Movie Review

The Wedding Crashers

Here we go again: another Doofus comedy offering from the same general band of dudes who have been pumping these flicks out like hotcakes for the last couple of years. I don't mind these guys' style or sense of humor; I was looking forward to this movie entertaining me for a brief spell and giving me some hearty laughs. While it did achieve that on a certain level, the movie could not be considered a great comedy by any stretch.

The title says it all: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson (playing themselves) crash weddings. They do this to acquire strings-free sex adventures from gullible women who develop romance goggles due to the heady nature of the wedding experience. Of course the duo, like all men in romantic comedies, are overgrown teenage boys who are just terrified of commitment. This trait is expressed in the fact that they are divorce lawyers. The boys eventually hit upon the mother of all crashes: a wedding of one of the daughters of a high-ranking U.S. government official (Christopher Walken).

They decide to descend on the festivities with all the fake class and style they can muster. There's a problem though: by this point, the movie needs a "plot," and what we are treated to becomes so run-of-the-mill that it gets painful. The second half of the movie is standard romantic comedy tripe: both boys fall in love even though both their loves seem to be no deeper than the usual sexual attraction. There are complications with some non-interesting characters, and then the whole thing culminates in one of the boys' own weddings, crashed by the other one.

This is a movie in which the story makes no sense at all when one looks back with even a little thought. The whole thing is just a big plot contrivance to get to the gags, and to take the audience exactly where the uninspired writers want to lead them. It would have been a lot better if we saw a little more divorce mediation from the duo (they apparently do their jobs whenever they feel like it, and have all the time off in the world), and some more actual "wedding crashing" would have been nice. These guys' exploits are basically limited to an extended montage, which is definitely the most over-the-top and probably the best scene in the whole flick.

I liked the freewheeling energy that both actors brought to these segments of the film. Unfortunately, this gets sapped away by the lovey-dovey pap that devours the second and especially third act; there's enough cheeseball pop songs and love-at-first-sight hokum to drive any discerning moviegoer up the Wall of Disgust. There's also the unforgivable non-usage of Chris Walken, one of the funniest actors in film history. Here, he just shambles around looking old and irritated, and I can't remember a single funny line that he speaks. There are also several other characters that bring nothing to the table, including a foulmouthed granny and a homosexual son of Walken's with serious anger and resentment issues.

I liked a lot of the dialogue between Wilson and Vaughn. Vince speaks in rapid-fire tones that play up his home-style arrogance and aloofness. Wilson keeps it cool as an ice cube and flashes his crooked-nosed smile with a repeat-enjoyability factor that I don't think any other actor can touch. Both of these guys have serious charm and they almost make the movie work in spite of all the mediocrity that surrounds and engulfs them. I still look forward to seeing these guys onscreen for years to come; let's hope they choose scripts that highlight their talents rather than undercut them.

Scott's Grade: C+

A	15.1%
B	59.2%
C	24.5%
D	1.2%
F	0.0%