This is a tough one for me. Wedding Crashers starts out as another raunchy frat pack comedy in the same vein as 40-Year-Old Virgin, but then midway through it transforms into a sopping wet bitch of a romantic comedy.
It's strange. You have to watch it a couple times before you even realize the 180 the movie takes. The movie opens strong. In the first ten minutes there's a montage full of breasts! That's awesome. You assume that HAS to be the start of nothing but good things. Even the premise makes you feel pretty safe in the fact that you won't have to feel any real emotions for an hour-and-a-half. Two guys crash weddings in an attempt to hook up with hot chicks? They certainly can't screw that up...
The leads are solid. Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are the perfect pair to pull off the premise. They get help from Christopher Walken and a cameo by Will Ferrell (who contributes to the funniest ten minutes of the movie). The dark horse here is Bradley Cooper, who wasn't well known when the film came out in 2005, but the guy plays the PERFECT dickhead boyfriend. McAdams and Fisher are great, too.
Maybe there just wasn't enough juice in the premise to pull off a feature length film, but, as soon as they get to the Cleary's house after the senator's daughter's wedding, the sappiness creeps in. It's never a full breach, but it's noticeable. It's a funny movie, don't get me wrong, but Owen's turn to the Pussy Side kind of drops it a few notches on the awesomeness scale. Plus the Dark Night of the Soul section of the film is way, way too dark for a comedy. They've got Owen laid up in his home reading books on suicide. Too much, man.
I guess my real beef with the film is the premise itself. Who would bother to go to all the trouble of crashing weddings when you can just go to a bar and pick up drunk chicks? Weddings are THE WORST! The food is always undercooked or cold and then you've got some asshole DJ trying to force you to have a good time when all you want to do is fill up at the taco bar and go home. Then you gotta sit through the painful wedding rituals like the bouquet toss and the garter and the cutting of the stupid cake that is never as good as it looks like it's gonna be and the entire time you're thinking to yourself, "How soon can I leave without looking like a total asshole?"
God I hate weddings...
Why It's (for the most part) Awesome: In spite of my issues with the premise and the head dive into vagina country, it's still a pretty funny flick. Isla Fisher's crazy virgin act? WIN! The creepy gay brother? WIN! The night rape scene? WIN! Christopher Walken? FLAWLESS VICTORY!
Best Quote:
Chazz: MA! MEATLOAF!
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