One of my favourite new comedies hit Blu-ray this month, with the December 15th release of The Hangover from Warner Home Video.

The film follows friends who go to Las Vegas for their best friend’s bachelor party, only to wake up the next morning not remembering a thing and missing the groom.

Not only that, but the suite is a mess, there is a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, one guy is missing a tooth, another is wearing a hospital bracelet and there is a mattresses is impaled on a statue outside.

When they go to pick up their car, they discover that they apparently stole a police cruiser the night before.

The movie unwinds as the three endeavour to retrace their steps of the night before in order to find the groom, and uncover the extent of their adventure.

One of the best things about this movie is that they pretty much resolve all the loose ends and everything makes sense by the end - which is a major feat considering the set up.

The principal cast includes Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis playing the three friends, Justin Bartha as the groom, and appearances from Jeffrey Tambor, Heather Graham, Rachel Harris and Rob Riggle.

The Hangover was directed by Todd Phillips, the man behind Old School, School for Scoundrels and Road Trip.

The movie was fairly well received by the critics - it earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of 78% and IMDb score of 8/10.

The Hangover was a huge success at the cinema, reaching $277.3M at the US box office.

The video on the disc is a VC-1 1080p encode at 16.5 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1.

Oddly there is a separate encode for the theatrical and unrated versions, perhaps the reason for the low bitrate.

Full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc are available at the details page for The Hangover.

The main audio is lossless Dolby True HD with 5.1 channels - 16 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 40.1 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

Special features are numerous and include Bonus View Picture in Picture streams, BD Live Network features and a Digital Copy for both iTunes and Windows Media.

The Picture-In-Picture commentary on the disc features the three main characters and the director Todd Philips.

The Cursing Mash-Up features a compilation of ‘bad language’ that is used throughout the film, while the Action Mash-Up is a montage of the physical comedy from the movie.

Additional footage features include a gag reel and more pictures from the missing camera that chronicles the forgotten events.

The Map Of Destruction feature follows the filming of the movie through the actual Las Vegas locations, and includes historical information about Las Vegas.

Movie character Mr Chow gets his own featurette, with The Madness Of Ken Jeong presenting a selection of Ken Jeong’s wild improv.

On the music side, the disc includes The Dan Band performing Fame, Mike Tyson’s rendition of In the Air Tonight, and Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis with a freestyle performance of Three Best Friends Song.

As is born out by the box office success, The Hangover is a great movie and one that I can heartily recommend for comedy fans.

The Blu-ray version is a pretty comprehensive release from Warner Home Video - a fine addition for the collection.

The retail price is $35.99, or order it right now at Amazon for $18.49, saving 49%!

Extras:

• Picture-In-Picture Commentary
• Exclusive Features Via Blu-ray Live
• Cursing Mash-Up
• Iron Mike Online Teaser
• More Pictures From The Missing Camera
• Map Of Destruction
• The Madness Of Ken Jeong
• Action Mash-Up
• Three Best Friends Song
• The Dan Band!
• Gag Reel

Synopsis:

They planned a Vegas bachelor party that they would never forget. Now they really need to remember what exactly went down! Whose baby is in the closet of their Caesars Palace suite? How did a tiger get in the bathroom? Why is one of them missing a tooth? And most of all, where is the groom?! What the guys did while partying can’t compare to what they must do sober in an outrageous caper that has them piecing together all their bad decisions from the night before - one hazy clue at a time. Director Todd Phillips (Old School) and an all-aces comedy cast bring it big time with unpredictable situations that somehow all fit together. Tie one on with The Hangover.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 26th, 2009 at 11:57 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.