The Hangover Review

Messages: The movie's message is, at best, a little muddled; while the three main characters pay a price for their misadventures -- beatings, dehydration, sunburn, and more -- everything works out well in the end.

Role models: Friends act despicably, but pay the price. And in the end, they're loyal and kind to one another. While some female characters are depicted as life partners and positive influences, some are depicted as nagging harridans or simple sex objects.

Violence: Beatings, vehicular mayhem, the use of stun guns on "volunteers" in front of children (with children, in two cases, operating the stun guns/tazers), beatings with crowbars, and a gunshot wound to an innocent bystander. One character spends much of the film lamenting an excised tooth -- a bleeding, gaping wreck of a lost incisor. Some gunplay. A baby is hit in the head with a car door and is present during a few scenes of peril.

Sex: Extensive male and female nudity, including nude buttocks and breasts. Discussion of sexual acts, techniques, and one character's work as an "escort." Photos of nudity and explicit sexual acts (including glimpsed male genitalia) in the closing-credits montage. Explicit discussions of infidelity, one-night stands, and other acts. Mimed mock bestiality for comedic effects. A character notes that he cannot be within 200 yards of  "A school ... or a Chuck E. Cheese," implying that he's on some kind of serial offender watchlist.

Language: Extensive, inventive, and constant vulgarity, including "f--k" and its derivations, "ass," "f--got," "douchebag," "whore," "gay," "hell," "shaft," "s--t," "Jesus," "semen," "retard," "bitch," "goddamn," "oh my God," "butt," "weenus," "bastard," "balls," "assholes," "nuts,"  and much, much more.

Consumerism: Mentions and on-screen display of brands includes many mentioned as plot points, including Caesar's Palace, Mercedes-Benz, Chuck E. Cheese, Rogaine, Monster Energy Drink, Gremlins, Indiana Jones, Rain Man, Jagermeister, Carnival Cruises, and more.

Drinking, drugs and smoking: The entire film revolves around excessive drinking and drug abuse. Characters drink beer, wine, and hard liquor to excess. A character thinks he's giving his friends Ecstasy without their consent but is, in fact, giving them "Roofies," the "date rape drug." Mentions of cocaine, crystal meth, and crank abuse. Drunk driving is implied. Photos in the closing-credits montage depict cocaine use. Reference to marijuana. It's worth noting that the brutal consequences of drug and alcohol abuse -- aches, memory loss, vomiting, humiliation, and despair -- are depicted unflinchingly.