BOTTOM LINE: Despite a slow start, “The Hangover” is surprisingly funny, delivered with clever wit and a strong chemistry between the lead characters. Director Todd Phillips manages to elevate an otherwise unbelievable ‘stupid-comedy’ story to something more hilariously believable and down to earth.

THE GOOD: The premise is an oldie but a goodie; four guys go to Vegas to have a huge bachelor party but end up having a bigger night than expected, losing the groom and slowly discovering how bad a night they had as they search for their friend with a huge hangover. One good ingredient to have in a comedy like this is good character interaction between its leads and “The Hangover” manages to deliver this in spades. Phil, Stu and Alan, as played by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, are the most unlikely trio you are likely to come across yet their chemistry together is quite strong. Coupled with a script full of clever one-liners and character sparring and you have some very down-to-Earth and real comedy as opposed to the highly contrived and manufactured comedy that could have so easily come out of a film like this, particularly with the situations these characters face: from trashing their Las Vegas villa in Caesar’s Palace, to stealing Mike Tyson’s pet tiger, to literally pulling out teeth, quickie-weddings to strippers, accidentally stealing eighty thousand dollars from a Chinese gangster and swindling a casino by counting cards at Black Jack (with an hilarious ‘Rain Man’ homage) to name just a few of the antics these guys get up to. What makes this film work above others in this genre is that the characters have a strong goal to achieve; the groom is missing and given their wild night, he could be anywhere and they have less than two days to get him back to his wedding. The film’s laughs, although stupid on the surface, have a deeper and clever resonance which is unexpected and welcome. All these ingredients make for one funny and entertaining ride of a movie once it gets going.

THE BAD: The first twenty minutes of the film are its weakest, largely as this introduction does not comfortably set up the type of comedy that is to come from the rest of the film. All of the introductions of the lead characters are awkward and somewhat unsympathetic, particularly Phil’s school teacher scene where he gets each of his students to pay ninety dollars for a supposed field trip which he then uses as his holiday fund to Vegas. Alan’s setup feels very contrived, particularly with the obligatory dropping of pants, leaving only Stu who has to deal with an over-the-top controlling wife who will not let him step out of place even to breath incorrectly. As a result, the chemistry you see from these characters later, and the film’s outlandish sequences in general, do not really catch on until after the three guys wake up the next morning and all hell breaks loose. It is also inconsistent with the finale where we see all four friends sporting a new lease on life, with Phil and Stu in particularly having a change of attitude towards their respective lives.