Basically “Mission: Impossible – Maverick”
Better watch the second time, when you get a chance to step back and just enjoy the pure spectacle of it all. Somewhat bored by the straightforward, unoriginal, anonymous mission that propels the main plot forward but it’s serviceable enough and the rest of the film will win you over by sheer force of will. Just knowing that nearly all of the insane aerial stunts were captured for real in-camera only adds to the impressiveness of its achievements.
Profoundly unsettling. Bafflingly incoherent. Nightmarishly surrealistic. Intensely psychedelic. Disturbingly horny (???).
Indescribably effective at hijacking and overwhelming your senses such that whatever critical judgment you may have once possessed is utterly annihilated. Surely must be entirely deliberate and therefore the work of a true visionary of his craft. There can’t possibly be any other reason why this film exists.
Truly masterful.
Do not watch this sober. No, seriously.
Trite and vacuous. Character motivations and desires are painted on in broad, clumsy strokes. Dialogue is cringe-inducing. Watson’s shaky American accent detracts from her otherwise fine performance. Incompetently directed and edited.
And yet, somehow, there are moments where everything works and you just *feel* it. All the flaws melt away and in those fleeting moments you were a part of that world. You feel his agony and desire for Sam, his gut-wrenching longing for her. And in those moments, you’re back in your own high school memories, as waves of stomach-turning nostalgia wash over you.
For a comedy, it sure wasn’t funny. I don’t remember too much of the first Hangover, but it was by far the better of the two films.
