Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Opening Weekend Box Office: #2 with $41,671,198
Domestic Box Office Gross to-date: $102,337,370
Gross Revenue: $272,837,370
Production Budget: $103 million
Director: Todd
Phillips
In addition to increasing the overall level of
bachelor party pilgrimages to Vegas, 2009’s The
Hangover made household names of its newcomer cast and rocketed each of
them to A-list status, so there was an undeniable logic in developing this
offbeat tale into a franchise.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that it represented the biggest
worldwide opening for an R-rated comedy, The
Hangover Part II was definitively panned and served as glaring proof that
lightning couldn’t strike the same place twice; but Warner Bros. certainly
wasn’t going to let those kinds of numbers sit idly by, so Bradley Cooper, Ed
Helms, and Zach Galifianakis were brought back to close-out the story. Based on early print ads and posters
featuring taglines like “The End,” it was clear that the filmmakers were
promising an epic conclusion to the series, and in returning the setting to
Vegas and bringing back familiar faces like Heather Graham, there was a chance
that some of the charm and magic of the original film would be recaptured. To be honest, I wasn’t completely sold on The Hangover Part III, but when the
release trailers not only promised a new story but also heavily featured fan
favorites like Ken Jeong and newcomers John Goodman and Melissa McCarthy, I
started to hope for the best. It was
certainly going to be a challenge to pull jaded fans of the franchise away from
direct competitors like Fast Six on
Memorial Day Weekend, but as arguably the highest profile comedy of the summer,
there was a chance that “The Wolfpack” would reign supreme.
Picking up two years after the disastrous events in
Bangkok, The Hangover Part III finds
Doug Billings (Justin Bartha), Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), and Stu Price (Ed
Helms) staging an intervention for the increasingly erratic Alan Garner (Zach
Galifianakis), who eventually agrees to visit a rehab facility as long as his
friends will take him there via road trip.
En route, the group is ambushed by Marshall (John Goodman), a ruthless
gangster who has been searching for Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) ever since Chow
stole $21 million in gold bricks from him and subsequently escaped a
maximum-security prison. Given Chow’s
previous association with “The Wolfpack,” Marshall figures that this group has
the best chance of locating the elusive criminal; so, keeping Doug as
collateral, Marshall orders Phil, Stu, and Alan to locate and deliver Chow
within 72 hours. After several failed
attempts to subdue Chow upon finding him in Tijuana, the trio eventually tracks
their quarry back to Las Vegas, thereby triggering many unwanted memories and
virtually guaranteeing that events will quickly spiral out of control. With the help of new acquaintances like
pawnshop owner Cassie (Melissa McCarthy) and old friends like former-stripper
Jade (Heather Graham), “The Wolfpack” discovers that Chow is barricaded within
Caesar’s Palace, and they must now use all of the resources at their disposal
to capture the fugitive in order to placate Marshall and rectify their current
predicament.
In taking our characters back to Vegas, the
filmmakers had a fleeting chance to redeem and restore this comedy franchise
after its beleaguered second outing, but unfortunately, from tired
personalities to flat jokes and nonsensical genre shifts, The Hangover Part III misfires on almost every level. This may seem like far too subjective a
criticism, but in my opinion the narrative relies far too heavily on the
inherent appeal of Ken Jeong and Zach Galifianakis; the characters of Leslie
Chow and Alan Garner were funny and refreshing when first introduced, but after
three movies, these two are shamefully one note and their novelty has worn
very, very thin. You really have to love
every word that comes out of the mouths of these actors to tolerate the focus
that they are granted without any innovative or genuinely inspired help from
the script…I mean, is it really that funny to see Jeong show up screaming and
naked…AGAIN? And really, “funny” is
pretty loosely defined in this sequel, because aside from the giraffe
decapitation (which was already shown and therefore spoiled in the trailers),
there are very few, if any, laugh-out-loud moments that stem from something
other than juvenile shock value. Now, I
may have been inclined to be a little more forgiving had this high-profile
release served as the second entry in the Hangover
franchise, but in being the third installment, Part III fell far short of some very reasonable expectations.
I suppose that there should be some modicum of
gratitude concerning the fact that this sequel did not tell the exact same
story for the third time, but in trying to be original, The Hangover Part III departs so drastically from franchise formula
that it could very justifiably lose its qualification as a “comedy.” Even forgetting the nonsensical plausibility
of three average men agreeing to chase down an international criminal and
deliver him to certain death, what audiences are left with is more akin to a
chase or crime film that comes across as more mean-spirited than
light-hearted. There were some clear
attempts to inject some novelty by including McCarthy and Graham, but the
former’s role offered a few throwaway chuckles at best, while the latter’s
reintroduction (alongside her now-4 year old, “Carlos”) was entirely useless
and felt like little more than a waste of time.
Even Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper appear to be phoning it in for this
film, which is especially disappointing and seems like a major step backwards
for the now Academy Award-nominated Cooper…what a waste. So, look as hard as you want to, but there
are few redeeming qualities to this final chapter of a trilogy that was on life
support back in 2009 and is now officially six feet under.
In terms of head-to-head box office showdown, The Hangover Part III was targeting an
audience nearly identical to the one sought out by Universal’s Fast & Furious 6, but given the
perceived quality of the competitor’s respective predecessors, it is not all
that surprising that Vin Diesel and his racing team made road kill out of “The
Wolfpack.” In a season when you are
essentially granted one weekend to turn a profit, Warner Bros. had to be
concerned about a $41 million second place opening against an over-$100 million
production budget (a number that is especially insulting when you consider that
the far superior original was made for $35 million). And yet, due to an inexplicably-strong
international presence, Warner Bros. has earned a gross revenue just north of
$200 million, so temptations to keep the franchise alive have to be mulling in
the back of some executive’s head…good lord, I hope it’s not the same guy who
signed-off on Jack the Giant Slayer’s
budget. The post-credits scene does
leave the door open for another potential chapter, but for the love of
everything that is good and decent in this world, this series needs to die and
the characters need to disappear, only to be remembered from a nostalgic pining
for 2009. I don’t know how many more
ways I can say it, but please take my word for it that The Hangover Part III is not worth your time or money, unless of
course you are overtly compelled to see what will likely be labeled as the
worst film of the summer.
