Wedding Crashers

Wedding Crashers (Director: David Dobkin)

Dobkin worked with Vince Vaughn on Clay Pigeons and worked with Owen Wilson on Shanghai Knights.

The big talk about this movie has concerned it's R-rated edge, how it's trying to throw nudity and cussin' back into the theatres like the good ol' days. But don't let that fool you. It's mostly a romantic comedy, and all those R-rated shenanigans happen in the first part of the movie.

But this is a highly enjoyable comedy. John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Klein (Vince Vaughn) specialize in crashing weddings, finding vulnerable women who long for love and romance and through subtle schemes get the women to sleep with them by the reception's end. Towards the end of this particular wedding season, John starts to get a conscience, and starts feeling his age, which doesn't sit well with Jeremy. But they decide to crash one more wedding involving the daughter of Secretary of Treasury William Cleary (Christopher Walken). John locates his target early on, another daughter, Claire (the breathtaking Rachel McAdams), and is more than smitten with her. Jeremy's target is sister Gloria (the stunning, hilarious Isla Fisher, who is probably best known for a small role as Shaggy's love interest in the first Scooby-Doo movie), who after bedding down with him becomes a complete psycho.

John makes a great impression on Claire, and he finds himself falling in love with her. Problem is, she's got a boyfriend Sack (or maybe it was Zack...they pronounced it Sack...anyway, played by Bradley Cooper, who played Will Tippin from the first couple of seasons of "Alias"), who is the typical asshole dude that hot girls fall for but have no idea why they're with them after 3 1/2 years. He sleeps around, he's a dick, all sorts of fuckheadery. The other problem is, John hasn't been truthful, and of course it's going to get figured out and cause all sorts of plot complications. Meanwhile, Jeremy finds himself trying to deal with the psycho--which, by the way, turns real interesting.

This movie is entertaining and funny. Owen Wilson, who has been accused of being the same, quirky character in some form in every movie, is surprisingly straight in this. One guy at work came out and told me Vince Vaughn deserves an Oscar nomination--I thought he was exaggerating but he's right. I loved, loved Rachel McAdams and Isla Fisher. And you even have a Will Ferrell cameo that comes in with some funny stuff. And there's a nice, sexy turn from Jane Seymour playing Walken's wife...the total MILF. The only issue I have with it is that it's a tad long--2 hours for a comedy is epic. But there's little qualm in those 2 hours, and that makes it entirely forgiveable. Finally, a movie that doesn't rely on previously written or filmed material...and it's good! This should be a big hit once word-of-mouth spreads around. And you can take a date to it, too. It's not as chauvanistic as it seems. By the way, the whirlwind of wedding parties and beddings down set to the tune to "You Make Me Want to Shout" that takes the movie into its second act is one of the most brilliantly filmed sequences of the year. Don't miss it.

A sidenote: KW--Guster is on the movie's soundtrack--"I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today." Thought you'd like to know.