Alan, Stu, and Phil (left to right) set out on a Las Vegas scavenger hunt to find their friend
after waking up with no memory of the night before and no idea where he might be.

"The Hangover" captures all of the charm of Vegas -- hot, dirty and still drunk from last night. The opening shots show the vast landscape of the Strip in all of the seedy, sun-drenched, and snail-trail-covered glory that is decisively Las Vegas.

In the film, Director Todd Phillips takes a more grown-up approach to drunken masculine humor using a bachelor party as his platform, rather than a fraternity as he did in "Old School." The humor, however, is very much the same -- dirty, inappropriate and oh so amazing. It's the kind of movie that you can watch over and over again and it just keeps getting funnier.

Immediately after seeing the movie I was sure it was better than "Old School."

It begins with a typical bachelor party premise. Three best friends and the bride-to-be's quirky brother set out to celebrate a final night of freedom. In Vegas, freedom means mayhem and the group definitely achieves its goal -- and then some.

Groom-to-be Doug, played by Justin Bartha, his two best friends, Phil and Stu, and soon-to-be brother-in-law Alan set out to experience a night they'll never forget. As fate would have it, it turns out to be a night they'll never remember. Phil, a school teacher with a certain air of narcissism, is the most out-going and playboy type of the group, played by Bradley Cooper (Ben from "Wet Hot American Summer"). Stu is a clean-cut, cookie-cutter, do-the-right-thing doctor, I'm sorry, dentist, played by "The Office's" Ed Helms. And then there's Alan. Sweet, awkward, and quasi metro-sexual. The self-proclaimed one-man wolf pack is played by the eternally funny Zach Galifianakis.

Alan and Stu are consistently the funniest characters, delivering the most laugh-out-loud lines in the film.

Stu: "She is wearing my grandmother's Holocaust ring."
Alan: "I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust."

Alan: "Counting cards isn't illegal, it's just frowned upon, like masturbating on an airplane." Stu: "I'm pretty sure it's illegal to masturbate on an airplane." Alan: "Well yeah, ever since 9/11 people have been so sensitive. Thanks a lot, bin Laden."

The night begins with a little pre-party toast of Jaegar on the rooftop of the foursome's hotel. Flash-forward to the next morning. Doug is missing, Stu is missing a tooth, there is a tiger in the bathroom, a chicken wondering about, and a baby in the closet. The room is trashed; pyramids of empty liquor bottles, a blow-up doll in the jacuzzi and no recollection of the night's events.

When the guys find Doug's cellphone in the room they begin to worry where he is and set out on a journey to retrace their steps and find their friend. After discovering that Phil is wearing a hospital bracelet they go to the valet to get their car and go to the hospital to gather more clues. Rather than bringing their car around, the valet brings a cop car and bids good morning to the three "officers."

The film continues with hilarious encounters, including a run-in with a gay chinese gangster, Mr. Chow, played by Ken Jeong (King Argotron in "Role Models"), and perhaps more notably, a tussle with Mike Tyson, who comes to retrieve his tiger.

The zenith of the movie comes when Alan suggests that he and his "wolf pack" play the tables to win enough money to save Doug. Afterall, he did read a book about counting cards and is by all accounts "not a ratard."    

In the end I learned a few valuable lessons:
1. Never mix ruffies with Jaeger
2. Never try to ruffie a tiger
3. It is definitely possible to successfully count cards and get away with it
and
4. It isn't called a man-purse, it's a satchel, you ratard.