It seems that Judd Apatow will have to step aside as the king of comedy for a while.  Todd Philips is back with 2009’s best comedy The Hangover. Released back in June theatrically, this story of the day after the party is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time and its mixture of memorable characters and one-liners will have you watching this one over and over.  The Blu-ray or 2 disc DVD of this smash hit is one that fans will definitely want to add to their collection.

What starts as a Las Vegas bachelor party for Justin Bartha’s character Doug Billings turns into a nightmare as his groomsmen Phil (BradleyCooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) party so hard that they lose the groom. Waking up the following morning with a hangover (no pun intended) from hell and surrounded by the wasteland they caused, they work together to retrace their steps to find Doug. They soon discover that they’ve stolen a cop car, have a tiger in their bathroom that belongs to Mike Tyson, and Stu has been married to Jade (Heather Graham) a stripper who leaves her child with them. On top of all this they find mob boss Mr. Chow inside their car trunk.

Now, in addition to finding Doug before the wedding, they have to repay a debt to Mr. Chow, return the tiger, provide community service for the police, and find Jade to give back the baby. All these ridiculous scenarios together equal one of the funniest, raunchiest, and downright insane movies I’ve ever seen.  Just imagining going through what these four did is something I wish I can do on my bachelor party.  Todd Philips has struck gold again with his insane brand of humor and any fan of his other movies as well as the entire American Pie catalog or National Lampoon series will find something to love about The Hangover.
 
Highlights
Zach Galifianakis really makes this movie shine.  His on screen persona as Alan is so incredibly awkward and funny; you won’t believe some of the things he says.  I am curious to see how much of his lines were taken directly from the script and how much were improv.  Both Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper also offer outstanding performances and provide enough to move the story along. Ken Jeong’s performance is also extremely funny and it would have been nice if his involvement in this film was a little larger. The transfer to Blu is solid and the sound quality is also great, everything you would expect Warner Bros Blu-ray.

This two disc Blu-ray and DVD collection comes with the unrated and theatrical versions on the first disc with a digital copy of the theatrical version for the second disc. Both the Blu-ray and DVD versions include the Map of Destruction feature, Madness of Ken Jeong feature, Action Mash-Up, Three Best Friends improv Song, and The Dan Band! performance of, a Gag reel, 100 More Pictures from the Missing Camera. The Blu-ray version also includes BD-LIVE content with Mike Tyson and a curse word mash up.

The gag reel is especially funny, is by far the best special features, and is a bit longer than most reels.  Watching the main trio improv their lines during many of their scenes as well as trying to keep their composure is so funny, you may piss yourself. The extra pictures from the camera are a nice extra feature, but most of the pictures are just small extensions of what you’ve already seen running during the credits. There’s no option to run them as a slide show so you’ll find yourself repeatedly clicking your remote to get through them and with 100 pictures, it can be tedious.

The map of destruction has cartoon board game setup of all the places the guys visited during the movie.  There’s an option to watch a one to two minute feature of how the scene was done or a short one liner for each location.  The Action mash-up is just a quick one minute clip of all the physical comedy in the movie.  The madness of Ken Jeong is a long improv reel where he just goes ape shit during two of his major scenes. His rant isn’t all that funny, but it’s nice to see what he comes up with. The Dan band song is short and it sucks.  It seems like too much of a waste to be called a special feature.
 
Overview
The Hangover is another movie that doesn’t really excel on Blu-ray, but still looks great regardless.  The Standard DVD looks almost as good with a great up-convert. It has a decent amount of special features but none of them really stand out.  The film itself really carries the torch for this BD edition and what an excellent film it is. Much like Road Trip and Old School before it, The Hangover is sure to be considered a classic comedy among fans of the genre. 

ComicsOnline gives The Hangover on Blu-ray or 2 Disc Standard DVD 4.5 out of five… hangovers.

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