Film Review
‘Wedding Crashers’ Keeps
The Jokes Rolling
By Olivia Farrow (January 16, 2005)
There
isn’t a shortage of these types of Zoolander/Dodge Ball movies, and at first I thought
that this was another cookie cutter SNL riff movie. Sure, I love
these movies as much as the next high school girl, but if they’re gonna keep
my attention, they’d better keep the jokes rolling, and this puppy
does.
Wedding Crashers is a hybrid of a movie by being a satire of the J.Crewtastic world, the Wayne’s’ World world,
and The Wedding Singer world. While at some times it does get a little “partied
out,” the movie keeps you laughing to an end that’s actually rather
cute.
Owen
Wilson and Vince Vaughn are two guys who during the winter are marriage
counselors. But by wedding season, they become (surprise) wedding
crashers. They tour almost any wedding that is happening in D.C.,
which they surprisingly made very pretty, and become instant hits
of the parties. Their final goal? To score
on bridesmaids. And these guys are so good that by the time we meet
them, they usually hit a bull’s eye at every attempt. Let’s just
hope they get tested weekly.
The
wedding that we see in detail is when they go to the “Kentucky Derby” of
weddings, in which one of the three daughters of the Secretary of
Treasury (a passive-freaky Christopher Walken) is getting married to a man who looks like Ken. The
other two daughters, however, are still open for the season, and
Wilson and Vaughn go in for the kill.
Wilson’s
character gets an instant crush on Rachel McAdams, who plays the
smart sister, while Vaughn hones in on Ilsa Fisher,
the spoiled nut job sister. The satire of the dysfunctional upper
class is my favorite theme of the movie, and while I don’t think
rich families have grandmothers that make crude insults about gays
and wield shotguns, (or maybe rich grandmas do) the stretch just
makes you laugh harder. This family is exactly what we hope Bush’s
family is like; the mother (a vomitingly funny
Jane Seymour) is an unfaithful drunk, the father is a creep with
a heart of gold, and the son is a gay painter who looks like Quasimodo
on Slim Fast.
While Wedding Crashers does slow down at points,
the movie has jokes that will keep everyone laughing in an awkward
way, but in a good awkward way. The R rated humor is as clean as
it can get, and the finale actually leaves everyone feeling happy.
Wilson’s personality is more complex than the other types of characters
he’s known for playing in movies like these, and when paired up with
Vaughn, the two are incredibly hilarious and, more importantly, likable.
The two don’t take girl hunting to a point of being creepy, which
the movie could have easily done, and their relationship is realistic
under unrealistic circumstances. This movie is no comedic masterpiece
and the jokes can only be heard so many times before they lose
their spark, yet the overall story is far better than most other
types
of comedies thrown at us today.
Tell us what
you think. E-mail lassogmhs@hotmail.com
