THE HANGOVER PART III

Warner Bros.

Rated R

Running time: 100 Minutes



Click below to watch The Hangover Part III movie trailer.



In Warner Bros. The Hangover Part III, the Wolf pack are back. This time, while the Wolf pack Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Justin Bartha are on the way to take fellow Wolf packer and ADHD disordered Zach Galifianakis on a personal intervention - they get hijacked by mobster John Goodman who is after escaped gangster Ken Jeong.

In this third and final movie of The Hangover series, Written, Directed, and Produced by Todd Phillips, The Hangover Part III has the principal actors back in this movie, including Heather Graham and her young son played by Grant Holmquist.

I have not seen the second movie The Hangover Part II, but you do not have to have seen it to appreciate The Hangover Part III. There were a couple of references that I believe were to Part II, but I do not think it is necessary to have seen Part II - although it did make me wish I had seen Part II to really appreciate what had happened. While Part II was about Bangkok, Part III eventually returns back to Las Vegas which makes it more of a sequel for me and puts an end to the series. Just like in The Hangover, Wolf packer Justin Bartha is missing from most of the movie - and as a result you do not get to know him as a character. As Galifianakis tells Helms, they have been on a lot of adventures together - but I do not know Bartha, except that he is Galifianakis's brother-in-law.

John Goodman as the mobster was good - although with him playing such cute, cuddly characters in the movies so often, I could not really see Goodman as being bad in this movie because this is supposed to be a comedy except for his actions. The same thing with Jeong. Jeong is just too funny to be considered a bad guy, except for his actions.

The opening music was pretty dramatic over the film's production logos, which was making me think that I was in the wrong movie theater. Once the picture actually starts and the credits start to roll, the music changes slightly so that you realize that is was stylized music for the movie. I loved the use of Schubert's Ave Maria that Galifianakis had sung for the funeral scene. I do not know if that was really Galifianakis's voice, but as Cooper says, Galifianakis sounded like an angel. I also liked the use of popular music illustrating the plot of the movie - although the background music was mostly pretty dramatic, which made the music kind of a downer for me.

I admit that the main reason that I saw this film is because of the freeway scenes that were filmed at my hometown's Costa Mesa's/Corona Del Mar's 73 Freeway in Orange County, California - which was closed for a weekend. My cousin said that they had filmed right by where they often go to dinner. The freeway scenes were pretty involved in the movie and makes me think that part of the scenes was CGI as those scenes were rather involved for a weekend daylight shoot.

I saw the film with a small audience, but the audience was laughing throughout the movie. Being locals, they especially laughed at our freeway scenes.

At the end of the movie, there are basically shots of the Wolf pack walking around as a pack in the styles from the various movies.

When the end credits start to roll - stick around, as there is a pretty large scene that is similar in style as a party from the original The Hangover.

While there is controversy about animal cruelty, the American Humane Association did On-Set Oversight on the movie and states that no animals were harmed.

At the end of the movie in the credits is a disclaimer for the Caesars Palace hotel and casino, "The scenes at Caesars Palace in the film are fictitious and not all activities depicted therein are authorized or endorsed by Caesars." 

Rated R for violence, language, sexual situations, nudity. Running time: 100 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

  Pancho's Movie Reviews



 

THE LAST STAND

Lionsgate

Rated R

Running time: 107 Minutes



Click below to watch The Last Stand trailer.



In Lionsgate The Last Stand, Sheriff Arnold Swarzenegger must stop a FBI fugitive Eduardo Noriega from crossing the border through his small town.

In Arnold's first lead role since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Arnold is a small town sheriff looking forward to a nice quiet weekend after most of the town has gone out of town for the local high school's football game - when escaped drug lord Noriega heads toward his town in order to cross the border.

This is a good ol' boy version of Jack Reacher and Seven Samurai, but not as intelligent. Although, the characters were quite relatable, even the small town bit townspeople It is too bad that Harry Dean Stanton did not have more to do. He would have been a great town character. It is kind of nice that the movie played up the fact that as a character, Arnold has been out of action for a while and played up his being old. International drug lord Noriega was a character more interested in power than being an intelligent bad guy, and his henchman Peter Stormare is even worse and more over the top as a character. With Noriega driving a modified Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 as his escape car racing towards Arnold's small town and the Mexican border, the movie had a Mad Max type of feeling as well.

Forrest Whitaker is basically wasted in this movie as his character really was not very dramatic or kick ass as Noriega escapes from FBI custody in Las Vegas. It was also disappointing that Whitaker does not interact with Arnold and Arnold's people, except by phone - and that generally being about the legal jurisdiction between the two of them on their manhunt for Noriega. Johnny Knoxville and Luis Guzman were basically the film's eccentric comic relief.

Having the town shootout done with assault rifles instead of your typical six-shooter wild Western shootout was quite fun.

Rated R for graphic violence and language. Running time: 107 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

The Hangover

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated R

Running time: 100 minutes




The Hangover is about four guys going to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. It gives new meaning to "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" or more appropriately "What happened in Vegas?" After a wild night, the guys can't remember what happened, and spend the rest of the movie figuring out what happened that night - especially since they misplaced the groom-to-be. This film seems like an adult version of Superbad as all sorts of outrageous events happen to the guys, one of the guys even had a Las Vegas wedding. Too bad the baby is not as involved with the story as the trailer makes it out to be, which means the movie is NOT a remake of Three Men and a Baby as the marketing campaigns make it appear to be.

Rated R for sexual situations and violence. Running time: 100 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.