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Bradley Cooper

The Warner Brothers comedy He’s Just Not That Into You was released on DVD and Blu_Ray on June 2, 2009

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This smartly done comedy about five women and four men trying to sort out the signals that the sexes exchange has an all star cast line up. Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) who imagines every man she meets is Mr. Right gets her reality checks from her guy friend Alex (Justin Long), a sweet but cynical bar owner. Janine (Jennifer Connelly) and Ben (Bradley Cooper) seem solidly married until he chats with Anna (Scarlett Johansson) in a market checkout line; meanwhile Anna is indifferent to the pursing Connor. Neil (Ben Affleck) and Beth (Jennifer Aniston) have been together seven years; she dumps him when she realizes he really and truly isn’t going to marry her. Does he love her? And Mary (Drew Barrymore) sells advertising while searching on line for a man. Will those in love stay in love? Will those searching figure out who is and who isn’t into them? Are men all that different from women?

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the-hangover-1If you’re familiar with the phrase, “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas?”, then this movie is right for you. Imagine that you are on the eve of getting married and your best friends treat you to a weekend in Sin City. You & your friends decided to get a suite at one of Vegas’s famous casinos. Then, you do a toast to celebrate your last night as a bachelor. Then the next morning, everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. The hotel room is trashed beyond recognization. You’re sleeping on the floor. One of your friends is missing a tooth. A baby is in the closet. Finally, you found a bengal tiger in your bathroom.

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If you’ve seen the ubiquitous trailer and TV spots for The Hangover, you’ve seen several of the movie’s high spots – tiger in the bathroom; am I missing a tooth; is that a baby; Mike Tyson air-drumming to Phil Collins – but, and you can trust me on this, they comprise the tip of the iceberg that is one weird, twisted and even trippy comedy.

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We’ve seen all these characters before – the nerdy dentist with the shrewish girlfriend; the inappropriate fat guy; the schoolteacher who’s about as mature as his students and yet happily married; the slightly uptight groom-to-be – but we’ve never seen them from quite this angle before.

The set up is so simple – three guys take a groom-to-be to Vegas for his bachelor party… a night to remember. Then, the three wake up with no memory of the previous night; their hotel suite… sorry, villa… is a shambles, and the groom is missing!

Beyond the clips in the trailer, anything I might want to use as an example of the high FQ [Funny Quotient!!!] of this film might spoil whole chains of events, so I’ll simply tell you that Todd Phillips, director of Old School, has found a terrific script [by John Lucas and Scott Moore] and done right by it.

Bradley Cooper [Phil, the schoolteacher], Ed Helms [Stu, the dentist] and Zack Galifinakis [Alan, the brother-in-law to be – and a bit of a savant] are in the best form of their respective careers. Somehow, they make these stereotypes both sympathetic and hysterically funny. Justin Bartha [Doug, the groom-to-be] is both a solid straight man/victim of circumstance and funny when the script demands it of him.

The extremely good supporting cast includes, among others, Jeffrey Tambor [the very knowing father-in-law-to-be], Sasha Baresse [Tracy, the bride-to-be], Rachel Harris [Melissa, the shrew], Heather Graham [Jade], and Ken Jeong [Mr. Chow]. The gags range from polite to “OMIGAWD!!! Did you see/hear that???” – and the set up is as funny as the rest of the movie. Stay for the credits – there is a montage that tells us exactly what happened in those hours that have, mercifully it turns out, been erased from the guys’ memories…

Final Grade: A

Eclipse Review by Sheldon Wiebe

Posted June 5, 2009

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Two friends and one soon to be brother-in-law decide to take their pal out for his bachelor party in illustrious Las Vegas two days before the wedding. Upon waking up the morning after, the hotel suite they stayed in is trashed, a few unexpected houseguests appear, the groom is missing, and no one can remember a thing.

I’m very happy to see the return of the R-rated, smart comedies. I’ve enjoyed movies like Wedding Crashers, Role Models, Old School, etc., and for fans of those films, The Hangover will most likely one day find a spot in your collection right next to them.
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