Wedding Crashers

Wedding Crashers is the latest installment in the new, over-the-top comedies cut from the same cloth as Old School or Meet The Parents. It will take it's rightful place in history along side these great comedies as it deserves.

Business partners John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) are also best friends that go way back. Every year they get together and go on a binge of crashing weddings to take advantage of the romance in the air and ultimately, to score with the jealous bridesmaids, or any other single woman for that matter. John and Jeremy are very smooth and do a lot of research to get a back-story that explains who they are, how they are connected to the families and why they are there. They also have what seems to be at least a hundred rules to ensure the crashing of the wedding goes as planned and of course, this could not be possible without the original wedding crasher, Chaz (Will Ferrell), who is not only THE wedding crasher, but also an innovator, as you will see.

This all works very well for them until they decide to crash the wedding of weddings, Secretary Cleary's (Christopher Walken) daughter and her new husband-to-be. John was unable to achieve his goal at the Cleary wedding of establishing a relationship with his other daughter, Claire (Rachel McAdams), who he is also falling in love with. Jeremy, too, is having his problems after achieving his goal with the Secretary's other daughter, Gloria (Isla Fisher), perhaps a bit too quickly, as he finds out it was her first time and she quickly attaches herself.

The long story made short, both John and Jeremy end up on an extended weekend with the Cleary family and hilarity ensues, very much the same way Ben Stiller was put in uncomfortable positions by his fiancé's family in Meet The Parents.

This was a great comedy in which I have heard compared to There's Something About Mary. I would not place it on such an iconic platform but it was very good and holds it's own along with other great comedies of today. Vaughn and Owen are a great team. Will Ferrell is typical Will Ferrell in his small bit part as Chaz. Christopher Walken's part was too small to really be noticed. Isla Fisher played the psycho first-timer in such a way that it even scared me.

The biggest surprise of this movie for me was Rachel McAdams. I took notice of her in Mean Girls and I believed she would be typecast in such roles for probably her whole career but she proved she could carry a movie as the lead love interest and was very captivating with her gorgeous smile.

If you liked the movies mentioned in this review, then I highly recommend seeing this one as well. It will not disappoint. 8.5/10

Movie lives through Vaughn and Wilson. Both show an easy performance and want the audience to just simply have a good time.

The Story is nothing spectacular. If you liked "Meet the Fockers", you're gonna like this one as well.

Its the actors, who make the difference. Vaughn is hilarious and proofs, that he's much better in comedies than in "serious" movies. Wilson plays himself (as in every one of his movies) and scores a good 2nd place.

Walken is just Walken and thats worth half the ticket. The girls are gorgeous. Especially Rachel McAdams knocked me out. Holy Cow! The Crashers are good fun. Not an new invention of the genre, but especially because of the actors, this movie rocks!

The Frat-Pack, are surely the hardest working collective in Hollywood. Hardly a month goes by without a movie featuring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, or those Wilson boys Luke and Owen being released.

When Starsky and Hutch paired Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller it was good, when Dodgeball put Vince Vaughn with Ben Stiller it was better, but "Wedding Crashers" could well be the finest Frat-Pack pairing to date.

Although Wilson and Vaughn have appeared in four movies together so far, this is the first where they've both taken star billing. In "Wedding Crashers", John Beckwith (Wilson) and Jeremy Klein (Vaughn), are a pair of divorce mediators whose passion in life is sneaking into weddings to take advantage of the free food.. and of course score with girls.

They have a strict 'crashers rulebook', which dictates the etiquette of the pick-up, such as 'never use your real name'. It also suggests, by behaving raucously, loudly and generally being the life-and-soul, people will think you're so obnoxious, you can't not have been invited.

The pair eventually find themselves at odds with each other when John meets and falls for a bridesmaid at the Washington society wedding of the year.

Although "Wedding Crashers" is at times formulaic, the comic performances raise this movie above par and in lesser hands the main characters could have descended into Rom-Com cliché. The fast-talking machine-gun delivery of Vaughn is the perfect accompaniment to Wilson's laconic style. Their single-guy banter's often painfully accurate, as is the acknowledgement they're both a little too old to be acting so carelessly. There are also some great comic set-pieces too, notably the divorce meeting, the weddings montage, the cringe-worthy football game and the hunting trip.

The supporting cast are also an asset, Christopher Walken expertly walks the tightrope of being both broodingly intimidating and likable, while Rachel McAdams' 'Claire' has a charming vulnerability and an easy-to-fall-in love with quality. Former "Home and Away" pin-up Isla Fisher however, is less convincing.

I admit "Wedding Crashers" is far from perfect, at time situations seem too contrived, the nudity is laughably gratuitous, and Claire's evil fiancée Sack (Bradley Cooper) is an almost too heavy-handed device to make Wilson look good.

But if you can look past all that, and simply accept it for what it is, you're left with a very funny film. 8/10

An excellent comedy, Vince Vaughn is a gifted comedian. He kept "Old School" going, was the only light in a dismal "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", and had a terrific debut lead in "Swingers". I highly recommend people considering this movie, to watch the extras on the DVD; there is a karaoke scene at an Asian wedding which will have you rolling. It is a shame it was cut from the movie, but as the director's comments stated, "They just couldn't find a place where it would fit." I was very pleasantly surprised at the number of times I laughed out loud, a rarity for me while watching comedies. The lines were witty, the delivery was crisp, and the jokes were mostly new and fresh. Rachel McAdams was stunning, an excellent casting choice to play the object of Owen Wilson's desire. Despite the more or less rehashed plot (two guys lie about themselves to meet women, only to find that they now have a dilemma when they find 2 they really like), the film is nonetheless novel and original. There are a number of obviously stereotypical characters, (drunken grandmother, artistic introverted son, psychotic cheating boyfriend, immoral mother, powerful father), but they work in this film. Particularly the grandmother, who is prone to drunken scatological exclamations, had me laughing my head off. It was quite unexpected.

Although many of the situations could come off as contrived, they were secondary to the excellent repartee between Wilson and Vaughn. Their comic pairing worked to a T.

R.

The thirty and something years old bachelor partners and best friends divorce mediators John Beckwith (Owe Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) have a hobby of crashing weddings following predetermined rules to have one night stand with different women. When they decide to crash the most important wedding of Washington pretending they are brothers, in a party promoted by the Secretary of Treasury William Cleary (Christopher Walken), John breaks their rules and has a crush on Claire Cleary (Rachel McAdams) and Jeremy scores the sex-addicted Gloria Cleary (Isla Fisher), both daughters of William. Gloria invites Jeremy to spend the weekend at the Cleary family estate, and John sees the chance to be close to Claire, in spite of her engagement with the arrogant Zachary "Sack" Lodge (Bradley Cooper). Along the weekend with the dysfunctional Cleary family, John and Jeremy will fall in love for the sisters, but their real identities jeopardize the relationship.

"Wedding Crashers" is silly and will never win or will be nominated to an Oscar. But it is also hilarious, with many funny situations. The great cast shows a fantastic chemistry and seems to have fun while making the movie, and is supported by a delicious screenplay and an excellent music score. My advice is simple: shut-down your brain and laugh with this highly recommended comedy. See also their one hundred and fifty-five (155) Rules of Wedding Crashing in IMDb. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Penetras Bom de Bico" ("Crashers Good of Talking")