The Hangover

Todd Phillips, 15 (2009)

Vegas in the movies has become one neon-lit clich? of crass — guys off the leash and in over their heads, gambling, strippers, shots, the obligatory cry of “Vegas baby!” (think Very Bad Things, Swingers, Honeymoon in Vegas). So why did this “Vegas movie” become the sleeper comedy of the summer?

Perhaps because it’s full of “moments”, from Mike Tyson’s air-drumming Phil Collins-worship to the crazed naked Japanese man leaping from a car-boot — just two of the amnesia-induced ordeals awaiting three shellshocked bachelor-night guys who awake in their wrecked hotel suite with, inexplicably, a chicken, a baby and a tiger, but with no sign of their groom.

Maybe it’s the bearded Zach Galifianakis, a not-all-there oddball channelling the spirit of Rain Man and John Belushi: “This isn’t the real Caesar’s Palace, is it? Did Caesar live here?” (Well, you’d have to see it.) Or maybe because it’s now clear that this is the ultimate “morning-after” movie.