731. The Hungover Games (2014)

Starring: Ross Nathan, Sam Pancake, Ben Begley

Director: Josh Stolberg

Running Time: 85 mins

The Hungover Games is an American film about a group of men on a stag night in Nevada who, after having a drunken night out on the town, find themselves in a dystopian future where they must battle to the death with various other modern movie characters. (Sound familiar?)

So, here we go, another Hunger Games parody movie. To be honest, The Starving Games was too much, but this, basically a copy of the original rip-off, is just too much. Meanwhile, its comedic value is just too little, with a whole host of gross-out gags that just make you want to vomit, unfunny pop culture references, and basically a script that has become outdated within 6 months.

That’s where I think we’ll start with this film: the references. I said in my review of The Starving Games that it was a film full of current cultural references, and therefore, while potentially funny at this exact moment, won’t have its comedy last more than a few years.

Here, the references are effectively outdated already. Made in the post-Hangover Part III fallout, this film is full of jokes and references to the movie world of late 2012-2013. Now, at least in 2014, it’s still understandable, but it’s about as funny and witty as if someone tried to re-popularise Gangnam Style, and the fact that it incessantly throws these types of gags at you really makes it painful and cringeworthy to watch.

Away from that, the other type of comedy is just your average parody movie, B-movie, teen movie or whatever gross-out stuff. There’s almost no thought in the majority of the jokes in this film, and that really hits home when you spend nearly an hour and a half either looking blankly at a series of pictures and words or feeling totally sick at the sight of some of the disgusting stuff they do in this film.

There is one plus, however, about this film. The impressions by the main actors of the Hangover guys are pretty good. They get Zach Galifianakis’ voice bang on, it looked and seemed so much like Bradley Cooper, and Ed Helms’ mannerisms were perfect, so it was actually quite a well-done parody of The Hangover.

However, in reality, this is a pointless movie, just another Hunger Games parody that we didn’t need with an appalling screenplay that’s just depressingly unfunny, and that’s why it gets a 3.3.