THE HANGOVER

THE HANGOVER PRESENTS A GOOD REASON TO DRINK

So first we had 'chick flicks'. Now we have 'bromances'. Judd Apatow has owned the market with 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, but now it has spread. The Hangover is the latest in this vein brought to us by Todd Phillips (Old School). Four friends (three friends and a soon to be brother in law) head out for a blowout party before one of them gets married. In an interesting twist, we wake up with them the next morning and very much like them, we want to know what happened. The twist is that no one remembers and the groom to be is missing. It is a perfect set up for a caper comedy.

21

21 WINS HIGH STAKES

"I had a 1590 on my SAT, I got a 44 on my MCAT, and I have a 4.0 GPA from MIT. I thought I had my life mapped out, but then I remembered what my non linear equations professor once told me, always account for variable change... I let down my good friends, but as it turns out, they weren't too bad at simple math either. I scored the prettiest girl in school. I got beaten down by an old school Vegas thug who was having trouble accepting his retirement, but I worked out a deal with him that got him a nice pension... And I lied to my mother, but I confessed a lie and well, she still loved me... So my senior year of college I joined this team and I learned this new skill. I went to Vegas 17 times to use it. I made hundreds of thousands of dollars counting cards. And then I had it all stolen from me, twice... How's that for life experience professor? Did I dazzle you? Did I jump off the page?"

No need to summarize when the monologue from our main character, Ben (Jim Sturgess) does it for me. Think Ocean's Eleven meets the Breakfast Club. What could be easier than to be smart, count cards and win money? Well, I think we all know what happens to young people and big money. Ben is sucked into the high life faster than a Hoover with a fresh bag. We all know things won't last, but how they happen and when is still a mystery. This is a very well executed movie. It had an entertaining pace; not too fast and not too slow. Spacey does a lovely job as the charismatic yet deeply selfish professor who takes advantage of his wiz kids. Sturgess makes believable the wide-eyed, amazing naive "nerd" who turns into "McLovin" the pimped out mac daddy. Strong supporting cast, especially Aaron Yoo as Choi, who makes for good comic relief. No masterpiece, but certainly worth a look.

PICK: Well done; entertaining and fun to watch. Sturdy work all around.

NEXT

NEXT TIME LET'S PICK ANOTHER MOVIE

Meet our reluctant hero Cris Johnson (Nicholas Cage with very bad hair) who is a Vegas stage performer. He has a nightly magic act, but this time, it's not an act. Johnson can see into the future for two minutes. As the Vegas casinos watch him, so does the FBI with agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) who ultimately persuades him to help her save the world... or most of California. Oh, and there is special love interest too (Jessical Biel). Interesting plot idea that just didn't come off as planned. This movie could have been fun if it hadn't taken itself so seriously. Moore's performance was totally unbelievable and stereotypical. Cage was way too serious and although the end scene searching for the bad guys was semi-clever, it wasn't enough to save this film.

Rating: Interesting subject, way too serious .... no body's best work. Next!

LUCKY YOU

Lucky you was unlucky for me. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back. Now, add some pretty pictures of Las Vegas and lots of poker shots and lingo and then you get LUCKY YOU. To complete this utter waste of time, add a poker faced (had to do it) Eric Bana (Huck), as a hot-shot, cocky, poker/semi-con man, a lack-luster Drew Barrymore (Billie) who should be told not to sing anymore, and a wasted cast of thousands; okay, maybe not thousands but enough to make a few minutes of this movie palatable. Robert Duvall, also not his finest work, as Huck's father, the veteran poker king who is the target that Huck is aiming at when he plays. Unless you really, really like poker, don't see this movie. The first attempt at a plot is to bring an estranged father and son back together (through the highly therapeutic game of poker). The second attempt at a plot is the romance/con between Huck and Billie. After watching Eric Bana try to portray this slick character, I couldn't tell if he had to repress his emotion because he plays poker and so he always hides his "tells" or if it was simply bad acting. I'll bet you know which it was. His lack of a pulse, or the plot, or the burdensome, unnecessarily extended poker playing sequences did nothing to promote a romantic storyline between Huck and Billie. The writing was halfway decent until you hear one too many bumper sticker lines: "The key is watching and understanding", "Some people don't want to be fixed", Hustle- 10, commitment -0"... enough already. There is a handful of outstanding actors who were given mere seconds of screen time when they could have made this movie more interesting. Robert Downey Jr. is a 1-900 con artist and we see him for, maybe 4 minutes. Jean Smart is the token woman poker player, who is beautiful and self assured on screen and at the poker table. There were great long shots and shots of the back of her head. Horatio Sanz, a cast member on Saturday Night Live, plays a hilarious compulsive gambler, Ready Eddie, who bets a guy if he can live in the bathroom of one of the casinos for a month and sends Huck on an amusing sequence on another bet. Debra Messing plays Billie's sister and has maybe 6 minutes of screen time. A total waste of talent and terrible miscasting in the leading roles. I have a HUGE crush on Robert Downey Jr., and to toss him away so carelessly hurt more than losing your savings on a drunken Vegas road-trip. This film was directed by Curtis Hanson who brought us 8 Mile, In Her Shoes and LA Confidential among other wonderful films. Maybe he bet he could make this film work. He lost.

Rating: Unless you REALLY like poker and long movies, skip this one.