Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 23% (Critics) / 88% (Audience)
Directed By: Todd Phillips
Written By: Todd Phillips and Craig Mazin
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong and John Goodman
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Synopsis: “The Hangover Part III” is the third and final film in director Todd Phillips’ record-shattering comedy franchise. This time, there’s no wedding. No bachelor party. What could go wrong, right? But when the Wolfpack hits the road, all bets are off. (Source)
The Good:
Zach Galifianakis’ manic energy and total disregard for any semblance of likability is the highlight of this movie. His Alan takes center stage in all his whacked out selfish glory and he is the only bright spot in the entire undertaking.
The Bad:
For a comedy THE HANGOVER 3 was almost devoid of laughs. There were mildly humorous moments and a couple times where events on screen were chuckle worthy but there was not one big laugh out loud moment in the entire movie and no one in the theater I was in let out one big belly laugh.
The Ugly
I like Ken Jeong and think he is really funny as Chang on COMMUNITY but his Mr. Chow is an incredibly annoying creature and a little bit of him goes a long, long way. So for him to be featured in this movie so much only served to make my head hurt.
Final Verdict: A continuation of the downward spiral of a once promising franchise. Things started out so great with the hilarious first film, took a nosedive with the mildly funny second installment and just dies on the vine in this third iteration. How a movie made by and starring the same people could have such a significant drop in quality is a mystery to me. Thankfully this is the last one of these films that is supposed to be made…too bad they didn’t quite at one.
Grade: D
Crustula 
This trilogy reminds me of the Austin Powers trio in their humor trajectory. Start high. Recycle all your good jokes for the second installment and hope no one notices. Rinse, repeat for part three, when everyone smarter than a 5th grader gets tired of it.
LikeLike
You are spot on with that assessment; the decline in quality from the first to the sequels is just so drastic. it makes me believe the first movie was pure dumb luck.
LikeLike
I think of it as this: they hit comedic gold the first time around because there was a lot of originality to it, so of course, they ran it into the ground, milking it for all it was worth.
I have similar issues with comics, too. Seems like there is a terrific premise, so at least the first arc is terrific. Then writers and artists play musical chairs to meet deadlines, and the books lose focus. It’s more about being out on time to get your $3.99 in their pockets than putting out a consistent, quality piece of work. It’s why I think the industry needs to move toward a TV series format. Put Bendis and Bagley on Avengers for their 12 issue run, or whatever it is. When their story ends, so does the series. Bring it back as Season 2 a few months down the road with the new creators. Rinse. Repeat. Do this with all the books, and Marvel get have their cake of continuous, rolling #1s, and we get to eat it, too, because in theory, everything will have a higher quality. Sorry to turn this to a comic book rant!
LikeLike
Never apologize for steering any conversation to comics!
And if more companies adopted the mini-series type of model where a new creative team gets to make their dream stories of a specific character I think we would all be better off. Taking Bendis as an example…his I early issues on Avengers were great but he started to go off the rails as his tenure dragged on.
And I read The Bounce; thought it was pretty cool and the new universe that Casey is creating where super-powered individuals are just starting to appear is ripe with storyline potential. Plus I like a super-hero who goes out to fight the bad guys after taking a couple hits on his bong.
LikeLike