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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Commitment. The concept
continues to elude many men like the idea of
taking a shower after working out. Divorce
mediators Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) and John
Beckwith (Owen Wilson) have a most unusual hobby
that allows them to pick up women seeking
commitment but avoid the dreaded band of gold
themselves-crashing weddings! This clever duo can
masquerade as friends of the family regardless of
who is involved. When Jeremy learns that the
daughter of the Secretary of the Treasury
(Christopher Walken) he and John do the old
Potomac Two Step and waltz right in as if they are
close friends of the family. What they find is...
love, desire and a family as nutty as a fruitcake.
John is immediately taken with Claire (Rachel
McAdams) while Jeremy finds her sister Gloria
(Isla Fisher) attractive, frightening and a
handful.
A genre mishmash of a buddy/romantic comedy,
"Wedding Crashers" works so well not necessarily
because of how good the material is (and it is
pretty good) but due to the deft talents of Vince
Vaughn and Owen Wilson in the lead roles. Both
give charming performances and the marvelous
supporting cast provides perfect counterpoint to
these charming rogues. "Wedding Crashers" became
the biggest comedy of the summer and deservedly
so.
Featuring a stellar transfer that looks as bright
detailed as a designer wedding dress, "Wedding
Crashers" looks and sounds marvelous in this
edition. Using the seamless branching technique
that worked so well for "Gladiator: Special
Edition" and "Alien," "Wedding Crashers" can be
viewed in either its original R rated format or
unrated. The unrated edition runs a little over
eight minutes longer and primarily consists of
scene extensions. The images are vivid with bright
lively colors. I didn't detect any sort of digital
artifacts and analog defects are nonexistent. The
5.1 format isn't used as well as an action movie
but there are nice effects placed all around the
speakers. Dialogue is crisp and clear which is
what you want in a comedy.
We get some interesting extras here. We get
deleted scenes, two featurettes one that shows how
the weddings were staged for the movie and the
second featuring actors Owen Wilson and Vince
Vaughn discussing "The Rules" of wedding crashing.
Likewise "The Rules of Wedding Crashing" are
presented in text format with all the rules
discussed by the main characters. The first
featurette is the best and at less than 12 minutes
your attention won't wander. The second is a more
traditional promotion piece. The third will make
you wish you were dancing at someone's reception
as your butt falls asleep. We also get trailers, a
track listing for all the songs used in the film
and music video by The Sights of the song
"Circus." There's also DVD-ROM content allowing
you to compare the script to the final film and
some other goodies that will make your crashing
experience perfect.
We get two commentary tracks with stars Owen
Wilson and Vince Vaughn providing play-by-play on
the film. Their commentary track is a bit less
informative but funnier than director Dobkin's who
focuses much more on the production challenges of
the film itself. Together they represent the
perfect commentary track with just the right
amount of background information and irreverence.
A delightful romantic comedy, "Wedding Crashers"
took many by surprise earning its place among the
top performers of 2005. Families should be warned,
however, that "Wedding Crashers" isn't for
everybody as it earned its R rating for sexual
content. The unrated version features about 8
minutes of additional footage extending several
scenes but honestly the theatrical version was
just great the way it was. |
