Wedding Crashers
By: Mark Runyon | Category: On DVD | 07/18/05 | 02:03 PM
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 Grade: A- |
Genre: Comedy
Summary: Prepare a prime spot in your comedy collection for Vince and Owen because they've earned it with the uncontrollable laugh fest Wedding Crashers.
The sweltering days of summer are upon us. It's a time for lazy afternoons at the water park, sitting in the stands with a greasy dog rooting on your favorite ball team and, lest we forget, wedding season. Gentlemen start your engines. Now to most single men, weddings are about as pleasurable as nails raked across a chalkboard. I mean the sleepy ceremony, the prospect of being caught "white man" dancing, and looking around in general wonderment at how much your buddies' pocketbook got taken for in this flower filled extravaganza. Yet for every dark cloud there is a silver lining -- readily available women caught up in the moment. Wedding Crashers is the story of two individuals who turn weddings into the ultimate one night stand. |
John Beckwith (Wilson) and Jeremy Klein (Vaughn) are colleagues, spending their days mediating divorce settlements. On the weekends, they don their snazziest suits and set out to crash weddings. Now these aren't hapless zeros hoping to score a little booze and flirt with the purdy girls. They are professionals. They work in the ancient art of the wedding crashers, a secret society complete with a list of operating instructions and rules of engagement. They research the weddings that will have maximum babeage, scour the delectable serving menu, and prepare their names and back-story. Not related to the bride or groom you say? Yeah like you recognize a quarter of the people at your own wedding. "Oh so that's your cousin Frank twice removed. Why did we invite him again?" Our wily crashers use the ceremony to set their sites on a prime target then they have until the band strikes the last note at the reception to close the deal. With the weapons at their disposal, the women are like helpless little bunnies waiting for these big bad wolves to devour them with their claws and fangs.
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| Wedding Crashers |
Starring: Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher & Jane Seymour
Director: David Dobkin |
| View the Trailer (Quicktime) |
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So we visit a host of weddings sampled from various religions and nationalities. They are the hit of all of them, toasting a heart warming speech to a couple they've just met, crafting balloon animals for the throngs of happy children all the while winning the hearts of our tasty bachelorettes. They dance with the flower girl, cry at the ceremony and play the heart strings of every sentimental female impulse. At the end of the evening, they are scoring like a seasoned Wilt Chamberlain. The end of wedding season brings John feelings of shallowness, mulling over their shameless pursuits in the name of sex. The granddaddy of all weddings comes along, the daughter of the Treasury Secretary Cleary (Walken), and Jeremy can't resist the scrumptious bounty that is sure to be at this who's who of D.C. society. What they don't count on are the women that snare their gaze and the feelings they'll dig up.
Jeremy closes the deal early with his young bridesmaid who has an interesting revelation for him. She sinks her claws into him, attaching herself like a rabid cat, refusing to be shaken. John compounds the problem by encouraging her interest as he seeks to bend the rules to close Claire (McAdams) after the reception expiration date. Rachel McAdams is ravishing as the spunky, self-assured daughter. After amazing turns in Mean Girls and the Notebook, she is one of the fastest rising female faces in Hollywood, nipping at the heels of my top 5 list. John is completely smitten by Claire, but Claire is virtually engaged to a royal horse's ass dressed up in the cloak of a sensitive, environmentalist coming from an impeccable political family.
While John is busy talking up Claire, this sicko family is mauling Jeremy. He gets systematically raped, shot in the ass and molested at the dinner table -- all in the span of one dizzying day. Vaughn makes the most of perpetually getting crapped on by sucking every last laugh out of a scene. I haven't seen him on this kind of roll since his winning ways in Swingers. The comic chemistry between Owen and Vaughn is perfectly matched. Vaughn launches into his nervous runaway rants while Owen gives us his patented slow drawl. Their styles easily feed off one another. We also get a surprise guest playing Chaz, the founding member of the wedding crashers. He is unveiled with the secrecy of Kaiser Sose. He has branched out from his wedding crashing ways to start crashing funerals. Innovative - yes; sick - definitely; funny - you bet your ass.
This film is on par with some of the great recent comedies like Old School and Road Trip. You can just tell that this has staying power, getting funnier after each additional watch. Though it lags in the sappy part, forgoing laughs to wade in the "woe is me," the meat of the film is a hilarious spectacle, not letting you catch your breath for a second. It is fun watching these two charm their way through weddings only to see them fall apart trying to figure out how to deal with that unexpected creature called love. Do yourself a favor and check this one out.
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