As the final installment of the trilogy, The Hangover 3 is a bit of a fresh take on the franchise, but overall it’s nothing new from what we’ve already seen.

At the start of the film, we see Alan (Zach Galifianakis) worse than ever: he buys a giraffe, only to have it decapitated by an overpass and cause a highway shutdown. In such, he causes his father so much stress that he falls suddently falls ill. At the funeral, Doug states that his wife, Alan’s sister, is staging an intervention and asks the Wolfpack to also attend. Alan agrees to be taken to a mental institution in Arizona – but only if The Wolfpack accompanies him. While en route to Arizona in Phil’s golden minivan, they literally get driven off of the road by an unfriendly, yet familiar face. Due to a circumstance that happened in the original Hangover Film, the Wolfpack must find Mr. Chow – otherwise one of the four will be dead.

The Hangover 3 doesn’t follow the general “bachelor-party-gone-wrong” plot as seen in the first two films, but it does, unsurprisingly, have the same type of humor as the rest of the franchise. Because of this, there are no truly hilarious moments that are laugh-out-loud funny, but the plot isn’t really boring, either. I was entertained throughout the 102 minutes of the film and didn’t lose interest – I think that’s due the fact the plot wasn’t a completely mimicked from the first and second installments.

The acting was, like the style of comedy, not much different than the 2009 and 2011 films. It was satisfactory – not terrible, but no where near Oscar-worthy. John Goodman demonstrated his seasoned acting skills through his supporting role, and he easily was the best actor in the cast. Although yes, as we saw last year in Silver Lining’s Playbook, Bradley Cooper is an exceptional actor, his role in The Hangover 3 (and in the other two in the franchise) are only satisfactory – which is also due to the fact that his character, Phil, doesn’t have much depth. Melissa McCarthy also makes a few appearances in the film – and her character is relatively small and, as basically the rest of the cast, not very developed. McCarthy does a decent job with her character’s acting, but then again, it’s hard to live up to her breakout role in Bridesmaids, both from a character development and acting role.

Clearly, making a third installment of The Hangover franchise was simply a money-maker for director Todd Phillips. After record-breaking sales from the first film, it makes logical sense to make more films – although the second two were lacking in the same quality of the first. The originality and adoration of first Hangover probably would have continued to be highly respected if the second two films didn’t exist – and could have easily remained a stand-alone film rather than an obvious money-making franchise.

Although not as formulaic as the previous two films in the franchise, The Hangover 3 is mildly funny, unsurprising, yet it was slightly better than I anticipated and kept me engaged throughout its entirety. Unless you have nothing better to do, I would wait until The Hangover 3 is released on Netflix to watch on a rainy day.

Grade: C-

Rated: R (for pervasive language including sexual references, some violence and drug content, and brief graphic nudity)

The Hangover 3 opens in theaters on May 23.