Contrary to what
one would expect, the story
has no bachelor parties, no one gets drugged or goes missing and there
are no tigers or monkeys. Just the good old bunch of three best friends reprising
their roles and the amusingly criminal Chow.
The film opens with
Chow staging a prison break in Bangkok. Cut to Alan who off his meds
and letting his mind take off on its own as he grabs headlines for
causing a highway accident. His stressed father passes away and his family
decides to put Alan into a rehab in Arizona. Obviously, the duty falls
on Phil, Stu & Doug to drive him there.
Enroute, they are
intercepted by a drug lord Marshall and Doug is taken hostage. In
return, they are told to find Chow and retrieve the gold that the latter
stole from Marshall. The film then turns into an adventure-comedy as
they find Chow and participate in a heist, which predictably goes wrong.
Since we know that
the other films in the series have happy endings, the third one too ends
with everyone being happy. But, it is the journey that makes the film interesting.
While not being an outright comedy, it dabbles with deliberate drama
to deviate from the predictable styles which marred the second film. And they
succeed at that.
Shock value, which was the key theme in the series has
also been toned down. There are no mind-numbing 'Oh My God moments' like
the photographs in the credits we are used to either. By the way, if it is not
much of a spoiler, Alan finds his true love in the end! But well, yeah,
be prepared for one surprise from Stu in the end.
With the same
star cast, the acting efforts are the same and convincing enough.
Zach Galifianakis is definitely the funniest of them all, playing the
man-child we are so used to seeing him as. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms &
Ken Jeong as Phil, Stu & Chow do a good job. But, it would have been a nice
experiment a bigger role for Justin Bartha and allow his character to
develop. And, Heather Graham makes a brief appearance.
Verdict: The second film had definitely
disappointed us by aping the first. But the film makers have shaped up their
act with the third installment. 'The Hangover Part III' is not extremely
funny as one would have wanted but still qualifies as a decent finale.
Rating 6/10: Befitting Finale to the
trendsetter theme
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