Media Meditation: Getting Hungover

Yes, it is Halloween weekend, and the title of this post can apply in that regard, but I'm talking cinema.

Many comedy loving movie goers were greatly satiated by The Hangover. Recently watching this movie was no less fulfilling than expected. Its outrageous antics and phenomenal performances create a solid experience with the screen. It starts off with the main characters revealing the main point of the movie: they lost their friend Doug after a wild night in Vegas.

Starting out with a scene that seems like it should be later in the movie (and it still is), or as a circle story, shows that the production techniques were considered and this was the final choice. Why? Because it makes you wonder what the hell happened to them, rather than watch them going to Vegas with no idea about what's going to happen. It gives the scenes a nice lack of mystery because, while the scenes are frickin' hilarious on their own, they would not seem to have much of a direction.

To get a better idea of the movie, if you haven't seen it, check out one of the trailers:

Humor is another big player. Alan's wolf pack speech is priceless (the scene on the roof, prior to the roofies). Mike Tyson plays a role, providing his testimonial to the movie's cause. Tyson's tiger, when first introduced, triggered my reptilian brain (specifically the flight mechanic, its a tiger!). The soundtrack is almost hilarious because we have a school teacher, dentist, one man wolf pack, and husband to be rolling to Vegas to hip pop. We have Mike Tyson jamming out to Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight". My limbic brain enjoyed much of the music.

Ownership and film, specifically comedies, have never seemed to have much to them. Whoever owns The Hangover, good for them. I don't detect any secret agendas, but rather a hilarious movie. Some movies portray themes that are suggestive of a stance on a controversial subject of present day, but here we have three guys in a sympathetic, but over the top, predicament that uses a popular venue as a stage.

Our shift from regulation to deregulation has allowed a lot of freedom in the portrayals seen in theaters. In this movie we see a baby being made to pretend masturbate, kids shooting stun guns by an irresponsible policeman's will, and a naked Asian man leaping out of the trunk of a car and onto a man' face. The lack of regulation, and thus potential snuffing of this apparently innovative form of comedy (outrageous situations), allows this and many other films a whole lot of flexibility and subjects to consider.

The entire movie is a Big Lie. We're told that Phil might be getting corpse raped in a ditch, or another horrid fate, and are led to believe that his fate is sealed, while (SPOILER) he is just sleeping on the roof. We're also told that they've found Doug when, as we're told later, they haven't. We're bribed to watching more because it seems as though there is a solution about to arise, but in fact it does not.

The whole movie also uses symbolism because Las Vegas is a symbol of these bad decisions that were made, resulting in the night the movie is about. There is also some profound scientific evidence from Phil: We all do dumb shit when we're fucked up. Employing repetition, the main characters are constantly running into over the top characters messing up their pursuit of Doug.

Riddled with persuasion and media technique, The Hangover is a great movie that is worth seeing if you want to laugh.