In hindsight, this really feels of a piece with Joker: Folie à Deux, another Todd Phillips sequel that seems willfully constructed to antagonize the audience that liked the prior movies. In this case, The Hangover Part III is barely a comedy (several characters are shot to death), and the Wolfpack themselves are mostly relegated to following the whims of a pair of gangsters played by John Goodman and Ken Jeong. (Jeong, whose role in the first movie was basically a glorified cameo, is arguably the protagonist of this one, and an extremely grating one at that.)

Forget about the twisty structure and mystery conceit of The Hangover; forget about the characters even suffering from a hangover. The only hangover in Part III is metaphorical, with the Wolfpack (and, one could argue, their cast and creators) forced to contend with the lingering effects of their prior debauched adventures. Weird movie.