Stars: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, Jeffrey Tambor
Running time: 100 mins
Rating: ★★★★

PHIL, Stu and Alan wake up hungover in their plush Las Vegas hotel suite after the mother of all stag night nights.

Sore heads are the least of their problems. One of the chairs is smoking, inflatable women bob up and down in the jacuzzi and there’s a mystery baby in the room. And did I mention the tiger in the bedroom and the complete absence of bridegroom Doug?

Things wouldn’t be quite so bad if any of them could remember a thing about what happened the night before. Unfortunately, details of what they got up to are missing from their minds, just as the bridegroom is missing from the room.

If only they could remember what they’ve done with him. Or possibly to him. The only way is to search for clues in their pockets of where they went and then retrace their steps in the hope of finding Doug along the way.

Director Todd Phillips specialises in raucous comedies – Old School and Road Trip are among his previous entries in the genre – and here surpasses his previous efforts with a brilliantly executed escalating comedy of bachelor night horrors.

I mean when the valet parking chap returns with the car you checked in and it’s a stolen police car, you realise that the night was riotous and possibly illegal. Can things possibly get worse? Well, yes, because one of them discovers he married a stripper/escort girl and the owner of the tiger turns out to be an even more fearsome beast, Mike Tyson.

The cleverly constructed screenplay takes the threesome from one fresh and startling discovery to another – and all of them hilarously funny, provided you don’t mind your comedy black and irrevent and dirty.

Bradley Cooper’s cool teacher, Ed Helms’ henpecked dentist and Zach Galifianakis’ weird fat guy make an odd threesome, but one full of comic potential.

There have been bachelor party movies before but none that have exploited the possibilities quite so thoroughly or been such fun.