Review of Wedding Crashers (2005) by James K — 18 Sep 2012

"Wedding Crashers" is, in a word, overrated. Billed as one of the great comedies of the 2000s, looking back on it now makes it seem far less prolific than any hype would have you believe. The first half-hour is harmless enough, introducing us to a pair of immature womanizers, John and Jeremy, (Wilson and Vaughn) who crash weddings in order to bed as many women as possible without the fear of commitment.

However, while executing the Mother of all Crashes at the wedding for the daughter of a Presidential candidate (played by Chris Walken), John falls for the bride's sister (Rachel McAdams) and Jeremy gets saddled with a clinger (Isla Fisher) he'd rather avoid.

What then follows is a by-the-numbers rom-com with surprisingly few genuine laughs in the film's second half. The plot assumes we care about the duo's romantic entanglements, but first impressions are everything, and the precedent of irresponsibility I spoke of earlier leaves no room for any real emotional connection to these guys.

It's also overlong and plays it too safe joke-wise to make good on its raunchy premise. What should have been a glorious wedding comedy farce plays out in uninteresting (and mostly unfunny) fashion, which can I only mean I'm advising you skip "Wedding Crashers".