The Hangover (R, 2009)

With their friend Doug (Justin Bartha) on the verge of getting married, friends Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zack Galifinakis), and Stu (Ed Helms) take him to Las Vegas for a bachelor party blow-out. Waking the next morning, the three have hazy memories at best and a trashed hotel suite ... and there's no sign of Doug, who's due to tie the knot in two days. Phil, Alan, and Stu have to reconstruct their evening and find thier friend: What did they do? Where did they go? And why is there a tiger in their hotel suite?

Even with all the concerns about the content in THE HANGOVER, you'd have to be pretty hard-hearted not to admire the flair, flash, and funk that director Todd Phillips brings to the film. As a kind of boozed-soaked detective story, it's remarkably engaging, and the trio of leads each bring something to the proceedings -- Cooper's ratty charm, Helms' stoic uptightness, and Galifinakis' outer-space musings work remarkably well together. There are some nice supporting parts, too (including Rob Riggle as a crazed cop and Heather Graham as an "escort" with a heart of gold), and the film's tempo never flags or falters.

The Hangover is exactly the kind of summertime film that grown-ups will enjoy before, or after, a few adult beverages, bringing back plenty of stories about their own flaming youth or misadventures; the film's too slick and speedy to meditate too much on what the characters learn from their experiences, and if the ending's happiness seems a little forced, think of that brief good feeling as a sparkling champagne chaser to the film's stiff-liquor comedic sensibility. Manic, panicked, and giddily crazed, The Hangover is, like the debauchery it depicts, so much fun that it hurts.