Wedding Doesn’t Crash

Comedies are difficult to review because the standard is extremely simple: is it funny? And if it is funny, how funny? Is it Pauly Shore-funny or Bob Saget-funny? And in trying to review this film, how can I make fun of it if it is funny?

Wedding Crashers is a funny movie. For the prudish ninja, no need to fear: there are a total of perhaps 6 pairs of boobs, but they are all shown in the first 8 minutes of the film. There’s one pair implied later on but not explicitly shown. With these tensions relieved, it is safe to say that Wedding Crashers is not a sex comedy nor does it rely on the wedding theme for the bulk of its humor. It is a comedy that grasps for humor that is tangential to the wedding motif but not necessarily connected to it.

As a matter of fact, the only reason the movie is called Wedding Crashers is because the first 10 minutes of the movie is a montage of wedding crashes that reenforces the sleaziness of the two characters (played by Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson). This is followed by the wedding of the Secretary of the Treasury’s daughter and the movie follows the events that flow out of the awkward situations encountered from this wedding. The movie is random in its comedic timing and focuses primarily on the very bizarre family of the Secretary. This is all you need to know: the wife is a lusty and bored housewife, the red-headed daughter is a sexual freak, the son is a gay goth painter, and the brunette is the likeable love interest of Owen Wilson. These are the satellites of humor that the movie broadcasts from.

In that light we are given the film’s funniest moments whenever Vince Vaughn is on screen. For once, Wilson plays the straight-man and the majority of his screen-time is spent in the honest pursuit of Rachel McAdams. It all plays out like an Adam Sandler movie (think Happy Gilmore, not 50 First Dates) without Adam Sandler. When the movie is funny, it’s funny: when it’s not, it’s because it’s Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams having a sappy moment.

Wedding Crashers is still a well-rounded comedy that is not as raunchy as most relational comedies nor as absurd as an SNL flick and has classic moments that should pump you up when you talk about them.

Grade: B

Comment posted by Red Eye: Review - Movie Reviews Blog
at 2/9/2006 8:44:18 AM

[…] On the other end of the runway comes Wes Craven’s delightful little gem Red Eye, starring Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins) as himself. The trailers are deceptive by showing Murphy as literally having a glowing red eye and by not fully revealing the plot of the movie. Knowing the staple of Wes Craven’s films, the trailers seemed to suggest that Satan himself was on the flight and that you get red eye from looking at him for too long and that Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers) is here to stop it. Fortunately, no. […]