Welcome to MOVIE MATH where we review a movie and see if it adds up to family fun.

THE HANGOVER – Let’s begin by saying that absolutely NOT is this a film for the kiddies. In fact, when I learned that my 16 year-old BABYSITTER went to see this with her MOM, I debated with my mommy friend TERENA (with whom I saw the movie) how I would feel if Julia (at age 16) had seen this movie. Ultimately I was okay with it, as long as I wasn’t sitting next to her. Know why? BJs. Well only one. At the end of the movie. But no one wants to see that with their teenaged daughter. However, as we were leaving the theater I noticed there were plenty of TEENS in attendance with their PARENTS. YIKES! When did I become such a prude?

Okay. I’ll shake off the heebie jeebies and get back to the movie review. This is a story of a VEGAS BACHELOR PARTY gone terribly wrong. Think you’ve seen this before? Well, not quite like this, my friends. Because the movie starts with the 3 GROOMSMEN waking up from their night of debauchery, having no memory of what they did or what happened to the GROOM who has gone M.I.A. They spend the whole movie looking for him and reconstructing exactly what happened. And the piecing together of that mystery is raunchy and crazy and hysterically funny. (Randy the perfekt husband and I went with another couple. We all laughed our butts off). But what elevates this movie above the other comedy fare out there is that it seems so real in some ways. Not that I know personally of debauchery. Only from my female instinct, as all we women have sniffed out a night at a strip club on our boyfriends/husbands before. (Not you Randy!) Anyway, the movie is well-plotted and well directed with good characters and good actors. Downside – there’s some scary makeup and plastic surgery on the BRIDE’S FAMILY. Oh, there’s also HEATHER GRAHAM in a pretty thankless supporting role as the breastfeeding hooker – a role that announces to the world just how far her career has gone down the toilet. But hey! Now she’s part of a blockbuster film with a sequel in the works. So can you say…resurrection?

From a MOMSVIEW, there is a LOT wrong with this film, which includes a BABY that is left in a closet, then put in a car in a LAP BELT not a CAR SEAT and then is actually LEFT IN THE CAR alone! And even with the window cracked, we mommies know this is a no no.  But if you can leave your “mommy hat” at home and wear your mature (okay maybe not so mature) “adult who is out having an adult evening hat”, you can get a few yucks out of this. That is if you find humor in madcap debauchery and off-color themes and situations and oh, yes…bjs. More uptight folk need not buy tickets. (IN THEATERS NOW).

ADULT + ADULT – (KIDS + BABYSITTER) = HYSTERICALLY FUNNY TIME!