MANILA, Philippines ? The bachelor party is a well-worn Hollywood staple and can be the foundation of a good comedy. ?The Hangover? brings it to its craziest extremes.

Directed by Todd Phillips, who directed ?Old School,? it is about a groom, his future brother-in-law and two best friends who go to Las Vegas to have ?a night they will never forget? and wake up the next day with the expensive luxury suite trashed beyond all recognition, a baby left in the vault, a tiger in the bathroom and the groom missing in action.

The three, played by Bradley Cooper (?He?s Just Not That Into You?), Ed Helms (?The Office?) and Zach Galifianakis (?What Happens in Vegas?), must piece together what happened the previous night and find the missing groom and make it to the wedding on time.

The missing groom, played by Justin Bartha of the ?National Treasure? films, is missing most of the film but is the heart of the film. He has to be a pretty nice guy that we would want him to be found before the movie ends, and Bartha delivers. He gives us a realistic portrayal of a good guy we can easily relate to.

Excerpts from Super?s chat with Justin Bartha:

The movie hit over the $200-million mark. When you read the script, were you expecting it to be this big or were you just expecting to make a funny movie about four friends?

Well, I don?t think anyone expected it to be this big. At this point, it?s on track to be the biggest grossing R-rated comedy of all time in the United States. I don?t think anyone could think that far, but honestly, I think all the ingredients were there and that is why I wanted to be involved. Todd Phillips is one of the best comedy directors out there. The actors?Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms?were all so wonderful that I wanted to work with them.

You were gone for most of the movie, though, so you were not able to participate in the craziness. Was that difficult for you, that you were not able to be a part of any of the fun parts?

No. For me, I saw an opportunity to do something in a movie that I?ve never done in a movie before, which is to play the straight man. It was an interesting way to go about that because it wasn?t the typical straight man, because the straight man is gone for most of the movie. I would have done anything in this film. I believed in the film so much ... if they asked me to do Craft Services on the film, I would have done it.

Looking online, it says that the sequel has already been written before the movie even came out. Is that true?

No, the sequel is not written yet, but they are working on some ideas. The studio was willing to do a sequel before the release.

At any point, did you guys think you were going too far with the comedy or with how crazy the whole world would be?

I don?t think we ever went too far, not really. There were a couple of instances; one instance we were doing improvisations, and we kinda looked around and thought, ?Oh, maybe we shouldn?t have done that.? On the DVD, when we come out with that, it will include a lot of these things. Obviously, when a grown man is fake masturbating a baby, some people might think we went a little too far. Personally, I think it?s hilarious.

I?m guessing this is Zach Galifianakis who is doing this?

Yeah, the genius of that character is that he?s kind of a baby himself. He kind of gets away with anything.

I?m noticing a trend in Hollywood films where they are making films that celebrate the male bonding experience and man-to-man relationships outside of the action genre. I think they are calling these the ?Bromance.? Any opinion on this?

I think that it was sort of used as a marketing ploy in the film ?I Love You, Man,? which is a John Hamberg movie, and in the following years there has been a lot of Judd Apatow movies and it is all about male bonding. ?The Hangover,? I always saw as kind of an anti-Bromance movie. And nothing against the Apatow films and all those movies, I think they are all wonderful, I think they are some of the best comedy in years. This film, though it has male bonding elements in it, obviously it is more a weird examination of these archetypes in film and it kind of exploits those archetypes. The characters are characters of characters, in a sense.

During the credits of the film, we see pictures of what happened and it seemed like a whole lot of fun to shoot. Can you tell me about it?

They were a lot of fun to shoot, I have to say.

It?s like a whole movie in itself!

Yeah, that?s kind of like the genius of the structure of the film. We get to see what we see in all movies about Vegas, we get to show that with just the photos in the end, and I think it?s a wonderful device used by Todd. It?s kind of the crowning achievement of the film and everyone enjoyed that part.

?The Hangover? opens in Manila on August 8.