Go to Hell.

A couple screening updates today (just for Meg). My thoughts on The Hangover are after the jump, but first I wanted to discuss a screening I have on Tuesday. Director/Writer Sam Raimi is best known for two things: the Spider-Man and the Evil Dead series. Coming back to the horror genre, Raimi has a new movie coming out this May. Drag Me to Hell is about Christine (Alison Lohman), a young bank loan officer who denies the mysterious Mrs. Ganush an extension on her home loan. Mrs. Ganush eventually loses her home and so, in retaliation, she places a "curse of the Lamia on Christine, subjecting the young woman to increasingly strange and supernatural threats."

While The Evil Dead is always a good watch, it's a classic because of its camp and cheesy special special effects (not to mention Bruce Campbell). I did like the first Spider-Man, but to me it seemed that the second and third Spider-Man films relied more on big CGI instead of story. Which makes Drag Me to Hell a hard film to peg. It currently has a target rating of PG-13, which means the "supernatural threats" might not be as dismemberment-tastic as fans of Evil Dead are expecting. While Sam Raimi is a great visual director, I hope the film's suspense and horror aren't limited by the rating.

As for The Hangover, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a little weary going in, having not seen the writer/director's other movies, and I'm not generally a big fan of "Late Night Comedies," but by the end I was laughing out loud at the inanity. The three main actors, especially Zach Galifianakis, carried this movie well through all the twists and turns as they search around Las Vegas for their missing friend, dealing with all the after-effects of a night drunk out of their minds. The movie essentially boils down to a series of odd-ball scenes, most of which originated as drunken mistakes, including a stripper wedding, a missing dentist's tooth, Mike Tyson's tiger and a naked Asian man in a car trunk. Ed Helms did a great job (as he always does) of playing the dead-pan guy who doesn't quite get that the joke's on him. Mike Tyson does have a decent sized cameo but his lines were a fairly stiff and interrupted the dialog flow (but I guess that's why he's a boxer and not an actor.)
As I mentioned to one of the marketing reps, I liked it enough to be encouraged to go back and watch Todd Phillips' other movies. Overall I would definitely recommend this movie as a great silly comedy to see, as long as you're not too against occasional nudity, including butts, breats, and full frontal (though I won't say of which gender).