Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Hangover (2009) - Phillips & Co. hit the mother lode with hilarious crowdpleaser

7/12/2017

The Hangover (2009) - Phillips & Co. hit the mother lode with hilarious crowdpleaser

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Comedy of the Year

The three crapped-out stars, - and a baby wearing adult-sized sunglasses, invite us to Todd Phillips' The Hangover

Four guys celebrate a bachelor's party in Las Vegas for one of them. Another of them secretly drugs the others to enhance the party, but the morning after the groom is missing, and the remaining three have a baby, Mike Tyson's tiger and a stolen police car that they apparently acquired during their binge.

The Hangover doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does make men and women alike laugh out loud and enjoy themselves silly. Mike Tyson (Signal Lost (2013)), Ken Jeong (Despicable Me 2 (2013)) and Heather Graham (Boogie Nights (1997)) add color to this decidedly colorful fiesta. Rob Riggle (Absolutely Anything (2015)) and Cleo King (Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)) also bring some memorable zaniness.
The four guys' characters, portrayed by Bradley Cooper (Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (2017)), Ed Helms (The Lorax (2012)), Zach Galifianakis (Little Fish, Strange Pond (2009)) and Justin Bartha (National Treasure (2004)), are in themselves recognizable, funny company.
The Hangover is written by Jon Lucas (Bad Moms (2016)) and Scott Moore (Four Christmases (2008)) and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Todd Phillips (Due Date (2010)).

Related posts:

Todd Phillips: The Hangover Part II (2011) - Phillips & Co. follow up their sensational comedy hit with a disappointing sequel
Due Date (2010) or, Riding with Tremblay

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 467.4 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[The Hangover premiered 30 May (Holland) and runs 100 minutes. The film is inspired by an experience one of its producers' friends had of blacking out and getting extorted upon visiting a strip club. The script was sold to Warner Bros. for 2 mil. $. An uncredited rewrite by Phillips and Jeremy Garelick added Mike Tyson, the baby and police car to it. Lindsay Lohan was first offered Graham's escort/stripper part but deemed the project without potential and later regretted it. Filming took place in Las Vegas, including at Caesar's Palace, and in California in October 2008. Helms' missing tooth was no effect job; he has a dental implant for an incisor, which was removed for shooting. The film opened #1 to a stellar 44.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for another week before getting thrown to #2 by The Proposal. It stayed in the top 5 for 5 consecutive weeks, played for a 28-week long period and grossed 277.3 mil. $ (59.3 % of the total gross). It became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in North America ever, beating Beverly Hills Cop's (1984) 25 year record. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 36 mil. $ (7.7 %) and Germany with 20.8 mil. $ (4.5 %). Roger Ebert concurred with me in his giving the film 3.5/4 stars. It won an AFI Movie of the Year award, a Golden Globe and was BAFTA-nominated. It also beat My Big Fat Greek Wedding by selling more than 8.6 mil. DVD and Blu-rays domestically as the biggest comedy home release ever. Two sequels followed: The Hangover Part II (2011) and The Hangover Part III (2013). The Hangover is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Hangover?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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7/12/2017

The Hangover (2009) - Phillips & Co. hit the mother lode with hilarious crowdpleaser

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