The Hangover, Part III review

I'll bet you a quatloo (See Star Trek "The Gamesters of Triskelion") that when they made the first The Hangover (2009), nobody was thinking a trilogy. But then it made a gazillion bucks and that in Hollywood screams sequel. Thus came The Hangover Part II. (2011) Of course, that made a gazillion bucks and you know what that means. The Hangover Part III.

The Wolfpack is back in The Hangover Part III. In case you don't know who the Wolfpack is, they are the shallow and handsome Phil (Bradley Cooper); the frequently humiliated dentist Stu (Ed Helms) and the mentally ill, man child Alan. (Zach Galifianakis) Big time crook Marshall (John Goodman) kidnaps Alan's brother in law, Doug (Justin Bartha) to force the Wolfpack to find their Chinese criminal buddy, Chow (Ken Jeong), who is a guy willing to expose his um... well, I'll just say humble privates in front of millions of moviegoers. You see Chow has stolen a lot of gold that was previously illegally taken by Marshall from a sheikh.

Let me digress a little here and make some news. I found Jeong's performance to be funny in the first two Hangover movies. He later devolves into the Chinese geeky male that angry white guys think all Chinese men act like. You know, like out of tune nerdy Chinese singer William Hung of American Idol fame. So today, I announce the Hung Test, it's like The Bechdel Test. To pass the test, a movie must feature a geeky Chinese guy, with an Asian accent, and the guy must do a full frontal showing off his um... humble stuff. And The Hangover III passes the Hung Test. On a more sincere note, I'm a Chinese American and at the pub, I get from drunk white guys requests to act like William Hung. She Bangs, my ass.

Okay, back to the review. Since the first two Hangover movies were comedies you would think that The Hangover Part III would also be a comedy. But Director Todd Philips and Craig Mazin have written a movie that is more crime drama than a tentpole comedy. There's an ugliness to the characters particularly with Chow. None of the main characters have any appeal. Couple that with the paucity of jokes, The Hangover Part III is one unfunny movie. What can I say when the funniest part of the movie is the end credits scene.

If you must see The Hangover Part III to finish the trilogy, save your money and rent it when it comes to pay per view. It's an unfunny conclusion to the story of the Wolfpack. The grade is C+.