"Wedding Crashers" review

Rating: 5/10 (23 September 2008)

My first intention when about to write this review was to deride the film completely; I felt it was overlong, the laughs were sporadic at best and the romance wasn't believable. Then I read the other reviewers comments and realised I needed to get over myself. The film is light fare, so when held up to intense scrutiny it will naturally appear weak. The film is perfectly enjoyable, and as many others have commented is carried by the two leads charm. When compared to its contemporaries in the same field I would say it is worth a watch.
Now, back to my boring and intense elaboration of the critical points I made at the beginning. Firstly, the length, I watched the uncorked version which came in at 128 minutes. I prefer my films, especially the lighters ones, to be short and sweet; I wouldn't mind the running time if there were more jokes and/or deeper characterisation. Which leads me on to the central romance; I just wasn't buying it. Even the ridiculousness of Jermey (Vince Vaughn) and Gloria's (Isla Fisher) relationship seemed more realistic than John (Owen Wilson) and Clare's (Rachel McAdams') boy meets girl, girl already has a boy cliché. Clare is painted as a strong modern woman; beautiful, intelligent, funny and career minded; however you never believe in her because she's with a man (Bradley Cooper) who is as evil and mean as a cartoon super villain. The supporting cast suffer similarly in the sense they are all weird but not all wonderful.
Overall, the film is OK, I just feel it could've benefited from a tighter script and better supporting characters.