Review of Wedding Crashers

SPOILER ALERT: I caught a late-night showing of Wedding Crashers last night (armed with a Cherry Coke that was literally the size of a propane tank). While I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, there were a few things that also really bugged me. Here they are in no particular order:

- The contrived love story between Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams (the girl from The Notebook) didn’t do it for me at all. Granted, she’s smokin’ hot and I’ve always like Owen Wilson (he’s phenomenal in Meet the Parents and Zoolander), but every time the movie switched to their budding romance, the film slowed down to a grueling pace. Their scenes were so choppy and poorly written, that I could have cared less whether these two people ended up together, despite the fact that I like both of the actors. That’s pretty a tough combination to pull off – and not in a good way. Usually I tend to root for actors that I like, not this time.

- On the flip side, the love story between Vince Vaughn and the psycho girl was absolutely fantastic. After they both decided to be honest with each other, I was totally rooting for them to end up together and I was sincerely happy for them when they got married. I never would have guessed that out of the two romantic storylines, that would have been the one that carried the film, both in emotion and humor. It’s amazing how honesty and common interests (albeit, perverted sex) can build a solid a movie relationship ... As opposed to Owen Wilson's character trying to steal another guy’s woman just because he thinks she’s hot, gave her solid toast-making advice and played a little touch football with her (hilarious scene, by the way).

- Do you think Will Ferrell used one of the new 9/11 stamps to mail-in his cameo performance?

- Owen Wilson’s characters’ selfishness got to the point where it was really distracting and eventually made me upset. First, he is pursuing a woman who is already spoken for, right in front of her boyfriend (you don’t mess with another man’s happiness) and her family. Not to mention, he is primarily lying to her about himself, so it’s hard to buy a great “connection” between the two characters. Second, his general lack of concern or appreciation for what his best-friend is being subjected to (pre-honesty talk with the psycho chick) on his behalf. Third, once his best-friend finds love and happiness, he isn’t the least bit happy for him (even refusing to be his best man) because he’s so preoccupied with tracking down a girl who he lied to and is engaged to be married to someone else. What kind of friend is that? And forth, he almost ruins his best friend’s wedding by STILL going after that same girl. Good God, stop thinking about yourself, man. By the end, I was so pissed at his character’s selfishness that when he ended up with his girl, I was unhappy for him (why should his selfishness be rewarded by getting the girl?). I actually gained respect for Vince Vaughn’s character who was mature, concerned for his friend, unselfish and didn’t go nuts after his me-first best friend was one restraining order away from ruining his wedding and possibly his relationship.

- The way Vince and Owen got caught in their lies was really stupid. Pretty much anything would have been better than the boyfriend hiring a private detective to find out who these guys really were. How did the private detective find out they were career wedding crashers anyway? How did their fake names lead the private detective back to their real names? I know it’s a comedy and the plots are often times very loose and not exactly intelligent, but anything would have been better than the boyfriend/private detective angle.

- Again, I know it’s a comedy, but would it kill screenwriters to make long-term boyfriends look appealing to the ridiculously hot chick? What I mean is, in the movie, The Notebook girl is engaged to a total asshole. He cheats, talks down to her, he’s selfish, etc. So why would she have dated him for 3 ½ years? I know we need a villain, but there must be a better way to make a boyfriend evil other than him being a long-standing prick.

I know that seems like a long list of complaints, but the movie was freakin’ funny and like I said before, I really enjoyed it. In the first act, they have a montage of wedding scenes, and some of the things Vince and Owen say are so damn funny because they are so damn true - and you are shocked that other people know about those things (i.e.- we’ll just put the tip in and see how it feels). It was also refreshing to see a movie that wasn’t a remake and actually had an original storyline.

This movie also further cements that embracing your dorkiness and not being a fun extinguisher are traits that make great relationships. The “AH-HA!” moment between Rachel McAdams and her fiancée is after he fun extinguishes and fails to embrace! No one wants to marry someone who fun extinguishes for the next fifty years of their life.

I love Christopher Walken. His speech patterns are legendary. I would die a happy man if he came to my wedding and made a toast, or read a few Bible verses, or anything that required him to speak aloud. On second though, just having him in the background of wedding pictures would be amazing enough.
I am really loving the comedic return of Vince Vaughn. Look at his last few movies: Wedding Crashers, Anchorman, Be Cool, Dodgeball, Starsky and Hutch, Old School, Zoolander. That’s quite a run. It reminds me of the year 2000. I had a run like that, but that’s a story for another time. Keep it up, Vince … maybe even consider doing a guest spot on Entourage.

In terms of greatness, Wedding Crashers is closer to Old School than it is to Meet the Parents. But the true test of a movie’s greatness is whether or not I am willing to buy the DVD. Some movies are great, but you can’t watch them a lot, i.e. – Schindler’s List and American History X. Other movies are slightly above average or mediocre, but you can watch them over and over again, i.e. – Road Trip and Hitch. I am definitely buying the Wedding Crashers DVD and I have a feeling it will be a staple on future road trips.