Review: Wedding Crashers

While Wedding Crashers mimics the same sex-crazed shenanigans of American Pie, Animal House, and Old School, some unexpected romance can also be found. In terms of the film’s slightly deterrent romance, you already know the formula: boy becomes smitten with girl, but there’s an obstacle in his way; girl becomes smitten with boy; girl finds out boy lied; boy has to win girl back. However, underneath this standard romantic-comedy recipe, it is the crudeness and hilarity that makes this film worthwhile. Despite its clichés and formula-driven plot, Wedding Crashers is the low-odd favorite for the comedy of the summer and quite possibly of the year.

Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) and John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) are divorce lawyers, but ask them what their true profession is and their answer will be wedding crashers. In an opening montage, these two thirty-somethings are shown at a series of different weddings using fake names, charming everyone in sight, and eventually laying a multitude of naked women in their beds. Jeremy and John play a continuous con game of utilizing women’s heightened levels of estrogen during the romantic wedding season to tally another notch on their belt.

However, once the shameless twosome crash the wedding of one of the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Cleary’s (Christopher Walken) daughters, John falls for another one of his daughters named Claire (Rachel McAdams). The swindling is cut short as John’s love for Claire continues and his desire to philander is subdued. But, with Claire’s boyfriend (Bradley Cooper) down John’s throat and Jeremy itching to leave the party because of the Secretary’s clingy yet kinky daughter named Gloria (Isla Fisher), things get complicated.

The duo of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson connect with faultless comedic timing and chemistry. While Wilson dishes out droll charisma as Vaughn’s sidekick, Vaughn is at his very best, as the ingenious motor-mouth, since his “Vegas, baby” Swingers show. The two are so believable, as the raunchy longtime friends, that when they say, “I love you,” to each other it isn’t weird in any way.

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Article Author: Brandon Valentine

Brandon Valentine is a film critic from Hershey, PA. Aside from possessing the last name “Valentine” and living in “the Sweetest Place on Earth,” Brandon was also born on Valentine’s Day. That’s right, a Valentine born on Valentine’s Day. …

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  • 1 - Eric Berlin

    Aug 03, 2005 at 11:29 am

    Make sure to close those italics tags, Brandon -- You slanted the Video section on the front page ;)

    No worries -- fixed now.

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