The author of this article is @Zhen Zhen of time editorial department
I'm completely cured.
Among R-rated comedies, there are few wilder films than The Hangover.
The film, co-starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Gallifanagis, Ken Zheng and others, paid $467 million at the global box office with a budget of about $35 million.
It has to be said that this box office performance is the highest in the United States R-rated sex comedy, and it is also the seventh in the global box office of all R-rated movies (in front of the 2 "Deadpool", "The Passion of the Christ" and "The Return of the Clown" and other films).
It has been 11 years since the release of the first "Hangover", and the classic scenes in the film are still vividly remembered.
The film would have become a well-known and forgettable work, just like the sex comedy that springs up in the United States every year. But what is unexpected is that this film has become a box office player at that time, and two sequels that have made a lot of money have been made in succession.
The plot is simple and uncomplicated: Before Doug (Justin Barca) gets married, he and his two buddies Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper), and brother-in-law Alan (Zach Gallifianakis) go to Las Vegas for a bridesmaid's bachelor's party, wanting to go completely crazy.
What makes the film different from countless other sex comedies is that you don't see what happened that night. One minute they were drinking the first glass of the night, and the next second they suddenly cut to the next morning.
After a hangover, a rooster wanders around their hotel suite, Stu, a dentist, loses a tooth, Phil doesn't know why he's wrapped around a hospital bracelet, and a tiger is lying on his stomach in the bathroom. The groom Doug is gone!
In the process of searching for Doug, the three male protagonists of the film experience various sudden and strange events.
First he was threatened with a gun, and then in the trunk, he found a strange man who was fully exposed at three o'clock. A buddy who was supposed to propose to his fiancée actually married a stripper. The most unexpected thing was that in their closet, a baby suddenly appeared.
The next day was Doug's wedding, but the groom was lost. And the three male protagonists, because of their hangovers, can't even remember where they went the night before and what they did, and the fun of the whole film begins here.
Although this film still has a childish, funny sense of humor similar to that in "Too Bad". But the difference in "The Hangover" is that the experience of the men in the film begging for food is completely self-made.
Stu and his girlfriend
Phil is a married teacher, dentist Stu has a girlfriend who plans to propose, how reliable the two are when they are sober, and how crazy they are after being drugged. The two of them should have been the most reassuring after drinking, but in the end, they still had to work together to piece together the 12 hours of "amnesia".
Like most good comedies, "The Hangover" must have a very out-of-the-box performance, so that it can sublimate to the height of "good film".
The Hangover is the first film in which Zach Galifianakis played the lead role, and he has previously run dragon suits in comedy TV series and movies. At the age of 40, he starred in "The Hangover" and ushered in a breakthrough in his career.
Alan, played by Zach Galifheagis, is socially stretched but desperate to be loved and accepted, a character who can change the whole scene and say what is going on in his head without embellishment.
Alan's pants gave to kneel
From the appearance point of view, Alan's dress and conversation are very "R-rated". For example, I like to run around the house wearing only a pair of underwear. But deep inside him, there is a man who is insecure and eager to mingle with people.
In terms of acting, Galifianakis did set Alan's character apart from the other characters, flesh and blood, with a distinct personality. In terms of emotions, it also reaches a deeper level.
Although the role of Alan has many slots, he is definitely a well-deserved star in the film. Without him, the four brothers would certainly not have a "hangover".
Today, 11 years after the film's release, if you have to pick a bone in the egg, it is that "Hangover" has almost no outstanding female characters.
Like Belly In one night, all the women in the film are sadly humorless, super controlling, and very flat.
Only Jade, played by Heather Graham, has a little room to play, which is a "stripper with a heart of gold" role. But unfortunately, there is nothing else.
Jade
Maybe "The Hangover" didn't want to be smart or refined, but it became one of the most popular blockbusters of the early 2000s. Unfortunately, the sequels to the series, Hangover 2 and Hangover 3, did not continue this momentum.
"Hangover 2" basically copied the routine of the first part, and "Hangover 3" offered an old-fashioned and unspeakably kidnapping section. But the good news is that at least they have made money at the box office.
The face tattoo in Hangover 2 is impressive
In the past 11 years, the biggest change and the most familiar to us is the big handsome guy with blue eyes and an idol image - Bradley Cooper.
After acting in the "Hangover" trilogy, he basically said goodbye to comedy movies. In the days that followed, Cooper was nominated for the Oscar for three consecutive years for "The Happy Line Behind the Clouds", "American Hoax" and "American Sniper".
In 2018, he won 8 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress with his own film "The Birth of a Star".
Stills from "A Star Is Born"
The other lead actor, Ed Helms, has basically developed in the field of comedy over the years, and he is featured in "Counterfeit Family", "Holiday Adventure" and "Catchy Game".
In addition, he voiced cartoons such as "The Story of Old Reis" and "Captain Underpants", as well as cameos in a series of American dramas (he first became famous because of his role in the American version of "Office").
Most of these characters are similar to Stu in "The Hangover", or docile to some cowardly or helpless "honest people".
Helms (and Hammer Brother...) in Vacation Adventures. ）
As mentioned earlier, Zach Galifianakis is the central charm of The Hangover. Before starring in this film, he had said a whole decade of "stand-up comedy", and the film and television series were all side hustles before.
Messy hair and awkward social skills that make people want to commit suicide in situ have made Zach's classic image on the big screen. In the past two years, he has also starred in two films nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture , Birdman and In the Clouds. In addition, he also dubbed the "Joker" in the Lego Batman Movie.
Zach in Birdman
"Hangover" director Todd Phillips didn't shoot many movies.
Between 2014 and 2017, he directed only one "Arms Dealer" and incidentally became the producer of "Never Ending".
Stills from "Arms Dealer"
In 2018, he oversaw the production of Bradley Cooper's directorial debut, A Star Is Born, and his career was back on track. However, the work that really brought him back to the public eye was "Joker" in 2019.
When I heard that Todd Phillips was going to make the DC movie "Joker", there was a lot of doubt in the industry. No matter how you look at it, the role of "Joker" seems to be no match for a director who has made R-rated sex comedies famous.
Stills from Joker
But I have to convince, Todd Phillips did rely on "Joker" to prove his strength again.
In the 2019 awards season, the film can be described as an infinite scenery, and the awards it has won include but are not limited to: the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, the Academy Award for Best Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and dozens of other large and small awards.
Box office results are even more record-breaking. The global box office exceeded 1 billion US dollars, becoming the first R-rated film in film history to exceed 1 billion yuan. Compared with the production cost of 62.5 million US dollars, its global box office has increased by 16 times, becoming the most profitable comic book in the history of cinema.
Looking back at the days before the appearance of "The Hangover", the R-rated comedy at that time, or the world of Judd Apato, has presented three classic works of "Forty-year-old old virgin", "One Night Belly" and "Too Bad".
Among them, "Too Bad" was released in the United States in its first week, and it grossed more than $33 million.
At that time, the audience was also more receptive than ever to this childish and even somewhat nasty sense of humor, as well as the awkward anti-hero protagonist of the nerd type.
Stills from "The Forty-Year-Old Virgin"
In 2009, "The Hangover" came out as a huge success.
After that, countless R-rated sex comedies were eager to label it as "XX version of "Hangover". For example, "Unmarried Woman" released in 2012, "Crazy Single Night" and "The Last Vegas" released in 2013, and "One Night in a Hurry" released in 2017.
However, no one can reach the height of "The Hangover", and no one can bring us the pure happiness we got when we watched the four big masters make fools.
"One Night in a Hurry" is almost interesting
Some anecdotes from The Hangover
· Stu's front teeth
Stu's missing tooth didn't need any special braces or special effects, and Ed Helms' front teeth were not born to grow, so when shooting the "missing teeth" shot, it was easy to simply remove the dentures that had been planted before, and the "tooth extraction" was effortless.
However, Helms also admitted that the removal of his teeth brought some trouble to his later filming of the American drama "Office".
"I never told any of the Cass in The Office about the 'toothlessness', and if they knew, they would have gone crazy. So, I would wear that stuff in my mouth to shoot the drama, but it actually affected my speech. You can go and see the episodes that were made while filming The Hangover, and I sound like I'm drunk. ”
In "The Office", the teeth look straight and actually fill a front tooth
Lindsay Lohan was a Jade candidate
Lindsey Lohan was considered as an actress to play Jade, and although she was not as cold as she is now in 2009, it was not her hottest era, after all, she drank enough alcohol and smoked enough poison.
But the reason she really lost the role of striptease Girl Jade was that the producer felt that she was too young (23 years old) to be suitable for the role. At that time, Lindsay herself did not want to act, she did not like the script, and thought that the film would be thrown, and later she admitted that she regretted her decision to refuse to appear in the film.
Lindsay Lohan
The difference between the original script and the film
There was no Mr. Zhou and Tiger in the original script, in fact, many of the classic bridges and brilliant characters in the film were not in the original script.
After the script was finalized, the title of the film was still "What Happened in Vegas", and director Phillips and co-screenwriter Jeremy Garley changed the role of Bradley Cooper from car salesman to teacher, and went back to adding surprises to the film.
Tiger: Meow Meow??
According to Phillips, "There were no Tysons, babies and tigers, and there were no police cars." Jeremy Garley and I sat in my house and started writing. Let's go back and think about what the craziest thing you can recall when you wake up? A tiger? So why are there tigers? Oh I thought it was fun, Mike Tyson! I once read that he had a tiger. ”
The term "tiger" is not enough to describe Tyson, in real life, the boxing king has a total of 7 tigers - people pension tigers are the same as cats.
Mike Tyson's motivation to join
Phillips and Justin Barca managed to convince Mike Tyson to star when he was drunk. Tyson starred in the film not through an agent, a luncheon, but through a drink at a club in Vegas.
Tyson
Suites of the Caesar Hotel
The four brothers in the film did not destroy the suite at the Caesar Hotel. After all, the lowest price for this room is 1600 US dollars / night, which is still the price of 10 years ago.
The room they woke up to after a night of fun was actually filmed in the studio. According to the public relations director of Caesars Hotel, the studio is based on two "Forum Tower" suites: one is the penthouse suite and the other is what everyone calls the "Rain Man Suite".
Jonah Hill almost played Alan
Jonah Hill, Jack Gyllenhaal, and Thomas Harden Church (sand man in Spider-Man 3) were considered for the role of Alan. Warner Bros. was unfamiliar with Zach Gallife Annakis when casting, and Phillips had said that Jonah Hill was his number one candidate to play Alan.
Zach in "The Hangover 3", the beard seems to be getting more and more...
Ken Zheng against pressure to star in "Hangover"
Ken Zheng played Mr. Zhou while also taking care of his wife, who was suffering from cancer, who was undergoing chemotherapy at the time, and playing Mr. Zhou allowed him to release some of the pressure.
"That shot was magical, my wife was having breast cancer at the time and was undergoing chemotherapy. That's why I dared to be so crazy when I played the role, I felt like I was defeating my own demons. Todd and Bradley Cooper were the only people who knew about it at the time, and The Hangover got me through the toughest moments of my life. ”
Ken Zheng is also quite crazy in the film
· The footage of "baby abuse" was almost cut
In the film, the person who is slapped in the face by the car door is a toy doll, not a real baby. But this scene was almost erased, because considering that the audience may have some extreme reactions after watching it.
The director was going to "really shoot"
In the "Stun Gun" scene, the director originally intended to use a real stun gun, but Warner's lawyers asked them to use fake props.
Remember the boy's determined look?
Bradley Cooper does not stick to the wine
In real life, Bradley Cooper is a strict prohibitionist who quit drinking at the age of 29.
·“ Ant-Man", Paul Luther, declined to star
Paul Luther was invited to play Phil, but he later declined. Well, if he doesn't play The Hangover, we'll still know Paul years from now; if Bradley Cooper hadn't played The Hangover, we probably wouldn't have known him at some point.
Stolen prop car
During the filming process, a mercedes-benz car (1965 Mercedes-Benz 220SE) was stolen on the set, and the next day when filming the driving scene, the police blocked the road, and one of the crew members suddenly found that one of the cars that was blocked by the road was the one that was lost!
The car was found, and the car thief was caught. Stole the crew's car, or did not forget to go to the crew shooting location to punch the clock?
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