Review of Wedding Crashers

Rating: 7/10 (24 February 2014)

Review of Wedding Crashers (Dobkin 2005)- May contain spoilers
Wedding Crashers (Dobkin 2005) is a romantic comedy that deals with the love of two of the main characters and their journey toward being together. The movie has many high points like the vast array of one-liners, hilarious duo of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, and a great first half, but overall the movie is just good. The second half of the movie seems to fade in humor and be overly predictable, which makes it drag on through some parts. These few things separate the movie from being a truly great comedy.
In the beginning of the movie, there are key points that lead me to think that the movie will become increasingly funny throughout. It starts off by showing John (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) going to a bunch of different types of weddings. They are laughing and joking around with all of the families and really fitting in where they are not invited. Also, while at the weddings, they get shown picking up a variety of different girls with a bunch of different lines. They do everything from cry to saying that they were on the Yankees, and they have a line for getting out of answering any questions the girls may have for them. This line is basically that they lost good men in their profession and they do not want to talk about it. After the montage of all these weddings, the duo of John and Jeremy decide to go to one final wedding, the Cleary's. After this final wedding they all go back to the Cleary's house where they play football and Jeremy gets hurt, the grandmother rambles on about her thoughts, and Jeremy gets shot in the butt. During all of this time John and Jeremy have a bunch of one-liners. Some of these lines are things like "rule number 76: No excuses. Play like a champion", "Mom! The meatloaf!", and "I got a stage-five clinger"(IMDb.com). All of the aspects of the first half of the movie made it interesting to watch, but once they left the house things began to fade in humor.
The second half of the movie barely had any jokes. Peter Travers states, "the film limps a bit in the final stretch like a wedding guest who knows how to party but doesn't know when to go home"(Rolling Stone). The only part of it that was partly funny was when John went to meet Chazz (Will Ferrell). Even the part with Chazz was only slightly funny because of the character's insane plans that go beyond crashing weddings to instead crashing funerals. Besides this one part the entire second half consists of John being depressed and mad at everyone including Jeremy, who is about to end up getting married and asks John to be his best man. John, instead of being happy for Jeremy, just sulks around thinking he has lost the girl that he loves, but the entire audience knows what is going to end up happening in the end. All this misery takes away from the laughter in the beginning by completely changing the mood for the worse. The sadness during the end affects everyone who is in the movie as well as the audience. "Even Vaughn and Wilson seem to have the wind taken out of their sails" according to Mark Englehart, who wrote a review of the film for IMDb.com.
The movie also becomes extremely predictable from right before John and Jeremy get thrown out of the house until the end. Every move that is made could have been guessed by just about anyone in the audience. The audience could tell as soon as Sack called his buddy to dig up information about John and Jeremy that the duo would be kicked out of the house and be found as frauds. After this it is not hard to figure out that by the end John and Claire (Rachel McAdams), the woman he loves, will get back together at Gloria (Isla Fisher) and Jeremy's wedding. This predictability takes away from all of the wonder established in the beginning about what is going to happen next.
In all, the movie had its great and funny moments that made it a movie worth seeing. The actors all did a great job in establishing all of the characters, so that the audience could get to know who they are. The movie established a variety of jokes and humor, but also had its down points. The predictability and sadness that took place toward the end of the movie are the only things that made this movie go from a great comedy to just a good one. Even with how the ending goes the movie is still definitely worth seeing at some point. Works Cited Englehart, Mark. "Wedding Crashers." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. Travers, Peter. "Wedding Crashers | Movie Reviews | Rolling Stone." Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 14 July 2005. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. Wedding Crashers. Dir. David Dobkin. Per. Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher. New Line Cinema. 2005. Film "Wedding Crashers." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.