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• The Hangover could have been more outrageous

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Watching Todd Phillips’ The Hangover and having only seen parts of his other films, such as Road Trip, Starsky and Hutch and Old School, I had expectations of a more outrageous, in-your-face and crude comedy. The Hangover actually contains a fine quartet of comedic leads and a raucous comic premise that doesn’t quite live up to its setup.

Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha play buddies Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug (the groom) who are off to Vegas for a bachelor party. Even the bride’s father, played by Jeffrey Tambor, gives the guys his blessing, sending them off in his near-mink-silver Mercedes, saying, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

On their first night, the guys get a $4,200-per-night suite in Caesars Palace and have a private, rooftop toast to rollicking good times, making a prediction for a “night we’ll never forget.” Fade to the next morning: Each is completely shit-faced and cannot remember a thing. A chicken walks near the kitchen, a baby is sitting in the closet and one guy enters the bathroom to discover a live Bengal tiger. But where’s the groom? Doug has disappeared, and they have to find him and get him back in time for his wedding.

As the guys try to piece together their last 12 to 16 hours, they quickly discover one has been to the hospital for a concussion, another has gotten married to a stripper (Heather Graham), they’ve borrowed the tiger from a famous ex-boxer and they’ve stolen a police car. The baby, tiger and chicken should have provided plenty of riotous situations that the film somehow quickly defuses.

Phillips’ mostly crude humor and comic pacing keeps the audience in stitches, and the chemistry among Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis is especially effective. In fact, Helms nearly steals the show as the nerdy Dr. Stu Price, who is constantly living in fear of his oppressive girlfriend, Melissa, discovering their antics. For better or worse, somehow screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore seem more focused on having the guys simply search for the groom and avoid an Asian gangster than exploiting more of the endless possibilities of Vegas gambling, show gals and other boys’-night-out carnal entertainments.