The Hangover: No gross-out humour? So what's the point then
Here's a sobering reality check. The Hangover series which announced itself with so much mischievous promise has run badly out of steam. Like so many sequels driven by Hollywood greed, it underperforms and fades with a frustrating whimper.
For this third chapter of this alcohol and drug-fuelled bender, the characters are caught in a race against time to save one of the gang from a grim fate. But there's not a hangover in sight until the final credits begin to roll, and belly laughs are very thin on the ground too.
Alan Garner (Galifianakis), always the most emotionally brittle member of the clan, suffers a mental breakdown in the aftermath of his father's death, so best friends Phil Wenneck (Cooper), Stu Price (Helms) and Doug Billings (Bartha) decide radical action is needed.
They tell Alan that they will drive him to the New Horizons medical facility, from which he will emerge 'a new man'.
Of course, this being a Hangover movie, things don't go entirely to plan, and en route, the pals are involved in a road accident.
A mysterious thug (Goodman) and his henchman kidnap Doug, telling the remaining three members of the Wolfpack that if they want to see him again, they must track down flamboyant criminal Mr Chow (Jeong) and recover 21 million dollars of stolen money.
So Alan, Phil and Stu set off on a mission to find Mr Chow and save their friend, reuniting with familiar faces including Jade (Graham) along the way.
The second Hangover movie was roundly criticised for merely serving up a carbon copy of its predecessor.
This one, at least, has gone out of its way to present something a little different – without veering too far from the formula which made chapter one such a monster success.
But in trying to hit this happy medium, it has only managed to dilute the magical ingredients.
There are still pockets of profanity, a spot of nifty gun play, a couple of unheralded celebrity cameos . . . and a very sticky demise for a poor unsuspecting giraffe.
But it actually feels less like an out and out comedy, and more of a buddy movie battling to unravel secret new layers. It ties up all the loose ends it can find, convincing us that this really is the end of the road for the series. Let us hope so, because on this evidence the characters have lost their spark.
At times, they're downright irritating, the story is mindless, and humour from the film's one-liners is far more miss than hit. It doesn't help that most of the leading men are given very little of interest to actually do, particularly Bradley Cooper's Phil who is a more respectable chap than we've seen before.
That's Hollywood code for boring, though there is some pleasure still to be gained from the scenes in which Cooper, Helms and Galifinakis bicker like naughty schoolchildren. Even though the series makes a return to Las Vegas, the scene of its finest triumph, director Phillips has bravely taken up the cudgels to hit back at critics who felt part two was a lazy rehash of the part one story. So there's no sign of the pals suffering booze-fuelled blackouts, and the violent gross-out humour is certainly toned down.
Wasn't that part of the fun, though?
There's nothing wrong with gross-out comedy when it's backed by a clever script, as proved by the likes of American Pie and There's Something About Mary.
This, sadly, isn't in the same ball-park.
