The Hangover
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: June 5, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Buy On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
PremiereRob Calvert
This is a movie where you WANT to stick around for the credits. The beauty is that you are totally set up for it, and you don't mind one bit. That final sequence ties the movie together in an awesome fashion. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
A piercingly funny, twisted "whatever-happens-in-Vegas" caper. Read full review
90
VarietyJoe Leydon
At once raucously free-wheeling and meticulously contrived, picture satisfies as a boys-gone-wild laff riot that also clicks as a seriocomic beat-the-clock detective story. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The Hangover is a shaggy-dog tale that's actually, when you step back from it, perfectly shaped. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Todd Phillips is no artist, but his lowbrow comedies (Road Trip, Old School) always hit the mark because they're so psychologically true: the superego tries to control the id, but the id gets drunk and barfs all over it. Hilarious. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A funny movie, flat out, all the way through. Its setup is funny. Every situation is funny. Most of the dialogue is funny almost line by line. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The Hangover ain't art, but Phillips has shaped the hardcore hilarity into the summer party movie of all our twisted dreams. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineCammila Albertson
So if you're looking for the next stop on the Shockingly Experimental Comedy train, don't get off here -- this ride is strictly for laughs. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
There is a sort of perverse brilliance or brilliant perverseness to be found in this story of a bachelor party gone terribly wrong. Read full review
80
EmpireSimon Braund
A furiously paced, inventive and flat-out hilarious take on a tried-and-tested formula. An exemplary bromantic comedy that doesn't sacrifice heart in pursuit of laughs, maintaining plenty of the former and a superabundance of the latter. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
The Hangover instantly has the feel of one for the ages. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Overall it's more amusing than hilarious. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The Hangover remains unrepentantly irresponsible and hilarious throughout, culminating with what could be the funniest montage ever to grace a picture's end credits. The summer's first sleeper hit has arrived. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It's a worst-case-scenario of bachelor party morning-after, and it is howlingly funny. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Director Todd Phillips (Old School) has a knack for extreme scenarios and outside-the-box casting. He has made a movie that is consistently funny from start to finish. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The Hangover pushes the boundaries of good taste, good sense, and good will toward man. And you'll feel good about it all. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A lot of what happens is gross, puerile and gratuitous, granted, but Helms and Galifianakis are truly funny in offbeat fashion, and the script allows Phillips room for some brilliant slapstick. You will not be ennobled. But you will be entertained. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The funniest movie so far this year. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Raunchy frat comedies are as hard to pull off as any other kind because they have to keep surprising the audience, and The Hangover does with a bizarre series of uproarious situations with explanations that just about stay within the bounds of plausibility. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
For a viewer in the mood for something rude, crude, and lewd, it would be difficult to find a more satisfying food. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
It is classless, it is tasteless, it is idiotic, it is juvenile and it is something your mother totally wouldn't approve of. But it also is flat-out hilarious, a go-for-broke comedy that not only is the best laugher released so far this summer, but one of the best so far this year. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJim Ridley
Phillips can't bring himself to push the material into truly outré territory, or to characterize his growth-impaired guys as degenerate creeps rather than lovable scamps. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
But true to its title, The Hangover goes down smoothly enough and then kicks you in the head later on, when you start to examine the sources of your laughter. Read full review
70
SlateDana Stevens
This kind of "one crazy night" tale relies on drum-tight structure to work. Without it, The Hangover sputters to a sentimental halt. Still, it's worth staying for the closing credits. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Sitting through The Hangover is like watching "Memento" featuring the Three Stooges. Read full review
70
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
It doesn't disappoint. It gets the job done thanks in large part to the breakout performance given by Galifianakis. It's no "Old School," but it will do nicely until that film's anticipated sequel rolls around in 2011. Read full review
More From This Movie

73 Critic Reviews

7.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 84 In the Heights
2 75 Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba-...
3 72 Together Together
4 71 A Quiet Place Part II
5 67 Dream Horse
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Instant Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
Best of 2018: Film Awards and Nominations
SEE ALL