The Hangover - 2009 * * *

Some guys just can't handle Vegas!

This film is funny, but it's not brilliant. I have yet to see a genuinely funny Hollywood comedy of the last 10 years surface. This is why I find earlier comedies so much better such as the classic screwball movies of the 30s and 40s. People didn't need to rely on sexual crudeness or swearing to make a film funny, most of the time it was done with brilliant timing and clever word-play.

But I am very old-fashioned in this way and not many people understand or appreciate movies where something drastic isn't happening. So this is fine. It kills time, its the story of a group of friends who go to Las Vegas for their best friend's stag do only to wake up the next morning with their friend gone and no recollection of the previous events that occured the night before. How hilarious. Isn't alcohol wonderful. What a totally ridiculous waste of a trip to Vegas!

Here we have to rely on the swearing and drink-filled obscenities that have become a Hollywood staple for 'young' audiences all over. Plenty of toilet jokes as well for people who aren't totally turned off by the previous subjects.

I'm not trying to sound like an old fogey, I did laugh but at the same time felt slightly embarassed that I was actually finding some of the scenes funny when they really don't take much imagination at all to come up with.

This is a great movie for young adults and I have no doubt it will be remembered for a long while to come, but only because it seems to be an accumilation of all the other sexual-tinged comedies that America has made in the last decade. Watch 'Bringing up Baby' instead, that's what real comedy is about.