The Unseen Movie Review

Wedding Crashers

A buddy movie cum romantic comedy starring Vince (Swingers) Vaughn and Owen (Starsky and Hutch) Wilson. It’s got to be good, right?

Vaughn and Wilson are best mates whose principle pastime seems to involve the seduction of as many women as possible. Being cunning, amoral types they’re only after one night stands and couldn’t care less about anything other than getting their wicked way. Being typical lazy men, anything which involves too much effort simply isn’t worth it – even women. So they opt to hang out at the one place where it’s guaranteed that single women are going to be emotional and off their guard – weddings.

Director David Dobkin, best known for the Owen Wilson / Jackie Chan action comedy sequel Shanghai Knights, manages to bring out the best of the material and cast – including a number of supporting players who may seem somewhat familiar, from Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken to Isla Fisher from Aussie soap Home and Away.

Even so, with leads less charming and amusing than Wilson and Vaughn, this set-up could have crashed and burned from the get-go simply for its unapologetically devious and misogynistic premise.

Both are, however, thankfully on absolutely top form, and make the very most of a script which could, in less capable hands, have otherwise fallen a bit flat. As Wilson accidentally meets the woman of his dreams, Vaughn gets mistaken by one hapless girl as the man of her dreams and the two buddies’ friendship starts to go awry, they are each able to hold attention and interest individually as well as part of a duo.

Vaughn, as the – shall we say – less sensitive of the two, not to mention the mastermind of the wedding crashing plan, naturally gets most of the best lines, with Wilson picking up the more standard romantic lead role alongside his love interest Rachel “Mean Girls” McAdams. But Wilson has such a uniquely laid-back style, a bit like a hunky, blond Jimmy Stewart, he more than holds his own even with the less interesting part.

It’s a fun film with a fun premise which, while featuring a whole array of what are little more than sexist stereotypes and set-ups, still manages to remain endearing and sweet at its core. In lesser hands than those of Wilson and Vaughn, who make a great double act which will doubtless be revived in future ventures as Wilson’s team-ups with Jackie Chan and Ben Stiller have already, it could have been uncomfortably chauvinistic. Thankfully they pull it off with aplomb.

posted by Nosemonkey @ 4:05 AM