TORONTO — The Wolfpack is back.
Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis are together again in The Hangover Part III, the second sequel to the 2009 hit comedy.
Does the latest chapter serve up the same kind of laughs?
Not according to Jim Slotek of the QMI Agency.
“The Hangover Part III reeks of money and obligation – from the forced nature of the one-liners, the linear plot, the repetitiveness of the jokes and the mawkish sentimentality (something neither of the previous Hangover films was guilty of),” he opined.
In the Sydney Morning Herald, the movie is accused of hitting “a lot of biblical proportions.” Critic Paul Byrnes said “everything is stupider, louder and coarser” than the first two Hangover films.
Betsey Sharkey at the Los Angeles Times called the movie “one long headache.”
Washington Post reviewer Michael O’Sullivan was also not impressed.
“This third Hangover is dull. Coupled with its logic headaches, it left me feeling like I needed an Alka-Seltzer Plus. Anything to add a little fizzy relief to these flat and unfunny proceedings,” he wrote.
So what’s the main issue with The Hangover Part III? According to critics, the movie is decidedly darker than the first two.
“It dares to alienate the very audience that made The Hangover the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time because, well, it isn’t exactly a comedy,” opined Christy Lemire of The Associated Press.
Jason Anderson of Toronto’s The Grid concurs.
“Frequently sidelined by the action, Phil and Stu seem as bewildered as viewers might be by the material’s shift from smutty comedy to violent, Coen Brothers–style crime caper,” he wrote.
“By the time they arrive back at Caesar’s Palace—where this whole sordid saga began two movies ago—it can feel less like a circle being completed than a downward spiral (and not an especially funny one at that).”
At Dork Shelf, Andrew Parker said The Hangover Part III has a tone that is “disarmingly melancholic.”
“While the other films offered ‘fun’ this one is openly asking for sympathy for these guys while they try to get their lives in order,” wrote Parker. “It’s an interesting thing to think about, but not entirely successful because people who have seen the first two films know that with the exception of possibly Stu and Doug at times, none of them are really good people at all. The stab at sincerity is a nice touch overall, but it rings completely false.”
Stephen Farber of the Hollywood Reporter offered this description: “This picture is like a brightly colored balloon with all the comic air seeping out.”
Acknowledging that sequels are generally not rewarding, Farber called The Hangover Part III a “sorry retread of a once inspired comedy.”
On the plus side, “At least it’s fairly short, and although a bizarre end-credit sequence seems to be opening the door for another chapter, the filmmakers have promised that this will be the end of The Hangover. We can only hope.”
Watch the trailer below:
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