DVD NEW: The Hangover - 2009 Screwball Comedy, Extended Uncut Version

Description

The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips, and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. It is the first installment in The Hangover trilogy. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, and Jeffrey Tambor. It tells the story of Phil Wenneck (Cooper), Stu Price (Helms), Alan Garner (Galifianakis), and Doug Billings (Bartha), who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party to celebrate Doug's impending marriage. However, Phil, Stu, and Alan wake up with Doug missing and no memory of the previous night's events, and must find Doug before the wedding can take place. Lucas and Moore wrote the script after executive producer Chris Bender's friend disappeared and had a large bill after being sent to a strip club. After Lucas and Moore sold it to the studio for $2 million, Phillips and Jeremy Garelick rewrote the script to include a tiger as well as a subplot involving a baby and a police cruiser, and also including boxer Mike Tyson. Filming took place in Nevada for 15 days, and during filming, the three main actors (Cooper, Helms, and Galifianakis) formed a real friendship. The Hangover was released on June 5, 2009, and was a critical and commercial success. The film became the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2009, with a worldwide gross of over $467 million. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and received multiple other accolades. It became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever in the United States, surpassing a record previously held by Beverly Hills Cop for almost 25 years. The film was followed by two sequels: The Hangover Part II (2011) and The Hangover Part III (2013). Both were commercial success, but neither were well-received critically. REAR COVER They planned a Vegas bachelor party that they would never forget. Now they really need to remember what exactly went down! Whose baby is in the closet of their Caesars Palace suite? How did a tiger get in the bathroom? Why is one of them missing a tooth? And most of all, where is the groom?! What the guys did while partying can't compare to what they must do sober in an outrageous caper that has them piecing together all their bad decisions from the night before - one hazy clue at a time. Director Todd Phillips (Old School) and an all-aces comedy cast bring it big time with unpredictable situations that somehow an fit together. Tie one on with The Hangover. DETAILED PLOT Two days before his wedding, bachelor Doug Billings travels to Las Vegas with his best friends Phil Wenneck, a sarcastic elementary school teacher, Stu Price, an apprehensive dentist, and Alan Garner, his odd future brother-in-law. Sid, the father of Doug's fiancée Tracy, loans Doug his vintage Mercedes-Benz W111 to drive to Vegas. They book a suite at Caesars Palace and celebrate by sneaking onto the hotel rooftop and taking shots of Jägermeister. The next day, Phil, Stu and Alan awaken, unable to remember the previous night. Doug is nowhere to be found, Stu's tooth is missing, the suite is a mess, a Bengal tiger is in the bathroom, and a baby is in the closet. They see Doug's mattress impaled on a statue outside, and when they ask for their Mercedes, the valet delivers a Las Vegas police cruiser. Retracing their steps, the trio travel to a hospital, discovering they were drugged with Rohypnol, causing their memory loss, and that they went there from a chapel the previous night. At the chapel, they learn that Stu married a call girl named Jade, despite his relationship with his shrewish girlfriend Melissa. Outside the chapel, the trio is attacked by a gang of men demanding to know where "he" is. Bewildered, they flee and track down Jade, who is revealed to be the baby's mother. They are arrested by the police for having stolen the cruiser. To get the Mercedes out of impound and get released, the trio unwittingly volunteer to be targets for a taser demonstration. While driving the car, they discover a naked Chinese man named Leslie Chow in the trunk, who attacks the trio and flees. Alan confesses that he drugged their drinks to ensure they had a good night, believing the drug to be Ecstasy. Returning to their suite, they find Mike Tyson, who knocks Alan unconscious and orders them to return his tiger to his mansion. After Stu drugs it, they load it into the Mercedes, and drive to Tyson's mansion. However, the tiger awakens and attacks them, scratching Phil on the neck and damaging the car's interior. They push the car the rest of the way to the mansion and deliver the tiger to Tyson, who shows them security camera footage indicating they did not lose Doug until after they got back to the hotel. While driving back, their car is rammed by a black Cadillac Escalade manned by Chow and his gang from the chapel. Chow accuses them of kidnapping him and stealing $80,000 in poker chips. As they deny it, he tells them he has Doug, and threatens to kill him if the chips are not returned. Unable to find Chow's chips, Alan, with help from Stu and Jade, uses his knowledge of card counting to win $82,400 playing blackjack. They meet Chow in the Mojave Desert to exchange the chips for Doug, only to find that the "Doug" in question is actually the drug dealer who accidentally sold the roofies to Alan. With the real Doug's wedding set to occur in five hours, Phil calls Tracy to tell her they cannot find him. Simultaneously, the other Doug's remarks that someone who takes roofies is more likely to end up on the floor than on the roof, causes Stu to realize where Doug is. They return to Caesars Palace where they find a dazed and badly sunburned Doug on the roof. They moved him there on his mattress as a practical joke, but forgot when the roofies wore off; Doug threw the mattress onto the statue in an attempt to signal for help. Before leaving, Stu makes arrangements to meet Jade for a date the following week. With no flights available, the four drive home in the mangled Mercedes, where Doug reveals that he has Chow's original $80,000 in his pocket. Despite their late arrival, Doug and Tracy are married. At the reception, Stu gleefully breaks up with Melissa. Alan finds Stu's digital camera containing photos of the debauchery from the night in Las Vegas, and the four agree to look at the pictures before deleting them.