The Hangover (C+)

If you haven't heard the plot by now, you've either been underground or out to sea. Three guys treat their buddy to a bachelor's party to end all parties, in Las Vegas. They opt for a tower suite at Caesar's Palace for $2400 a night. They wake up in the morning, the place is trashed and so are they. But the groom-to-be is missing. They guys turn sleuth, tracking down clues: a live chicken, a tiger in the bathroom, a missing tooth, a baby in the closet, a naked Asian in the car trunk, and more; the list grows as time runs out. Will they find the missing fellow, will they get back in the nick of time for the wedding? Will it all end happily ever after? What do you think?

How to evaluate this flick? I suppose, in an age when movie comedies tout vulgarities, profanity, sexual license, repulsiveness, illegal acts and crudity as attributes, this is f?ing good. The four guys - played by Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms & Zach Moore -work in tandem and even turn badly written dialog, with clever improvisation, into something acceptable - with Helms as a hen-pecked dentist rising highest above the little help he receives from director Todd Phillips, who, like Bud Silberling ("Land-Lost") recognizes the value of the old dictum: If you can't be good, be loud & fast. For 100-minutes it's almost enough.

Cinematographer Lawrence Sher deserves credit for some attractive wide screen shots of Vegas & surrounding Nevada desert scenery. Writers Jon Lucas, Scott Moore, Phillips, & Jeremy Garelick began with a promising idea, trashed it down to pre-teen level, and let the cast do the rest. Moore & Lucas were responsible for the "Four Christmases" script, by the way. If you liked that one, you'll dig this. You might even appreciate the appropriately disgusting snapshots of the lost night along with the final credits.