'The Hangover' - Babies and tigers and debt, oh my

by Nathan Braisted 

A little background on my selection this week: I spent my weekend commentating a high school baseball tournament, and the only place to film is on top of a roof that’s adjacent to the field. 

A combined 14 hours in the blazing February sun across two days left me feeling like a rotisserie chicken. A bit of a spoiler, but the situation kept making me think of the 2009 Todd Phillips film, “The Hangover.” 

The plot to the movie goes like this: Doug is getting married and plans a bachelor’s trip to Las Vegas with his two best friends, Phil and Stu, and his simple-minded soon-to-be-brother-in-law, Alan. They book a suite in the illustrious Caesar’s Palace -which Alan believes was home to Julius Caesar at one point - and prepare for the wild night ahead.

The four sneak onto the roof and celebrate with shots. However, it’s revealed later that Alan spiked each of their drinks with a ‘forget-me-drug’ which he believes was a euphoric drug. 

The crew go on to have an insane night of partying (none of which is shown on screen) and wake up the next morning in its aftermath. None of them remember a thing from the night before, but a lot of things are wrong. 

The room is a mess, Stu is missing a tooth and married to an escort, there is a random baby stashed in a closet, and a tiger is just hanging out in the bathroom. Most importantly, Doug is nowhere to be found, and he’s 12 hours away from getting married. 

On top of that, they owe gangsters $80,000 in stolen poker chips that are nowhere to be found. The central plot of the movie follows the trio fixing all the problems of the night before, trying to piece together what happened, and finding Doug. 

Returning the two new additions to the party was a bit of a hurdle for the groomsmen. The tiger is revealed to be owned by famous boxer Mike Tyson, and after using the same drugs that knocked them out the night before as tranquilizers, they return the tiger. The baby belongs to Stu’s new wife, so that part was easy. 

Now all that’s left is the small sum of $80,000. Earlier in the movie while the crew is driving to Vegas, Alan mentions he’s been studying up on counting cards, and claims that if Raymond Babbitt of “Rain Man” can do it, then he certainly can. 

Tying up their loose ends of the night, these three groomsmen retrace their steps to where it all began. They find Doug on the roof, extremely sunburnt and dehydrated, after frying in the Nevada sun all day. They race him back home just in time to walk down the aisle. 

“The Hangover” is in the upper echelon of comedy movies. Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms work together so well all throughout the film. It’s one of those movies you can watch over and over again and discover a new joke every time. It’s a  super easy watch with a ton of replay value. Everyone needs to see it at least once.