Great entertainment

Rating: 8/10 (22 November 2016)

This is probably Adam Sandler's best film. You get the impression he is comfortable in this suburban world, and his character is not a total idiot; more an Everyman who's frustrated by his situation. It's a solid plot about how a wedding singer is engaged to the wrong woman, and who pines for unrealistic stardom, not valuing the great life he already has in his small town. The hairstyles and clothes are suitably bizarre. But for me, as a teenager of the 1980s, the real star is that glorious music. As well as pure pop, there's indie cool (Elvis Costello's Every Day I Write the Book), pounding disco (You Spin Me Round), and traditional Broadway (That's All). It's not pretty, it's not cool, but you marvel at how silly but catchy all those tunes were. I love the scene where Drew Barrymore bops along to David Bowie's strange hit China Girl on her Walkman. I like how this movie is very suburban. It doesn't pretend to be high class or pretty. It pokes fun at ordinary lives but it also celebrates them. There are some weird aspects -- the grandmother character and the Boy George lookalike -- but they are fun. There is never any serious doubt about the film's ending, and although the final scene is very cheesy, it's fun. What better symbol of the 1980s could you have than the real Billy Idol, as an unlikely matchmaker?