Wedding Crashers (DVD, 2006, Widescreen Unrated)

Although Wilson and Vaughn have appeared in 4 movies to date together, this is the first where they've both taken star billing. In this film, John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Klein (Vince Vaughn) are a pair of divorce mediators whose passion in life is sneaking into weddings to take advantage of the free food, the party, wine, champagne, and of course the single women.

They have a strict wedding crashers "rulebook", which dictates the etiquette of the pick-up, such as 'never use your real name'. It also suggests, by behaving raucously, loudly and generally being the life-and-soul of the party, people will think you are so obnoxious, you could not possibly have been invited to the wedding ceremony.

The dastardly duo eventually find themselves at odds with each other when John meets and falls for the bridesmaid Gloria Cleary (Isla Fisher-Confessions of a Shopaholic) at Secretary Cleary's Washington Estate society wedding of the year.

Although this film might be labeled formulaic, the comic performances raise this movie above par and in lesser hands the main characters could have descended into romantic comedy territory. The fast-talking machine-gun delivery of Vaughn is the perfect accompaniment to Wilson's laconic style. Their single-guy banter's often painfully accurate, as is the acknowledgment they're both a little too old to be acting so carelessly. There are also some great comic set-pieces too, notably the divorce meeting, the weddings montage, the cringe-worthy football game and the hunting trip.

The supporting cast are also an asset, Christopher Walken as Secretary Cleary expertly walks the tightrope of being both broodingly intimidating and likable. Rachel McAdams, who play Claire Cleary has a charming vulnerability and an easy-to-fall-in love with quality. Isla Fisher's character is a bit over the top, however, convinces me that most spoiled daughters have nothing to do but believe in anything that walks and talks and looks good. Jane Seymour plays Kathleen Cleary, the half sex craved wife of the Secretary, who likes to have the attention from Vaughn's character from their first meeting. We can't possibly forget Randolph (Ron Canada) who shows us how tolerant he is with the crazy rich family he works for. The most hilarious scene of the film involves Randolph catching Gloria with Jeremy. It's quite funny to think that Gloria could actually charm this doltish Jeremy into some kind of love which is less likely to swallow as it was when he wanted to get away from her after their first intimate moment. The whole Todd Cleary (Keiv O'Donnell) characther was way too weird for this film and added additional insanity to the sub-plot.
The fact that he was gay and had a crush on Jeremy as well, painted a nude oil painting of him, and came to visit him in the middle of the night, didn't add much to the film. Let's just say that being the oddball in the family usually doesn't have to be displayed to everyone that comes over for dinner. The grandmother things was way too weird as well, yet laughable.

I admit the film is far from perfect, at time situations seem too contrived. Claire's nasty fiancée Zachary "Sack" Lodge (Bradley Cooper) is an almost too heavy-handed device to make Wilson look good, however it works.

Father O'Neil (Henry Gibson) was absolutely hilarious in this film, and added the exact touches to the craziness of Jeremy's thoughts while inebriated, showing us that we really shouldn't trust a priest.

"Wedding Crashers" is all runway and no takeoff. It assembles the elements for a laugh-out-loud comedy, but it can't make them fly. There are individual moments that are very funny. But it takes a merciless focus to make a good comedy, and the director, David Dobkin, has too much else on his mind. There are sequences involving Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson where you sense that the actors should have just broken into the cockpit and taken over the controls. There are few lonelier sights than a good comedian being funny in a movie that doesn't know what funny is.

The concept is terrific. The ads will fill the theaters on opening weekend, but people will trail out thinking, gee, I dunno ... why all the soppy sentiment and whose idea was the potty-mouthed grandmother? And don't they know that in a comedy the villain is supposed to be funny, and not a hateful, sadistic, egotistical monster who when he hits people really wants to hurt them, and who kicks them when they're down?

Vaughn and Wilson play Jeremy and John, old buddies who crash weddings. They have it all figured out how to pick up bridesmaids, available girls, unavailable girls, even the occasional straying wife. There's nothing like a wedding to get women feeling romantic. When they debate their seduction theories and go to work on their targets, they're very good, and we sit back expecting the movie to break loose, but the plot makes pointless detours.

Near the beginning, for example, there's a cute montage showing John and Jeremy at a lot of different weddings: Italian, Jewish, Irish, Indian. Different costumes, different food, different dances, great-looking babes. OK, and then there's another montage showing the same stuff, or maybe it's more of the same montage. We feel like we're drifting too far from shore. We need some plot to hang onto.

Jeremy and John's greatest challenge: Crashing the yacht club wedding of the daughter of Treasury Secretary Cleary (Christopher Walken). How can this go wrong? Walken can order pizza over the phone and we split a gut. But it goes wrong. Incredibly, the movie never fully exploits Walken's gift for weirdly inspired flights of logical lunacy. Meanwhile, Jeremy scores down on the beach with the youngest Cleary daughter, Gloria (Isla Fisher) and John falls more seriously in love with the most beautiful Cleary daughter, Claire (Rachel McAdams). Gloria wants her daddy to invite the boys back to the family's shore place, and starts stomping her little feet and throwing a tantrum to get her way -- but her tantrum, incredibly, is in long-shot, so we miss the interaction between Walken and his spoiled brat. The movie shows that the tantrum happens, as if it needs to explain why her daddy invites the boys to his house. It doesn't need to explain anything; it either has to make it funny, or not show it.

The Clearys are apparently studying to become Kennedys, and on their sprawling lawn Secretary Cleary suggests a game of touch football. That's when we become fully aware of Sack (Bradley Cooper), Claire's fiance, who tackles with brutality and stares with cold little eyes out of a hard face. He has the charisma of a knife.

There are a lot of ways to make touch football funny, and "Wedding Crashers" misses all of them. Why keep the Walken character so disengaged from the action, when it would be funnier for him to get tough than for the hateful Sack, who spreads a cloud of unease in every scene he occupies? I don't blame Cooper for this,

Lifelong friends, John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Gray (Vince Vaughn) have a hobby--they crash weddings. In the celebratory, romantic and disinhibited atmosphere of wedding receptions, these two party animals make out like bandits when it comes to picking up women. John and Jeremy are so successful because they approach the weddings with an undisguised zest and liberated desire to just have a great time. They adopt pre-agreed identities with accompanying background information and successfully melt into receptions where they are the life and soul of the party.

When the film begins, John is getting a little tired of all the merriment, but Jeremy is eager to clean up on the next season's round of weddings. One of the reasons their deception works so well is that they keep within the guidelines of ironclad rules established by an earlier wedding crasher partner--Chazz (Will Ferrell). But all the fun and games begins to spin out of control when the sleazy pair crash a high society wedding for the daughter of Senator Cleary (Christopher Walken).

I approached "Wedding Crashers" with a fair amount of skepticism-so many comedies are disappointing, but this film (I watched the Uncorked version) is hilarious. The script captures the more bizarre aspects of John and Jeremy's yin and yang relationship, and the odd way in which Jeremy uses psychobabble PC speech to commit the most socially outrageous acts. Once these sleazy playboys break their own rule and agree to visit Senator Cleary's home, we know there will be trouble, and in many ways John and Jeremy receive their just desserts. Jeremy is constantly battered and assaulted by Claire Cleary's (Rachel McAdams) obnoxious, macho boyfriend. At the same time, Jeremy can't shake the youngest daughter, Gloria (Isla Fisher), and he also becomes the love object of reclusive son Todd (Keir O'Donnell). While John begins to feel some regret for his earlier behaviour, Jeremy remains as amoral as ever, so it's hysterically funny--and appropriate that he endures a horrible weekend for his friend's sake.

The film's ending was a little disappointing--I was hoping for an outrageous, over-the-top scene, and the script just fizzled. But before that point, there were a lot of laughs along the way. Will Ferrell's role was small but memorable, and overall, this was one of the funniest new films I've seen in ages--

I am a high fan of Vince Vaughn, the Owen brothers and / or Will Farell movies, so eagerly awaited the chance to see this movie - I had heard so many good things and was not dissapointed; I was entertained and amused the whole way through!
This movie features some big names, aside from our stars above, it also features the hysterical Christopher Walken, up coming actresses Rachel McAdams and Isla Fisher; and established star Jane Seymore - all of whom play excellent and funny characters in this 2 hour romp!
The premise of this movie being our two stars - Vaughn and Owen get their weekend thrills from the 'art' of wedding crashing - they read the wedding columns to learn of upcoming nuptials, create a character to fit it, and blend in at a wedding or ten with the goal of meeting women...lots and lots of women!
Only things take a turn when they Owen falls for one wedding guest while Vaughn tries to escape from another overly attached bridesmaid, played to perfection by Fisher!! A weekend with the family follows with some absurdly funny scenes....the movie just keeps going with the comedy and brilliant one liners!!
Farell gets introduced late in the movie, but his appearance , though brief, is in his typical comedic style and is brilliant and disgusting all at the smae time!
Politically correct, this movie is not....which is okay by me, as I can watch it again and again when I am ready for a good old laugh!! The characters shine and you cannot help thinking that the stars were having as much fun filming this , as we do when watching!! Great stuff!!

Wedding Crashers is terrific - with nonstop laughs from start to finish. Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughan form an unstoppable comedic force. Christopher Walken - as Rachel McAdams father (and Rachel McAdams is adorably great) - is funny as always. The two surprising stars are 1) Will Ferrell's extended cameo (hilarious) and 2) Rachel McAdams boyfriend (who is hysterical).

Owen Wilson .... John Beckwith
Vince Vaughn .... Jeremy Grey
Christopher Walken .... William Cleary
Rachel McAdams .... Claire Cleary