A surprise hit back in 2009, The Hangover took a simple premise, a trio of essentially unknown actors, and director Todd Phillips’ particular brand of frat boy humour and spun it into a riotous caper movie that proved hugely successful all over the world. Beyond making stars of Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms, the film spawned a bigger budget sequel. While The Hangover Part II fell foul of pretty much every hurdle in the franchise playbook – rehashing the same scenario in a new setting (Bangkok), introducing even wackier elements looking only to trump those of its predecessor, failing to advance the plot or muster an ounce of the first film’s inherent likability – it was also monstrously successful.

And so here comes The Hangover Part III. For everything that is wrong with the film – and that encompasses a hell of a lot – Phillips & Co at least set out to do something a little bit different this time – hell, our heroes don’t even have hangovers!! Instead, the throwaway character from the first film, Chow (Ken Jeong), who had an engorged role in Part II (we can only imagine for the sole reason that he is Asian) is now central to the film.

After escaping from a Thai prison, Chow heads to Mexico where he contacts the only man he can trust, best friend Alan (Galifianakis). However, Alan is about to be committed after causing the death of his father and decapitating a giraffe (don’t ask). Together with Phil and Stu they are charged by Las Vegas gangster Marshall (John Goodman) to bring Chow in – who has apparently stolen a stash of gold. As collateral, poor fourth wheel Doug (Justin Bartha) is taken as hostage.

What follows is a deplorable parade of racism, misogyny, homophobia and generally inane behaviour as Chow drags the guys from one implausible situation to the next, and everyone screams at the top of their voices as bad things keep happening. Any wit, intelligence or geniality evaporates into the Nevada desert long before the action – inevitably – takes everyone back to Vegas for a finale about which nobody cares.

The Hangover Part III is better than Part II for the simple reason that it breaks away from the formula and in amongst the relentless barrage of idiocy and profanity, it did raise a smile a half dozen or so times. But it is small recompense for the deluge of drivel audiences are forced to wade through, and yes, real hangovers are less painful, nauseous and debilitating.