I seem to recall that I quite enjoyed The Hangover, and that I watched The Hangover Part II without smiling once. The third – and thankfully final – part in the comedy series falls somewhere between the first two. It goes back to Las Vegas, perhaps to recapture some of the energy of the first film (it also brings back Heather Graham). It tries for a lot of manic energy, and there are some impressive action-comedy set-pieces, but it still feels like a tired exercise and a cynical cash-grab.
I won’t bother with a plot description. It involves gold, gangsters, bad karaoke, Las Vegas hookers, and cocaine-addicted roosters. The three leads – Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galiafanakis – go through their paces and each gets a moment to do their schtick, but all three are noisily upstaged by Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow, their bete-noir.
Chow is in the film way too much for my liking. He is supposed to be an annoying character, of course, and the filmmakers have obviously tried to come up with as many reasons to have him in the film as possible. This is a mistake. They should have left him in jail in Thailand.
The Hangover Part III could have been a very funny film: it isn’t. It aims for pathos at the end without having put in the required work to deserve it. It also manages to waste the talents of Melissa McCarthy and John Goodman (did they only cast Goodman so he could use the word “Chinaman”, a word that Walter Sobchak knows is not the preferred nomenclature?)
Verdict: Two decapitated giraffes out of five
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The Fluff Is Raging 
Good review Niall. While I’m all for a movie sequel changing its wings up and giving the audience something they wouldn’t have expected to see coming at all in a million years, there’s a better way to do so, and this is not it. Totally mis-guided in every which way and just goes to show you why some comedies should just stay one and done.
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indeed. there once was a time when comedy was the one genre that didn’t need sequels; now it appears to be the norm, no matter how bad the first film might be. We’ve had two “Grown Ups, two “Sex and the City”. in 2014 we’re getting a sequel to “Horrible Bosses” and “21 Jump Street” (i quite liked ‘Horrible Bosses’; ’21 Jump Street’ was a piece of unadulterated shite)
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Still haven’t watched this as Hangover II was pretty bad. It’s on my list but I don’t think I want to bother now. Thanks for saving me Niall!
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glad to help. 🙂
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