It’s often good to see a movie in a crowded theater; that way you can compare your reaction to the rest of the population. This is good to do this because you can see how well (or not so well) your tastes in films relates to others. Such is the case when I viewed the raunchy shock comedy ‘The Hangover,’ a film that has a wonderful premise but very few strong jokes. But for every time I lightly chuckled, the audience roared with thunderous laughter, proving that I may not be the ideal crowd for this movie. I’m glad that there is, in fact, an ideal crowd for this flick.

The film is about four friends who are going to Vegas to celebrate a bachelor party. The groom in the group, Doug (Justin Bartha), is accompanied by his swinger friend Phil (Bradley Cooper), their straight arrow college pal Stu (Ed Helms), and Doug’s new and somewhat creepy brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis). Being an obvious group of clueless troublemakers, they obviously go to Vegas to have one last night of partying before Doug ties the knot. Unfortunately they party a little TOO hard. The next morning they wake up with their room destroyed, several wild animals running around, and no memory of the night before. What’s even worse is they appear to be missing the husband to be, Doug.

So the search is on not only to find out what happened to the vanishing fiancé, but also put together just happened the night before. The jokes of the movie center around just how far they went with their drunkenness and the consequences they have to face being sober. These adventures include stealing a police car, getting married to a stripper, and locking an Asian high roller (played by the dangerously funny Ken Jong) in their car. As they search for clues and try to retrace their steps, they come across many dangerous customers, awkward moments, and of course, violent circumstances.

The film was directed by Todd Phillips who has directed such comedy hits as ‘Old School’ and ‘Wedding Crashers.’ These college aimed comedies often have lame set ups but strong jokes; in the case of ‘Hangover,’ though, we get a very strong set up but weak jokes. One joke, for example, finds our three friends asking a doctor what they did last night. The doctor answers their questions while thoroughly examining an old man (where we get a shot of his flabby, wrinkled behind). That’s the joke, he has a wrinkly rump. There’s nothing to indicate the doctor is strange or off-kilter for examining the old man in front of three stranger; there’s nothing even funny about the old man himself, he just has a wrinkly rump. This somewhat old and tired form of shock humor is used quite often in the film, including seeing one character’s penis in a still picture and seeing a stripper breast feed in front of our heroes. These kind of jokes are more the set up then they are the punch line; we’ve seen these jokes a hundred times before and they’ve proven to us that nudity alone isn’t funny, the circumstances they’re in is what’s funny.

Now that’s not to say ‘Hangover’ doesn’t have some very funny moments. The constant discovery of their actions the night before is very cleverly handled and the characters themselves are often very amusing. The problem is that many of the jokes are underdeveloped and obvious, like starting off a really good comedic bit but then just stop before really playing it out. There’s a scene where one of the guys kicks a phone out of a kid’s hand, only to find the kid later volunteering to taser that same man in the face for a police demonstration. That’s funny, the kicking the phone out of the hand isn’t the funny part, it’s the kid getting revenge. A lot of the movie doesn’t work that way though, and I often found myself scratching my head at why people were laughing as hard as they were at some of these jokes. With that said, perhaps this isn’t the movie for me, but very well could be for its target demographic, the hard partying college crowd. Nudity, violence, and alcohol abuse don’t often need much set up or delivery for that crowd, so perhaps it’s simply a matter of how much humor you really need to satisfy yourself.

So who’ll like it? I think most college students and people who enjoy ‘shock for the sake of shock’ comedy will enjoy a lot of the low brow jokes that are often tossed around in this movie.

Who won’t like it? People looking for sharper, fresher, and more developed humor will find this a little lacking, but not necessarily a horrible film.

My thoughts? I guess I don’t totally regret seeing ‘The Hangover.’ It did have some clever ideas and there were several moments where I laughed very hard; but it’s tough sitting through jokes that you know could be stronger. I often sat there after a funny line was delivered thinking to myself “Yeah, but where’s the rest of it?” I suppose it only delivers the bare minimum in terms of party movies, which for many viewers is enough. It could’ve been a lot better, but then again knowing college comedies it could’ve been a lot worse too. It’s such a wonderful concept that I really wish I could’ve seen more done with it. While our main characters enter the movie with no memory of what they’ve been through, many audience members will leave with a very clear memory of what they’ve been through. And for a trip that was supposed to be the most extreme drunken party of all time, some, like me, will leave this party simply shrugging “Meh.”