Trite yet still amusing comedy

Rating: 6/10 (14 January 2006)

The Wedding Crashers is a film that advertises two childish bozos crashing weddings and bagging hotties. It looks like a lot of fun. It's a shame it never quite lived up to that hype.
For 25 minutes the Wedding Crashers is just that. Two guys crashing weddings with preposterous, yet altogether amusing back stories about who they are, and why they are there. Fine. Then at one wedding John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) meets a girl named Claire. And after he meets her boyfriend, he knows that he must somehow woo her out of his arms, much to the chagrin of Jeremy (Vince Vaughn).
The characters grow consciences. Consciences? Why? I have no problem with sentiment in film. I loved Jerry Maguire and When Harry Met Sally. But if in American Pie Stifler turned around and said "Actually this bozo clowning isn't for me, I'm going to get married and settle down instead" you would be scoffing at the screen.
The rest of the film then plays out somewhat loosely like Meet The Parents, in which both men try to impress their ladies' father. Que stock characters galore; we meet the nasty boyfriend, the Grandma who says whatever's on her mind, the good hearted waiter and the gay son. And there are some hit and miss jokes along the way too (The funniest being at the dinner table).
Did I laugh? Yes. Was I glad I saw it? Well, yes. So no it's not a bad film. But I can't help but feel that I didn't watch the Wedding Crashers. I watched a much more schmaltzy and diluted film (the ending would make Frank Capra roll his eyes). But it IS funny. So I'm giving this one a marginal thumbs up, on the strength of it's jokes. Just a shame about the rest though.