THE HANGOVER: PART III (Rated R)

The wild and crazy times cannot last forever when the party scene begins to lose steam and fizzle out. That’s pretty much the case with “The Hangover” franchise.

The first “Hangover” film was, and remains, the best of the series. The setting of Las Vegas for a bachelor party gone horribly wrong resulted in comedy gold.

The second film took the Wolfpack to Thailand, where the boys encountered their nemesis Mr. Chow and made a series of bad decisions, of which some were quite comical.

Nevertheless, “The Hangover Part II” didn’t manage to completely capture the absurdist comic elements of the original. So it appears a return to Vegas is now in order.
 
Now two years later, “The Hangover Part III” opens with the clueless member of the Wolfpack, Alan (Zach Galfianakis), a man-child still living at home, thinking it would be a good idea to adopt a pet giraffe.

The group’s black sheep has ditched his meds and given into his natural impulses in a big way, resulting in a complete lack of good judgment while typically operating without boundaries.

Alan’s family decides it is time for an intervention, and the best ones to help are members of the Wolfpack. The boys plan a road trip to Arizona so that Alan can check into a rehab clinic.

They are not on their way to a bachelor party or a wedding in a foreign country, so what could possibly go wrong? After all, Mr. Chow is locked up in a Thai prison.

The pack’s nominal ringleader Phil (Bradley Cooper), the dentist Stu (Ed Helms), and the patsy Doug (Justin Bartha), having recovered from the disastrous trip abroad, think helping a friend should prove uneventful.

What the Wolfpack did not count on, however, was being kidnapped in the desert by the gangster Marshall (John Goodman), and his henchmen, including the one they group calls Black Doug (Mike Epps).

Unknown to the Wolfpack, the psychotic Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) made a daring prison escape and is headed to Mexico to apparently recover a hidden treasure of millions in stolen gold bars.

Marshall claims that Mr. Chow absconded with his share of the purloined gold treasure, and knowing how the Wolfpack has interacted with the Asian gangster, he thinks they are his best chance to locate him and the loot.

The hapless Doug is taken hostage to ensure that the Phil, Stu and Alan will hunt down Mr. Chow in Tijuana, recover the gold and return to Las Vegas within three days to save Doug from certain death.

Mr. Chow, the cokehead lunatic who popped out naked from the trunk of a car in the first film, proved to be funny when his scenes were limited to creating mayhem.

In “Part III,” the Asian crime boss becomes a bigger part of the picture, but not to greater effect. Now he’s not so much funny as he’s a menace to society and the group’s safety.

Oddly enough, “The Hangover Part III,” as if it has run out of ideas for manic wackiness, veers off into a more earnest crime thriller, complete with scenes of violence and brutality that are occasionally punctuated with comic relief.   

After betrayal and an unfortunate encounter with the Tijuana police, the Wolfpack must chase Mr. Chow to Las Vegas for the inevitable showdown, including a dazzling scene on the rooftop of Caesar’s Palace.

The familiarity of the Vegas scene helps somewhat to return the film to its comic roots, though the appearance of Heather Graham, now a housewife retired from prostitution, adds little.

Melissa McCarthy brings a nice comic touch in her cameo as a Vegas pawnshop clerk who gets all dreamy-eyed when she falls for Alan.

Don’t rush to leave when the credits roll, because half-way through there is a very funny scene that is reminiscent of the morning-after amnesia that worked so well in the original film. Nothing in this film tops the physical disfigurement of Stu.

Unfortunately, “The Hangover Part III” falls short of recapturing its initial brush with a truly innovative comic formula of unbridled mayhem.

Having admired the wacked-out originality of the first film’s hilarious antics, I was hoping for more of the same. Though the overall outcome is somewhat disappointing, “The Hangover Part III” has funny moments that are enjoyable; there just aren’t enough.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

NICE, Calif. – The award-winning Featherbed Railroad is hosting an open event featuring the art of Lake County artist Jim Colling on Sunday, May 26.

This special reception, which takes place from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. will feature special food pairing with Lake County wines and supports charities in Lake County.

Colling will be painting “plein aire” during the reception with a wide variety of his exceptional works on display.

Attendees can participate in the wine and appetizer pairing for a $15 donation which includes wine tasting and appetizer pairing.

To round out the afternoon, local musician Michael Barrish will be on hand to make ears happy, too.

Featherbed Railroad is located at 2870 Lakeshore Blvd., Nice.

For more information call Featherbed Railroad at 707-274-8378 or visit www.featherbedrailroad.com .

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – “Fame,” the Lower Lake High Drama Department's Spring Musical, opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 24.

It will continue at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 25, and will conclude its run with a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee on Sunday, May 26.

The performance will be held in the Lower Lake High Multi-purpose room on Lake Street.

Tickets are available now at the office at Lower Lake High.

Ticket costs are $10 for students, $11 for senior citizens and $12 for adults. Presale tickets are reduced by $2.  

For more information call 707-994-6471, Extension 2735. 

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Once a year, artists, community groups, students and teachers descend on the center trail of the Middletown County Trailside Park to install the annual EcoArts: Lake County Sculpture Walk.

This year’s installation began last Saturday May 18, and continues through Tuesday, May 28.

They encourage the public to come and see the evolution of a large scale public art exhibit and perhaps meet an artist or three.

The Middletown County Trailside Park is a jewel in the county park system; a 107-acre, natural landscape of woodlands and meadows.

There are three miles of trails for walking, cycling and horseback riding. There are benches and picnic tables scattered throughout the park. The Sculpture Walk exhibit is sited along the first one-third of the meandering center trail.

Each year the EcoArtists are challenged to create work that relates to nature. Art works may incorporate natural or recycled materials or engage in issues or content relating to the earth’s ecology.

This matter is taken to heart annually by local artists and Lake County nonprofits including students at the Lake County International Charter School and Marianne Martinelli’s class at the Coyote Valley Elementary School.

Now in its 11th year, The Sculpture Walk is a free, long-term public art exhibit that draws over 3,000 viewers each season.

The opening reception is Sunday, June 9, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

The Sculpture Walk will be open from dawn till dusk until mid-October. There is a free self-guided tour book at the entrance to the center trail and docent tours can be arranged by appointment.

EcoArts of Lake County is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the visual arts, visual art education and ecological stewardship for artists, residents, and visitors to Lake County.

For more information visit www.EcoArtsofLakeCounty.org , or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-809-5398.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Lake County Wine Studio (LCWS) is presenting a one-night performance show with guitarist/song writer Jack Williams at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 5.
 
Williams’ music, rooted in his native South Carolina, was shaped by a 54-year career of playing folk, rock, jazz, R&B, classical and the popular music of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. He is counted among the most dynamic performers on today’s “folk” music circuit.

Williams is an uncommonly unique guitarist, a writer of vivid songs with a strong sense of place, and a storyteller in an old Southern tradition who further illustrates each tale with his guitar.  

A sought-after artist on all contemporary acoustic music stages, from coffeehouses and festivals to music halls and city arts stages; from acclaimed appearances at Newport, Boston, Philadelphia, Kerrville, New Bedford SummerFest Folk Festivals, his musicianship, songs, stories and commanding presence have established him as an uncommonly inspiring and influential performer.
 
Friendships with two great singers had an enormous impact on Williams’ career and on the development of his own singing voice.

In 1973, his relationship with the late Harry Nilsson resulted in an album effort at RCA during an ill-fated period of music industry turmoil.  

Until 2002, he sometimes toured as solo accompanist to his friend, the late Mickey Newbury, with whom he co-wrote, co-produced and recorded a live album and video, Nights when I am Sane (reissued as Winter Winds).
 
From 1958 through 1988, along with playing jazz trumpet and classical guitar, Williams was best known as an electric guitarist in a series of original rock bands and smaller acoustic ensembles.  

As a hired-gun guitarist in the Deep South of the Civil Rights-Easy Rider 1960s, Williams’ bands accompanied the likes of John Lee Hooker, Big Joe turner, Jerry Butler, Hank Ballard, the Shirelles and the Del-Vikings.  

Enriched from these varied influences, Williams’ music is truly an “All-American Southern” music. In the late 1960s he gave in to his troubadour nature and began performing solo – singing and playing a gut-string guitar and touring from coast to coast.

Lake County Wine Studio is located at 9505 Main St. in Upper Lake.
 
For reservations and additional information, contact Susan Feiler at 707-275-8030 or 707-293-8752, or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

If we haven’t done it ourselves, we’ve known people who have, it seems: taken a vacation mostly to photograph a vacation, not really looking at what’s there, but seeing everything through the viewfinder with the idea of looking at it when they get home.

Wendell Berry of Kentucky, one of our most distinguished poets, captures this perfectly.

The Vacation

Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.
He went flying down the river in his boat
with his video camera to his eye, making
a moving picture of the moving river
upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly
toward the end of his vacation. He showed
his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,
preserving it forever: the river, the trees,
the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat
behind which he stood with his camera
preserving his vacation even as he was having it
so that after he had had it he would still
have it. It would be there. With a flick
of a switch, there it would be. But he
would not be in it. He would never be in it.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2012 by Wendell Berry, whose most recent book of poems is New Collected Poems, Counterpoint, 2012. Poem reprinted from New Collected Poems, Counterpoint, 2012, and used with permission of Wendell Berry and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.