“The Hangover Part III” plays more like a caper film — “Alan’s Eleven,” perhaps — than a comedy. While Phillips ably handles the action sequences, he and co-screenwriter Craig Mazin can’t juggle both genres in the screenplay. While a scene atop Caesars Palace generates some suspense (and a rare moment of sympathy for Alan), I had to wait until halfway through the closing credits for my first, and only, laugh. I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it for you, except to say it involves the character I enjoyed most in the first “Hangover,” the high-strung, constantly violated Stu.
John Goodman is squandered in his few scenes as Marshall. The trailers led me to believe this was some kind of riff on Walter from “The Big Lebowski,” but Goodman plays the character completely straight. When the Wolfpack interacts with him, it’s as if they’re placing a call to a different movie. It’s not Goodman’s fault; Marshall needed more of a Christopher Walken–style quirkiness to fit into the "Hangover" universe. On the opposite side of the spectrum is Jeong’s Chow, who is so over-the-top he loses all menace. Jeong can be very funny (he’s the best part of “Role Models,” for example) but, like Galifianakis, he’s repeatedly typecast.
The other actors don’t fare much better. Cooper looks bored, as if he’d rather be trying to earn more Oscar nominations. Helms gets the film’s biggest laugh, but it has more to do with a sight gag than his acting. Melissa McCarthy's cameo aims to soften Alan’s grating personality, but you’ve seen most of her performance in the trailer; her appearance made me long for a better comedy, perhaps starring her and John Goodman as criminals on the lam.
Phillips says this is the final installment in the franchise, but I don’t believe him; if audiences make this one a huge hit, there will be “The Hangover Part IV.” It may simply consist of the Warner Bros. logo and 90 minutes of blank screen, but it’ll get made. And it’ll gross $100 million opening weekend.
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