Lessons learned from ‘The Hangover’

Warner Bros.

“The Hangover,” a film starring Bradley Cooper, Heather Graham, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms, opens in Las Vegas area theaters today, and nationwide on Friday. The film was shot in and around Las Vegas.

By Melissa Arseniuk (contact)

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 | 7:26 a.m.

TVT

Heather Graham at Pure.

Get ready to laugh: “The Hangover” opens in local theaters today.

The soon-to-be-hit comedy stars Bradley Cooper, Heather Graham, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms, and was shot in and around Las Vegas last fall.

While the blockbuster opens coast to coast on Friday, hometown moviegoers are being given a jump on the release date with a three-day advance on opening day.

Locals will recognize many of the city’s famous places and faces – including Steve Wynn, Carrot Top, and Mike Tyson, to name a few.

In addition to a loose where-to-go and who’s-who of the city, “the Hangover” also presents several potentially useful tips for viewers who live in, or ever plan to visit, Las Vegas. They include 1) “Never walk away from the table when you’re on the heater;” 2) “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas – except for herpes. That (expletive) will come back with you;” 3) “Tigers love pepper (but) they hate cinnamon” (OK that one may or may not be true); 4) The actual Caesar never lived in Caesars Palace; 5) It’s not a “man purse,” it’s a “satchel,” according to Galifianakis; and, finally, 6) Writing, “Couldn’t find a meter, here’s $4” on a cocktail napkin and stuffing it and four loose dollar bills under your vehicle’s windshield wiper will not appease the city’s parking patrol (or tow truck) gods. Your car will be towed.

The film also includes a few notable fallacies. For starters, you can’t rent the suite that the characters stayed in at Caesars Palace because, well, it doesn’t exist.

“The suite in the movie was built on a sound stage in LA,” Caesars Palace director of public relations, Celena Haas, explained.

She said the room was modeled after two of the resort’s luxurious suites in its Forum Tower: A well-appointed penthouse and the so-called “Rain Man suite,” which was nicknamed after the 1988 Tom Cruise that was partly shot inside the room.

Side note: “The Hangover” includes more than one “Rain Man” reference – but you will have to watch it to see the others for yourself.

Renting either of the real-world rooms will set you back between $2,500 and $3,000 over the resort’s standard rack rate, which can run anywhere between approx. $120 and $700, depending on the night.

The fictitious suite’s room number, 2452, is an actual room number used at Caesars Palace. While the actual suite looks nothing like the one shown in the movie, the exterior – the hallway and the door itself – do exist, and can be found in the Augustus Tower.

The Augustus Tower is also where all of the movie’s hallway and elevator scenes were shot.

Revelers would also be hard-pressed to recreate the sort of rooftop toast shown near the beginning of the movie, since hotel security makes it virtually impossible for bachelor partiers (or anyone else) to pass through secured areas undetected.

Rather than trying to stealthily sneak onto the resort’s roof (and risk getting banned from the casino indefinitely), the hotel’s vice president of public relations, Debbie Munch, recommends throwing back a round or two of shots at a slightly more accessible venue on property.

“Guests who wish to recreate the movie magic of the rooftop toast will find an even more impressive view of The Strip on the terrace of Pure nightclub,” she said.

“The Hangover” opens in Las Vegas area theaters today, and nationwide on Friday. For more information, visit http://hangovermovie.warnerbros.com/.