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June 4, 2008

Wedding Crashers (2005)

Ric and I were in the mood for a comedy, and Wedding Crashers is one of the most popular rentals on Netflix, even a few years after it was released, so we decided to give it a go. The movie starts off with a promising premise: guys who crash weddings to hook up with bridesmaids. There's a great montage of these experiences right at the beginning, and then it quickly settles into its actual plot, which features John (Owen Wilson) falling in love with a bridesmaid named Claire, played by Rachel McAdams. While John falls in love, his partner in crashing, Jeremy (Vince Vaughn), has many misadventures with Claire's family, including a sparky little redhead played by Isla Fisher.

We watched the "uncorked" version of the movie, so I have no idea what the theatrical release was like. Surprisingly, the uncorked version didn't seem all that out-there, with the exception of a few female nude scenes. What surprised us was that the whole movie was a lot less raunchy than we had expected. I thought there were going to be jokes left and right, but it's actually a lot more serious than that, because Claire and John's relationship plays out very gradually and without any gimmicks. There are a lot of scenes that feel drawn out, and a lot of the comedic scenes seem like they were forced in to help lighten the mood.

All of the actors are likable, for the most part. Owen and Vaughn are a good fit together, and the movie's best times are when the two are together. Unfortunately, they get split up and put into their own individual stories for far too much screen time. I was surprised at how well Bradley Cooper from Alias slipped into a comedic jerk role. And Isla Fisher definitely steals the show. But even with this cast, the material fails. It never finds a good balance of funny and serious, and the funny often feels like it's supposed to be funny but just isn't funny enough to make me laugh out loud.

Overall, the movie seemed pretty slow, and based on everything I had heard about it, I just expected more. Oh, and I thought it was pretty funny that the DVD skipped during every nude scene. Did someone rewind too many times, maybe? Anyway. I didn't hate it but I didn't laugh very much either. I'll never watch it a second time.

Posted by Jeri Email at 09:45:26 am | movies, netflix/tivo | 1 comment »

1 comment

Comment from: Ryan [Visitor] · http://agadoni.blogspot.com
For the longest time now I've thought that the red head from Wedding Crashers was the same girl as the one in Enchanted. I haven't seen WC since the dollar theater, so apparently my recollection of her face was off.
06/05/08 @ 09:38

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