“The Hangover” starts off with an almost Tarantino-like feel to it — best man to the groom calls the bride on the wedding day, informing her they’ve lost the groom, and no wedding will be taking place that day. They all look like they've gone through hell and are standing in the middle of the desert. Before you even have time to try and comprehend what would have happened, the movie flashes back two days prior.

The groom, Doug (Justin Bartha), and his two friends, schoolteacher Phil (Bradley Cooper) and a dentist Stu (Ed Helms), will be joined by the bride’s brother Alan (Zach Galifianakis) on a road trip to Las Vegas for his bachelor party. They arrive in Vegas, get on the roof of their hotel, pour shots of Jägermeister and proclaim with the obvious and utmost irony, “to a night we’ll never forget!”

The next morning, they all wake up to realize a few things — they're in a $4,200-a-night suite with a tiger, a chicken, a crying baby, a missing tooth, a belly button piercing and no Doug. And when they give their ticket to the valet, why does he bring around a police car? And how did a bed from their suite ended up impaled on a Caesar Palace statue?

The rest of the movie consists of them trying to recount their steps the night before and find Doug before the wedding. They end up in a wedding chapel, a hospital, interviewing hookers, fighting off a Chinese mobster and discovering they stole that tiger from none other than Mike Tyson.

What really made this movie shine through all the other stereotypical drunk comedy movies were the characters. They’re not just outlets for comedy, but actually have depth to them, and all are dealing with their own problems. Stu is dominated by his girlfriend, and Phil doesn’t think anything of stealing money for a class trip for their Vegas trip. And Alan, oh Alan. This is probably a break out performance for Zach Galifianakis. Alan is a short, fat, bearded, dim-witted, clueless man who only wants to be liked.

Overall the movie delivers. It delivers the laughs and hilarious situations you were hoping for. Everything ties up nicely in the end, with what some may call an anticlimactic end to the riddle of Doug’s location, but nevertheless ties up all loose ends.

Except the chicken. They never explain that.

For more about “The Hangover,” click here.

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Nick Jones is a film critic and writer. Originally from the East Coast, Nick followed his family out to California and he now lives and reviews movies here in the Coachella Valley. Nick covers film events in Palm Springs and throughout the Coachella Valley.