2005 / 119 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

“Wedding Crashers” is a great, raunchy comedy that is, unfortunately, trapped inside a bland, predictable romantic comedy. It has two leads, and each of them seems to be in their own movie. I’ll explain that further in a couple more paragraphs.

The premise of the film is great: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are friends and divorce mediators (is there really such a thing? Guys who referee divorce proceedings?) who have stumbled upon an ingenious hobby. They show up, uninvited, at weddings and the subsequent receptions, pretending to be remote and largely forgotten members of the extended family. Why? So they can partake of the free food, free booze, and the women who find the idea of a wedding to be something of an aphrodisiac. They make a good impression, liven up the wedding, and then make off with whatever they want and wait until the next weekend, when they will repeat the process all over again.

Unfortunately, they meet their matches at the wedding of Christopher Walken’s daughter (he’s an upper echelon member of the American government who, it seems, is poised to become the next president of the United States…I hope there is a sequel to this film only because it would be great to watch what Walken might do as president). Two of Walken’s other daughters are bridesmaids and gather the attentions of Vaughn and Wilson. Wilson falls for Rachel McAdams, a sweet yet cynical (and impassioned) girl who mocks her sister’s distinctive vows. Vaughn seduces Isla Fisher, a girl who seems like a naïve virgin at first, but soon morphs into a sex-crazed, clinging maniac. It is at this point that the movie breaks off into two separate entities.

I prefer the Vince Vaughn movie. Vince is hilarious. He talks a mile a minute, and most everything he says is hilarious. The situations he gets himself into, and the way he deals with them (with the brand of fast-talking cool he made his name with in the movie “Swingers”) are hilarious, ribald and fantastic. Oh, and unpredictable. This portion of the film goes to some strange and dark places (including a hilarious bit with a painting and a gay brother) and had me doubled over at times.

Unfortunately, this movie is surgically attached to the Owen Wilson movie. Aside from a hilarious appearance by Jane Seymour as Walken’s overly amorous wife (yes, Dr. Quinn is a bitter, horny trophy wife), this movie is pretty fucking boring. Wilson and McAdams both seem to have charisma, but they are given almost nothing to do with it. They might even have had some chemistry, if the script had backed them up. While courting, these characters do such innovative things as…RIDING BIKES and WALKING ON THE BEACH! We’ve never seen anything like THAT before. Of course she has a boyfriend (Bradley Cooper, who was so good in the TV series “Alias” and is so utterly wasted here), and of course that boyfriend is the standard asshole you would expect. Just once I’d like to see a romantic comedy where the hero and the guy his intended love interest are currently seeing are both nice guys. That might make for a little something I like to call “conflict”. And, of course, Wilson’s wedding crashing cover is soon blown and it is revealed to his love interest that he LIED to her all along and that their entire relationship up until that point has been built entirely on bullshit. This is at the end of the second act, as required by romantic comedy dogma. This portion of the film has a slavish devotion to romantic comedy procedure and barely deviates from it for as much as a minute. All it needs is a last minute dash to the airport.

These two parts of the movie seem almost in direct contradiction with one another. It’s obvious that the filmmakers wanted to make a raunchy, swaggering comedy that would appeal to frat guys, but they also wanted a cute, allegedly heart-warming comedy that would appeal to their girlfriends. They compromised the one to deliver the other, and they delivered the other in a completely routine fashion that causes the eyes to glaze over. So no matter how great and raunchy the Vince Vaughn movie may be it is ultimately hamstrung by the safe, cuddly Owen Wilson film. Much has been made about this film being an “R-rated” comedy, as though this were the most refreshing thing in all the world. And, yes, the film does benefit from being “R-rated”, but it’s nowhere near as funny as the R-rated “Old School” which said to hell with notions of romance and, instead, tickled the funny bone relentlessly, and in a most riotous and profane fashion. Plus, Luke Wilson did a better job in that movie than his brother does in this (Owen should stick to his partnerships with Wes Anderson and Jackie Chan, where he truly shines), Vaughn was allowed to be as a dark and droll (yet oddly lovable) as he wanted to be, and Will Ferrell was not simply relegated to a brief, nasty third-act cameo (as he is here). And the subtle romance in “Old School” between Luke Wilson and Ellen Pompeo was a lot more interesting. Oh, and you know what? I think women enjoyed that movie ANYWAY! Because I’m sure most women are going to find Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdam’s rote romance to be as boring as I did. (Maybe I have too much faith in women, but I think a lot of them will.)

My advice? Wait and rent this movie. That way you can just skip over all the romantic comedy lameness and go directly to any scene where Vince Vaughn struts his stuff or Jane Seymour tries to seduce someone. Just go with me on this one. You’ll thank me for it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 23rd, 2005 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.