Wedding Crashers

Released 2005
Stars Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Christopher Walken, Jane Seymour, Bradley Cooper
Directed by David Dobkin

John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Klein (Vince Vaughn) are professional wedding crashers. They appear uninvited at weddings, insinuate themselves into the crowd by pretending to be obscure relatives of the bride or groom, and partake of the open bar and hopefully open legs of the bridesmaids. When the eldest daughter of Treasury Secretary William Cleary (Christopher Walken) is getting married, John and Jeremy decide to pull off the mother of all wedding crashes. And it works perfectly, except for two complications. John unexpectedly falls for one of the bride's sisters, Claire (Rachel McAdams), while Jeremy becomes the object of another sister's (Isla Fisher) stalking. The Secretary likes them so much that he invites them back to a private party at his house, and they end up there for the weekend. This gives John a chance to spend some time with Claire and size up the competition: her burly fiancé, Sack (Bradley Cooper). Meanwhile, Jeremy spends much of his time trying to avoid the lovestruck Gloria and her gay brother.

Summary by James Berardinelli

This isn't a great comedy, but it made me laugh out loud quite a bit. I loved the idea of these guys using the "wedding season" for free food, booze and broads, and the thought of there being a club with a lengthy list of rules was pretty funny by itself. The movie doesn't quite deliver on its potential, however, because it gets sappy, but I'm sure the sappy ending works for the ladies. It would have been funnier if it had been raunchier, but I'll give them credit for getting an R rating. With a few cuts and edits, this could have easily been PG-13, and it's nice to see an R comedy these days since they're few and far between. However, the fact that it could have easily been PG-13 shows they could have gone a lot further. If you have the balls to make it R, go for it. Don't chicken out. One last thought: if you have a daughter, you may want to check the guests at the next wedding you attend. --Bill Alward, February 22, 2006