Do It: See "The Hangover"

Todd Phillips, who directed 2004's "Starsky and Hutch" has made a woefully sick, deranged, laugh-out-loud summer caper called "The Hangover." It is a classic "What Goes on in Vegas Stays in Vegas" bachelor party flick with a twist a la "Go" or "Pulp Fiction" or (you get the idea). I urge you -- now listen carefully -- to STOP whatever you are doing and go to see this film immediately.

Why, you ask? Oh, I'll tell you:

* Do you like Peter Sellers? If he were still alive, he'd have had something to do with this picture. There is a scene involving the trunk of a Mercedes that could easily have been dreamed up by Mel Brooks, Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers on a bender.

* Do you think that, in the service of comedy, a baby can be made to wear '70s style sunglasses and to do abominable things? Then this is your film.

* Do you like funny things to happen during the closing credits? Do you, really? What if a film were to be largely a set-up for the credits? How would you like that?

* Is it, in your opinion, awesomely meta in a film when a character scolds another for doing something inappropriate to abuse a baby's trust but first laughs JUST a little at the joke?

* Think about this: when a film shows the decrepitude of a bachelor-party-gone-wrong by using a close up establishing shot of a hotel room with an incongruous chicken and a toothless dentist it is off to a great start.

I am not a huge Judd Apatow fan; the boy should probably just come of of the closet and move to Amsterdam. This is not a Judd Apatow film. It gets back to the craziness of classic gone-wrong/social commentary filmmakers like Paul Brickman ("Risky Business"), Martin Scorsese (After Hours), or Christopher McQuarrie ("The Way of the Gun").

So, do it: see "The Hangover."

PS - No apologies for a film that makes your cheeks hurt from 100 minutes of laughing, grinning, snorting, or just smiling in disbelief. Oh, and "She Said, She Said" by the Black Keys deserves to be on a soundtrack; now playing on iTunes.