Artist The Hangover

Inducted into the pantheon of men-behaving-badly flicks before it was even released, Todd Phillips’ smash hit The Hangover deconstructs the grand tradition of sozzled “into the night” films from After Hours to Superbad by transposing it to the murky morning after, which turns it into a Memento-esque play on the usual “wild weekend in Vegas” shenanigans. Waking up to the confounding destruction of a bachelor party they can’t remember, a group of bound-by-circumstance best men (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis) try to track down their missing groom by piecing together lingering clues—including the baby and tiger hanging out in their hotel suite, a stolen police cruiser, Helms’ missing tooth, and one pissed-off Mike Tyson.

Updated 12/14/2009