The Hangover

What it's about:

Two days before his wedding, Doug (Justin Bartha) and his three friends (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis) drive to Las Vegas for a blow-out bachelor party they'll never forget. But when the three groomsmen wake up the next morning, they can't remember a thing – and the groom is missing. With no clue as to what transpired and little time to spare, the trio must retrace their hazy steps and all their bad decisions in order to figure out where things went wrong and hopefully get Doug back to L.A. in time to walk down the aisle.

What we thought of it:

The Hangover is the funniest movie you're going to see this year. Humour this raucous could very well be the cure to those morning-after blues.

Anyone who's ever woken up after a night of drinking more than their body weight in alcohol knows there is no cure for those babalas blues. You promise yourself you'll never drink that much again… until next weekend, or at least the next big party.

The Hangover is way funnier than anyone could have expected, especially coming from the writers of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. And in any case, Vegas, weddings, bachelor parties and strippers - we've seen this all been done before, right? But those lesser films didn't have Zach Galifianakis' freakishly crass one-liners nestled between Ed Helms (The Office) awkward sophistication and Bradley Cooper's (He's Just Not That Into You) level-headed hotness.

It could easily have gone awry in the way that so many slapstick "guy" comedies do, but the genuinely funny bits, and what saves it from being a run-of-the-mill d*ckflick, lie in the element of surprise. The movie is filled to the brim with well-placed, unexpected moments of magic. One cameo in particular (from a well-known loose cannon) actually felt downright scary.

The three leads are perfectly out of synch with each other, but it is Galifianakis' primitive candidness that steals the show. There are moments that are savagely funny and shamelessly lewd, yet somehow these misfits still manage to win you over with their stupid charm. Unsurprisingly, the movie's overwhelming success at the US box office (it suffocated the much-fancied Terminator Salvation for three weeks in a row and has been glued in the No. 1 position ever since) has already resulted in plans for a sequel.

The Hangover draws to a neat conclusion, but all its gory glory lies in the final credits. You'll want to stay behind a few minutes more for those. But if you're of an easily offended disposition, best you leave your pearls at the door.