Entering The Hunger Games Would Be More Enjoyable

rjsf96

Spoof films are extremely hard to pull off. The key is to be subtle, yet not so much so otherwise the audience will not understand the joke. It is imperative though to not make the gags brash and obvious. This is where the alleged comedy 'The Hungover Games' fails.

This parody stars lookalikes of The Hangover series and is supposed to be a follow on from 'The Hangover Part II'. The creators of The Hangover series had no part in this spoof and if they did, there would at the very least be something to laugh about. All you can find funny here is the incompetence of the Director and writers.

In the film the Wolf Pack or the lookalikes of them get drunk again the night before Doug's wedding. Unfortunately for themselves they are entered into the Hungover Games and must fight to the death against other celebrities and film characters to survive.

The only positive for 'The Hungover Games' is that in the opening text it informs us that this deathly tradition came about because of "Hollywood's lack of creativity". Now that I can agree with. Yet why mock the lack of creativity when the film you have possesses the same quality? It makes no logical sense but perhaps that is the point. As the film has no logic to call its own.

The many negatives for 'The Hungover Games' can be collated into a list, thus outlined below. Pop culture references are only funny if done in a tasteful manner or with some notable skill. I know it's exceedingly odd to compare this film to a Disney one and yet Hercules knew how to handle pop culture references and still achieve the key for a comedy – laughs.

Other jokes are either scatological, racist, homophobic, sexist or all of the above. 'The Hungover Games' never knows when to stop in terms of the excessive nature of the gags and its relatively short run time still manages to feel far too stretched for its own good.

It's especially bothersome to watch when this comedy has less jokes than 2012's 'The Hunger Games'. I'm not sure how this was managed but its an impressive achievement none the less.

Even the shots in the film are sickening to look at, filmed poorly and cheaply. People who took issue with the presence of shaky camera in the first Hunger Games film had better close their eyes promptly as well as covering their ears.

I could go on and on about this films problems but I really do not wish to. In fact I would rather go and watch a comedy that makes me laugh to my heart's content. With every film I see, I feel that every single one deserves a chance. With Stolberg's 'The Hungover Games' I plead you to steer clear and not give it the benefit of the doubt. Film making this shallow does not deserve to be viewed by anyone of any age.

score 2/10

rjsf96 26 October 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3343799/