The Hangover - Unrated Edition

Warner Home Video
100/108 Minutes (Theatrical/Unrated)

List Price: $35.99 (Check Price at Amazon.com)

This movie is also available from Amazon on DVD.

Available 12/15/2009

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Disc Contents

• No Upfront Ads!
• Movie
• Special Features
  
  • Picture-in-Picture Commentary of the Theatrical Cut with hangover remedy tips featuring Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Todd Phillips.
  • Map of Destruction
  • Three Best Friends Song (1:52)
  • Gag Reel (8:43)
  • More Pictures from the Missing Camera (100 Stills)
  • The Madness of Ken Jeong (7:38)
  • Action Mash-Up (0:30)
• BD-Live
  • Iron Mike Online Teaser (1:40)
  • Cursing Mash-Up (0:51)
  • The Dan Band! (1:06)

About the Movie

They planned a Vegas bachelor party that they would never forget. Now they really need to remember what exactly went down! A baby? A tiger? Why is one of them missing a tooth? And most of all, where is the groom?! What the guys did while partying can't compare to what they must do sober in an outrageous caper that has them piecing together all their bad decisions from the night before-- one hazy clue at a time.

How Does it Look?

The video serves this movie well. It's not pristine, but it doesn't have to be. This is a glorified video diary of a weekend gone terribly awry, so any grainy behavior in the picture looks right at home. Whether working in the dark interiors of a casino, the desert exteriors of Las Vegas, or the flourescent interiors of the police department, no distracting artifacts were seen.

How Does it Sound?

The soundtrack is nothing to write home about, as it upholds the whole "video diary" vibe that the video established. While it's nice to see that a lossless soundtrack was employed, it really isn't given much to do.

Extras

I like to see the theatrical trailer included with movies, so I was disappointed to see that one was not included here. Being able to watch the trailer helps one to appreciate how the movie was marketed during its theatrical release, so this seems like a foolish omission from the extras.

The picture-in-picture commentary with Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and director Todd Phillips is the traditional commentary where we get to watch them watch the movie and listen to them make remarks about it. For whatever, reason, the LG BD-370 that I was using for the second part of this review could not play the audio from the commentary without changing the sound from bitstreamed Dolby Digital to re-encoded DTS. I was not able to overcome this problem before my time with that player was finished.

Map of Destruction is a throwaway feature that harkens back to the awkward days of "interactive" DVD features. You have to single-step through each item, and the reward is minimal. A simple "play all" feature would have made it more effective.

Three Best Friends Song is a short video featuring the excellent singing skills of Zach Galifianakis. Funny but short-lived. The Madness of Ken Jeong is more than just a little scary. The stills gallery from the missing camera is probably the best of the bunch, but it gets a little old single-stepping through the 100 photos.

BD-Live

The BD-Live section is host to three short video clips. Once again, we see the potential of BD-Live unexplored.

Digital Copy

There is a second disc which contains a Digital Copy. Fans of the movie might enjoy the digital copy, as it would allow you to download the movie and enjoy it many times on your portable device. By inserting the disc into a Windows PC or Mac, you can obtain a digital copy of the movie for playback on your PSP, PC, Mac, or iPod. I didn't explore this option, so I can't comment on the picture or sound quality. The documentation says that the Digital Copy must be redeemed by 12/15/2010.

Other Aspects

This package includes a Blu-ray disc that contains both the R-rated theatrical version of the movie and an unrated extended version, which adds about 8 minutes of material. Even though the "unrated" moniker might make some think that it will get raunchier, the extra material is largely superfluous dialog scenes.

This disc is BD-J formatted, and our PlayStation 3 was able to support auto-resuming the movie, even after the disc is ejected. This is one of the biggest usability problems with the Blu-ray format that studios need to recognize and support, so it's good to see that perhaps this tide is turning. Bookmarking is not supported.

Conclusion

You probably already know whether this movie is worth owning for you, as its style and tone attracts a particular audience while repelling another. So, for those of you in the former group, is this title worth the purchase price? If you really liked the movie, and the array of extras here make it worth purchasing over renting, then you know the answer. However, for the vast majority, this is a worthy rental, and nothing more.

The purchase price on Amazon.com is quite attractive, so it's a good value for a purchase. If you're not sure about buying this title, put it on your Netflix list and check it out for yourself!

Recommended Reading

Don't just take our word for it, check out these resources for more reviews of the movie and of the disc.

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  • Other Featured Movie Reviews
• Blu-ray Reviews
  • Tyler Foster of DVDTalk
  • Widescreen Review
  • John J. Puccio of DVDTown
  • David Krauss of High-Def Digest

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A copy of this title was provided at no cost by the movie studio/distributor for the purpose of this review. No expectation of the results of this review were set as a condition of receiving the item.