont think i have seen the previous two but i think the hubby has and will be watching the third

November 2, 2013 at 11:40 pm

It’s good to see a review with several opinions instead of just one. 🙂

November 4, 2013 at 11:03 am

That’s part of the reason for allowing comments. 🙂 People are welcome to disagree or add their own thoughts, too.

We do have some movie reviews with more than one opinion – however, some movies we don’t all see, so we can’t really give an opinion. Or we get lazy, too. There’s that. 😉

November 14, 2013 at 2:17 pm

i havent seen this yet but have seen 1 and 2. i was pretty let down with the second so i hope this one is better!

[…] The Hangover Part III {Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis} […]

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Wild Wild Punjab’ on Netflix, A Slapstick Hindi-Language Road Trip Movie

Four men on a bridge in Wild Wild Punjab

Where to Stream:

Wild Wild Punjab

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Monkey Man’ on Peacock, Dev Patel’s Wild and Brutal Action-Revenge Epic

Stream it or skip it: ‘postcards’ on netflix, a nigerian-indian family comedy from the creator of ‘namaste wahala’, stream it or skip it: ‘heeramandi: the diamond bazaar’ on netflix, renowned indian filmmaker sanjay leela bhansali’s first crack at television, stream it or skip it: ‘amar singh chamkila’ on netflix, a biopic about the controversial punjabi singer.

Road trip movies have been around forever, whether it’s a buddy crime thriller like Thelma & Louise or a grounded drama about friendship like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara . Which route will Netflix’s Wild Wild Punjab take?

WILD WILD PUNJAB : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: After Khanna (Varun Sharma) discovers his girlfriend Vaishali has been cheating on him with their boss and is going to marry him in 2 days, his friends (Sunny Singh, Manjot Singh, and Jassie Gill) volunteer to go on a road trip with him to confront her (and crash the wedding). Along the way, they get into various hijinks, including Jain (Gill) accidentally getting married, the quad being arrested, and a shootout with drug lords.

What Will It Remind You Of?: A boys-only road trip to avenge a friend’s broken heart sounds like a spiritual successor to Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara . But for how similar it is in themes, the two films are very different in execution: Wild Wild Punjab takes a noticeably more slapstick approach to the material to a quite different level of success.

Performance Worth Watching: Manjot Singh as Honey balances the out-of-the-box humor with actual emotion the best, even if his character isn’t given a ton to do.

Memorable Dialogue: Memorable mainly because it’s repeated endlessly in the movie, “I’m over you” is the cloying mantra that drives the film’s plot forward.

Sex and Skin: The film opens with car sex and the inciting incident of the film shows the silhouette of a woman going down on a man. So, it’s safe to say that this isn’t your grandma’s Hindi cinema.

Our Take: I’m a sucker for road trip hang out movies, and even more when there’s a central premise that demands character growth and evolution. Unfortunately, Wild Wild Punjab is not that film.

The problems are many, but let’s start with the central premise. Lovelorn Khanna is dumped—after being cheated on, which is one his few sympathetic character traits—but his reaction to the change in his relationship status spirals wildly out of control. At first he’s suicidal, a trope the film leans on way too much (another character also threatens to end his life with a gun to his head over his daughter’s sham marriage). Then, Khanna’s obsession takes him across Punjab to arrive at Vaishali’s wedding just so he can tell her that he is over her. (He’s not over her.) Beyond the character motivations, the film’s timeline doesn’t make sense if you think too hard—a wedding of this magnitude couldn’t come together over two days, and the film doesn’t explain that Khanna may have lived in his delusion for much longer than he had let on.

The “wild wild” journey that the characters take isn’t exactly new territory either. After a bender, one of them wakes up married and later, the trio are jailed from a run-in with the police. These are borrowed storylines from the likes of The Hangover and other boys trip drinking movies, and the new setting doesn’t make the spin feel new.

The two women in the film are extreme caricatures. Radha, Jain’s accidental new wife, gets turned on from a billboard about pantyliners while Meera is a drug-dealing baddie with a vape addiction. Radha in particular has little to do aside from being a nuisance to Jain and a damsel in distress for Honey to rescue. Vaishali, Khanna’s former girlfriend, is one-note and played as the “villain” without any redeeming qualities. Even worse, almost every character slips up and calls her “Veshya,” which means whore. Charming. For a film set in Punjabi about Punjabi people, even the male Sikh characters are portrayed as either buffoons or criminals (or both).

Unfortunately, I found very little to like about Wild Wild Punjab . There are ways to do comedy without reducing characters to stereotypes or reusing tired plots, but unfortunately the team behind the film opted against that.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Wild Wild Punjab doesn’t strive for character growth and instead settles on misogynistic portrayals and tired ideas.

Radhika Menon ( @menonrad ) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, ELLE, Teen Vogue, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.

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Home » Endings Explained » Movies - Ending Explained

‘Blame the Game’ Ending Has All The Hallmarks Of Skewed Modern Dating

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS

Blame the Game is middling at best, but it’s at least fun. You’ll never feel bored.

Forgive me for being foolish. I expected the German feature Blame the Game to be another Game Night . However, I still enjoyed it, to an extent, even if the scenarios felt a little cheap. The ending, however, indicates nightmarish modern dating, and I’ll explain why.

The whole concept of the movie is that the bike shop owner, Jan, falls in love with Pia, so he attends a game night with her wealthy, affluent friends. It’s a messy night and made messier when her ex shows up.

Pia and Jan end up together, but it’s not the type of relationship that will last

At the game night, Pia’s relationship history surfaces quickly as her ex, Mathias, turns up. Of course, he appears to be highly knowledgeable and experienced and has a financial upper hand over Jan, who immediately feels uncomfortable that he has to share a room with a man who is blatantly trying to compete and emasculate him.

But once Jan gets confident, he decides to enter into a dick-measuring competition with Mathias, frustrated that this man has blatantly tried to upend his relationship.

A fiery game of table tennis (which they both play naked) descends into chaos, as the loser, Mathias, has to down a bottle of hot sauce. He then flushes it down with breast milk from the fridge to make his situation worse (he eventually pukes).

But what’s relevant to all this is that Pia becomes fed up with Jan. She does not seem to understand why her boyfriend is frustrated with the evening when her friends have made him feel like a peasant and her ex, Mathias, has made him feel undeserving of her. His only option was to make himself appear like a stronger man.

But the real sting is when it’s revealed that Pia kissed Mathias a few weeks ago before she was official with Jan… apparently.

The timeline for all this is shaky, but my issue is the principle behind it. By the end of the movie, Jan has to make amends with Pia despite a massive question mark on her loyalty. Pia essentially gets the choice despite potentially being caught a bit loose.

Yes, I know, relationships can be complicated, especially with your ex, but if you were at a game night with your new partner, and your ex-fiance whom you happened to have kissed (in confusion, apparently) a few weeks prior shows up, then surely you’d leave the social event? If you are super serious about your new partner and are convinced the timeline of the kiss with your ex isn’t suspicious, you’d think it’s worth leaving the situation, correct?

The ending of Blame the Game is indicative of skewed modern dating, where men put women on unnecessary pedestals because they don’t see their own value. Jan, for all intents and purposes, put himself through an unnecessary night of hell and was frequently emasculated by his new girlfriend’s ex for no good reason.

Why are these storylines twisted these days? Surely, in this situation, Pia should have been making amends with Jan, not the other way around. We are creating an illusion of power dynamics in dating, where the compromised individual allows his boundaries to be breached. This is not the basis of a long-lasting relationship, as it’s a dreadful start.

It reminds me a little of The Idea of You, where an age-gap relationship is also skewed . The young, wealthy, and talented man is dumped by the older, less affluent, divorced woman. Who would you think holds the upper hand in that situation? You’d be surprised when you watch the film.

And no, I’m not saying that relationships are about power, by the way, but on a deeper psychological level, there are unspoken components to a relationship. We are biological beings, after all. There’s a theory that in relationships, one person always loves the other a little bit more. Maybe that’s the case for Jan, but I don’t believe Pia deserves him by the end of Blame the Game .

A game night descends into chaos in ‘Blame the Game’ (Credit – Netflix)

Final review

Despite my problems with the ending, there’s little point in taking Blame the Game too seriously. I did enjoy it. Sometimes, situational comedy can be simple, and this German Netflix movie proves that.

From awkward conversations to accidentally letting a parrot fly out of the window, Blame the Game follows similar, cheesy comedy beats you’d expect from The Hangover but far lighter. The pressure of the situation ramps up, and you can see Jan sweat as he navigates himself out of a tough spot.

However, I doubt this is anywhere near a memorable experience. Despite great performances, the middling script ensures the movie is watched once. I wish I had laughed more, but plenty of what I saw has been done over and over again in situational comedy. Once you’ve seen it before, you’ve seen it all.

Let’s not write off Blame the Game , though. It has some wit about it. It encourages the audience to root for Jan, meaning the script does work to some extent. We all like an underdog, even in modern dating situations.

Article by Daniel Hart

Daniel is the co-founder of Ready Steady Cut and has served as Editor-in-Chief since 2017. Since then, Dan has been at the top of his game by ensuring that we only produce and upload content of exceptional quality and that we’re up to date with the latest additions to the streaming and entertainment world.

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Joker: Folie à Deux

Failed comedian Arthur Fleck meets the love of his life, Harley Quinn, while incarcerated at Arkham State Hospital. Upon his release, the two of them embark on a doomed romantic misadventure... Read all Failed comedian Arthur Fleck meets the love of his life, Harley Quinn, while incarcerated at Arkham State Hospital. Upon his release, the two of them embark on a doomed romantic misadventure. Failed comedian Arthur Fleck meets the love of his life, Harley Quinn, while incarcerated at Arkham State Hospital. Upon his release, the two of them embark on a doomed romantic misadventure.

Todd Phillips
Scott Silver
Zazie Beetz
Joaquin Phoenix
Catherine Keener
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Harley Quinn

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Arkham Guard

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Trivia Todd Phillips confirmed on June 7, 2022 that the film's initial script is completed, posting a photo of Joaquin Phoenix reading the screenplay. It was also confirmed that co-writer Scott Silver is returning for this film.
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Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

How to Share Screen Time Rules with Relatives, Babysitters, and Other Caregivers

Multicultural Books

YouTube Channels with Diverse Representations

Podcasts with Diverse Characters and Stories

A Lot or a Little?

Positive Messages

Positive Role Models

Violence & Scariness

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Products & Purchases

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Parents Need to Know

Where to Watch

Community Reviews

What's the Story?

Is It Any Good?

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Movie Details

Did we miss something on diversity?