So we reach one of the films that prompted me to start this whole blog in the first place, 2005's "Wedding Crashers". I remember it being an absolute blast in the cinema and the subsequent re-watch on home rental (lighters out for Blockbusters again please) made it just as enjoyable as the first.
But 15 years have passed since then. I've got grey hairs (god, I have a lot of grey hairs, I don't think I have any brown ones left), I eat vegetables like a normal human being should, I haven't flat shared in over 4 years, things change. Comedy tastes change. That's not to say I'm a snob if comedy's timeless it still holds the test of time and stays in my collection. My aforementioned love of Looney Tunes is still an example. I still love 'Friends', 'Seinfeld', 'Frasier', 'Cheers','Bottom', 'Animal House', The Marx Brothers. If it's funny, it stays funny.
But is "Wedding Crashers" still funny? We all sort of fell in love with the 'Frat Pack' at this point in time. We couldn't get enough of the antics of Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Jack Black, Will Ferrell et al. But now while some of their pieces still hold up or at least hold up better, there are some pieces we look back at and go 'Oh yeah...THAT...'
Time to stop procrastinating with the intro, let's get to:
WEDDING CRASHERS (2005, dir. David Dobkin)
Why I bought it/Why I liked it:
We already touched upon this in the intro. Again it fell under cinema films I ended up watching with my dad. We didn't usually take in that many comedies in the cinema honestly but there was an interesting thing circling with this one.
You HAD to see it.
Like without a word of a lie 2005 was THE year for "Wedding Crashers". The buzz around it was something else. Everybody was recommending it to one another, you weren't anyone unless you went and saw this movie.
We saw it, we laughed, we liked it. It kicked off the boom of the more adult-rated comedies, a trend that's died down a lot know since peak Judd Apatow period with only Seth Rogen really waving the torch for it.
There were plenty of memorable performances in it. Off the top of my head besides the two main stars, I can remember it making a bigger name out of Rachel McAdams. It made a Hollywood name out of Isla Fisher and made us question if Jane Seymour could actually age. Oh and good ol' Christopher Walken is in it.
But here's the thing, I can't name you a single gag in "Wedding Crashers" right now. I know I ended up buying this shortly after it's home rental release but at a time when it dropped enough for me to warrant it being in my collection. To this date, I haven't actually revisited it...
If I think it'll stay in the collection:
*Winces through clenched teeth* Probably not. Times change, fads change. Hell, we thought Limp Bizkit used to be cool at one point and we were all playing Guitar Hero. Now we just swim in plastic guitars in CEX's. It'll be interesting to see how much this has aged but honestly, there are better 'Frat Pack' films (Dodgeball and Anchorman chief among them) and I don't think "Wedding Crashers" is long for the collection.
The review:
Jesus.
For a start, I never understood the allure of the two hours plus comedy. Comedies are one-two punches, they're in, they're out. It's a habit that a lot of these filmmakers, including Judd Apatow, started to pick up and honestly, it's unwelcome as you've blown your best gags within the first two acts.
"Wedding Crashers" in 2020 is very much one of those films. It has a fun premise which might be fine for like 80-90 minutes but it's not. In fact, I watched the 'Uncorked' Directors Cut which clocked in at a little over two hours. This is not advised.
It has aged better than "Zoolander", my first review way back in the summer of last year. The MVP of the piece is, without doubt, Vince Vaughn. On fine rapid delivery form, he steals the show in almost every scene he's in. The problem is this isn't really a Vince Vaughn film, he plays comedy sidekick to Owen Wilson.
Now, I'm not going to turn this into a forum to bash Owen Wilson. Even though in 2020 he's essentially a meme, he's done a lot of good work, played sidekick and stolen the show a few times and collaborated with Wes Anderson in numerous good to great films. It's just his character, John Beckwith, in an attempt to seduce Rachel McAdam's Claire Cleary (who came up with her name, Stan Lee?!?), doesn't come across as likeable. Perhaps as he himself played a similar character in "Meet The Parents", I have no sympathy if he gets the girl or not.
As a result, the film rapidly runs out of steam and the third act is DEATH as Wilson's Beckwith goes on a redemption arc and tries to win back Clearly in a wedding scene that even by romantic standards would be too cliché.
There are germs of good ideas here and solid performances from most of the cast. Isla Fisher stands out as the kooky younger sister Gloria and it's understandable how this film made her a star. Christopher Walken is Christopher Walken, somewhat subdued but still good and Jane Seymour is terrific as Senator Cleary's wife, who's oversexed wife act sadly has no time to develop into further gags and thus is shoved into the background by the third act. A special mention can also go to pre stubble days Bradley Cooper, here ably playing preppy douchebag Sack Lodge, Claire's fiancee. He plays the unlikeable asshole rather well.
Then there's even by 2005's standards horrible caricatures of people such as Ellen Albertini Dow's senile grandmother and Kier O' Donnell's goth closest homosexual Todd. These are bad cookie-cutter characters with no point other than to raise the odd cheap laugh.
That's not to say laughs don't come, I noticed I laughed watching this far more than "Zoolander" but that was primarily from Vaughn's excellent performance.
Should it stay or should it go?
15 years have not been kind to "Wedding Crashers". What remained hot property then has now seen the landscape change and the humour it once trumpeted now relegated to behind the spotlight. Chuckles can be had but it's not worth braving this for 2 hours just to get them. I'll be kind and give it a quarter-point over "Zoolander", so it gets the rather odd rating of 5.75 out of 10 but that's as kind as I'm going to go.
Next up, MORE Christopher Walken!
Until next time, I remain,
Matt Major.
No comments:
Post a Comment