Here at DigitalChumps, I feel confident when I describe our staff as comprised largely of pimps (married pimps perhaps, but nonetheless). So when we see good opportunities for picking up broads, you’d better believe that we know it. Wedding Crashers tells the tale of two (not so) young men who decide that the best way to get into bed with random hot women is to show up uninvited at various weddings and execute a series of well-defined strategies. If that’s not a great idea, I don’t know what is (perhaps funerals, as suggested by the father of wedding crashing, Chazz).
Strategic pimping
John (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) are divorce mediators intent on avoiding commitment themselves (no doubt partially due to the fact that they witness failed ones firsthand each and every day). But in spite of that, both of them are hardly exempt from their typical male tendencies. Thus, on the weekends, it’s off to a series of weddings in a chauvinistic effort to pick up a female and score before skating off again into the world of the singles.
John and Jeremy’s efforts are governed by a seemingly bottomless and hilariously arbitrarily set of crashing “rules” which are almost certainly made up directly on the spot just to prove a point (these include such asinine commandments as “Always dance with the flower girl” and “Never walk away wearing a funny jacket”). But while crashing a high-profile wedding for the daughter of a powerful politician, Secretary Cleary (Christopher Walken), John breaks one of the most critical rules of them all: Don’t actually fall for anyone. He’s fallen for Claire (Rachel McAdams) all right, and the next thing you know, he’s dragging poor Jeremy along to the family’s estate to meet the folks (if this isn’t the perfect setting for myriad Vince Vaughnisms, I don’t know what is).
What follows is a shamelessly generic tale of serendipitous love lifted from mediocrity by the hilarious chemistry between Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn and the various well-timed mishaps that befall our “heroes”. It isn’t all that obvious from the outset that you’re about to watch a romantic comedy—but the balancing of the humor keeps things right in line with what most viewers are probably expecting regardless of the fact that there’s a little more love involved than some might have appreciated. As for the acting, much of the film’s priceless dialogue was merely improvised by the actors on the spot. Vaughn in particular is indeed the fast-talking smart alec around which his on-screen persona is constructed, and that lends the screenplay an unmistakably natural feel. All of the key actors deliver memorable roles (Walken just never ceases to terrify me) and the movie keeps up a pretty healthy pace apart from one small speed bump near the end. It also must be said that Isla Fisher does a remarkable job of playing a bipolar nutjob of a sister (Gloria) who manages to make Jeremy’s stay as uncomfortable as humanly possible while John tries to put the moves on Claire. Sure, some of the humor is immature and rooted in the typical shock value approach of modern comedy, but taken as a whole this is a delightfully rapid-fire and well-balanced comedy about the discomfiture that the two wedding crashers bestow upon themselves via “harmless” lies and scheming. You will laugh, and often at that.
Extras
Apart from the original theatrical version of the film, this release also includes the so-called Uncorked version, which is eight minutes longer and features a larger helping of topless women and whatnot. There are also commentaries to span both versions of the film from two sets of people—though apart from the missing minutes in the shorter original theatrical version, they’re the same otherwise. Here’s the rest of what you get (and it isn’t much):
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Commentary by Director David Dobkin (Original Theatrical & Uncorked Versions) – If you’re looking for an entertaining commentary, you might want to skip this one initially and move straight to Owen Wilson’s and Vince Vaughn’s take, which is filled with stupid jokes and lightheartedness. In contrast, David Dobkin’s offering here is surprisingly calculated and serious. That isn’t to say it’s not interesting—it’s just not anything like the tone of the film itself, which makes for a fairly strange viewing experience unless you go in expecting to hear a serious conversation about filmmaking.
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Commentary by Owen Wilson & Vince Vaughn (Original Theatrical & Uncorked Versions) – A verbose and highly entertaining commentary track with the very funny comedy duo. Vince is predictably the most talkative of the two (and he’s also incidentally the most entertaining), but Owen’s laid-back contributions provide a healthy contrast that gives the track a good balance. Much of the conversation consists of simply cutting up and fond reminiscing about how much fun it was to shoot the scenes, many of which consisted of an unorthodox helping of improv. Overall, this is a thoroughly enjoyable feature.
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Event Planning (11:35) – Here we see how the wedding events were arranged for filming. Basically, five different mock weddings were created, and Owen and Vince then showed up to crash them, resulting in a large dose of footage for the montage near the beginning of the film (Owen and Vince recount during their commentary that this took nearly two weeks to shoot). We’re also treated to short snippets of interviews with the cast, including both Vince and Owen, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, and Director David Dobkin.
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The Rules of Wedding Crashing (7:27) – A promo piece of sorts that features sit-downs with Vince and Owen spliced with footage from the movie. While cheesy at times, it’s ultimately quite funny nevertheless.
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Deleted Scenes (four total – 7:49) with Optional Commentary by Director David Dobkin – One of these is actually pretty funny (the short exchange that takes place following John’s pounding by Zack), but all of them made sense to cut, as David Dobkin explains to us in the optional commentary track.
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Trailers (Teaser and Theatrical – 3:58)