In retrospect, the massive affection – and box-office dollars – extended toward The Hangover should have been expected. The picture is brazenly funny without ever becoming too crass (at least for a Vegas-set comedy), while the plot’s puzzle structure demands repeat viewings. Four buddies wake up the morning after a bachelor party missing the bachelor, having no memory of the night before and given only a handful of disturbing clues (a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, a missing tooth). Bradley Cooper is an amiable straight man, Ed Helms delights as a dweeby dentist and Zach Galifianakis – well, I have no idea what he’s doing as the addled brother-in-law-to-be, but it just might be a form of Belushi-inspired comic brilliance (John, not Jim).
