Todd Phillip's The Hangover

I was hopeful the elephantine life cycle of the Apatow monopoly had expired and, without even checking the credits, I wrongly assumed The Hangover was (yet another) Apatow death rattle. Considering every other "guy" comedy to come out over the last three or four years was an Apatow movie, it was an easy mistake to make. But yeah, I'm a presumptuous idiot; I was wrong and I'm glad I was. The Hangover is not only a f'n great comedy, it's a pretty good movie too.What rockets The Hangover past time eviscerators like Pineapple Express is the strength of its carefully structured screenplay. Movies scrambling the order of events are nothing new, but by starting backwards and retracing the steps of a blackout evening, The Hangover gives you something you don't expect from a fart gag guy pic: suspense. Instead of being buoyed by recycled frat boy humor (which is definitely present), the structure plunks you in the passenger's seat alongside the familiar jackasses we've all been on drunken road trips to hell with. What they know, you know and what they don't know (damn near everything that happened the night before), you don't know.The Hangover's casting is spot on and despite a heavy dose of familiar archetypes, damn near everything present works effortlessly. This isn't high art and character development, arcs and profundity are absent, but for a raunchy, laugh filled, entertaining summer blockbuster comedy, The Hangover delivers.