Funny concept but horribly written

Rating: 5/10 (28 July 2005)

The first 30 minutes or so of this film was so funny that it appeared that this was going to end up as one of the better comedies to come out in years...so what happened? The fault has to go primarily with the writers who lack the experience to keep up the wit for the entire length of a film because the last scene or two became almost unbearable to sit through. Story is about two best friends named John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) who when they aren't divorce mediators crash various weddings in order to score with vulnerable chicks.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** One ceremony that they end up crashing is the daughter of Treasury Secretary William Cleary (Christopher Walken) who is grooming himself to be President one day. This is where John meets Claire Cleary (Rachel McAdams) and falls head over heels in love but she's involved with a complete jerk named Sack Lodge (Bradley Cooper) who wants to marry Claire and align himself with the Cleary name.
This is directed by David Dobkin who worked with Owen before in the first "Shanghai Knights" film and also with Vaughn in "Clay Pigeons" and he seems to have the ability to handle comedies such as this with ease but it's a shame he couldn't do more to fix up an utterly predictable script. Both Steve Faber and Bob Fisher are responsible for writing this and you can all call me paranoid but I have a deep sense that the truly funny dialog that occurs when Owen and Vaughn speak to one another might be ad-libbed by the two. These are the best moments in the film and it's fun to watch these two because not only do we consider them funny but we know that they're best friends in real life and they (naturally) look comfortable shooting witty lines off of each other. I personally can't say for sure if this is true but It's hard to imagine that the same writers who have Owen giving one of those "don't marry him...I think I love you" speeches (at an altar yet!) are the same ones who wrote the dialog. I don't believe it! There were two other things that I did enjoy and the first was McAdams who continues to show that she's one of the brightest young actress's to come on the scene in the last few years and Jane Seymour who plays McAdams mother still shows that she's one of the sexiest ladies in both television and film. Someone get her in another sexy role (hopefully one that's more revealing) before it's too late. This film wants to be reminiscent of the raunchy comedies of the 70's and 80's but it fizzles out fairly quickly and ends just like the badly written romantic comedies of the last 10 years or so. This had an extremely promising concept but it becomes hopelessly predictable and even the usually reliable Walken is reduced to just staring when he should have had the opportunity to give one of his patented speeches.