A comparative review of casino films pre-2000s with movies released in the new millennium suggest that this generation’s screenplay writers and directors have exhausted the genre, and the Internet’s various lists of top films in the category have not proven otherwise. The recent additions in the category have failed to impress at the box office with Jason Statham’s Wild Card, a substandard attempt to channel Burt Reynolds in Heat, as well as Runner, Runner which a Rotten Tomatoes

Director Todd Phillips loves frat boy bonhomie. His cult hit "Old School" has taken up its spot in the "Animal House" pantheon. It would be wonderful to say that "The Hangover" captures that feeling of male bonding and ritualism, but it really doesn’t. From a friendship perspective, these guys all take their own separate cabs. If the search for a missing pal seems like an annoying distraction from a comedy routine for the men involved, why should it matter to the audience?