Wedding Crashers (2005)

Director:

David Dobkin

Writers (WGA):

Steve Faber (written by) &
Bob Fisher (written by)

Release Date:

15 July 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

On July 15th, they're coming to your wedding...with or without invitations.

Plot:

John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey, a pair of committed womanizers who sneak into weddings to take advantage of the romantic tinge in the air, find themselves at odds with one another when John meets and falls for Claire Cleary.

Plot Keywords:

Wedding | Divorce | Washington D.C. | Best Friend | Womanizer

Awards:

9 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Owen Wilson	...	John Beckwith
Vince Vaughn	...	Jeremy Grey
Christopher Walken	...	Secretary William Cleary
Rachel McAdams	...	Claire Cleary
Isla Fisher	...	Gloria Cleary
Jane Seymour	...	Kathleen Cleary
Ellen Albertini Dow	...	Grandma Mary Cleary
Keir O'Donnell	...	Todd Cleary
Bradley Cooper	...	Zachary 'Sack' Lodge
Ron Canada	...	Randolph
Henry Gibson	...	Father O'Neil
Dwight Yoakam	...	Mr. Kroeger
Rebecca De Mornay	...	Mrs. Kroeger
David Conrad	...	Trap
Jennifer Alden	...	Christina Cleary (as Jenny Alden)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content/nudity and language.

Runtime:

119 min | 128 min (unrated version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | Finland:K-11 (re-rating after appeal) | Finland:K-15 (original rating) | Peru:14 | Argentina:16 | Brazil:14 | Taiwan:R-18 | Colombia:12 | Mexico:B15 | Hong Kong:IIB | Spain:13 | France:U | Malaysia:(Banned) | USA:Not Rated (unrated version) | Chile:Y7 | Canada:18A (Alberta) | USA:R (certificate #41437) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | Iceland:L | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | Singapore:NC-16 (cut) | South Korea:15 | New Zealand:M | Ireland:15A | UK:15 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Germany:12 | Canada:14A (British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Australia:M (re-rating after appeal) | Philippines:PG-13 | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Australia:MA (original rating) | Norway:11

Filming Locations:

Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland, USA

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

When Jeremy first pitches to John the idea of crashing the wedding of Secretary Cleary's daughter Christina, Jeremy hands John a section of a newspaper that carries the wedding announcement. It bears a photo of the bride and groom and a photo of Secretary Cleary accompanied by multi-column article. Dummy text of this kind is notoriously uninteresting for prop makers to write, and most of the fruits of their labors never appears on camera. As a result, prop makers sometimes include obviously bogus or even intentionally humorous text for the amusement of the crew and the observant viewer, and that has of course not undergone the rigorous typographical and grammatical editing processes common to newspaper articles. Here, though the announcement begins conventionally enough, by the point in the article that appears to the left of Christopher Walken's photo, the text reads: "The Cleary's are the center of the political scene these days with the potential candidacy of William for the president of the United States.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Claire's fiancé is talking to someone on the phone, the person is on a tennis court. Between shots, two tennis balls behind him, near the net, vanish.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mr. Kroeger: I don't have custody of the kids.
Mrs. Kroeger: You know what?
Mr. Kroeger: I don't get custody.
Mrs. Kroeger: It is an insane pathetic joke, what I've had to go through.
Mr. Kroeger: Right now, right now, she doesn't know where the kids are, do you?
Mrs. Kroeger: Do not talk about me as a mother.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Soundtrack:

Everyone Says I Love You

Owen Wilson & Vince Vaughn Really Click Well In This One.

Wedding Crashers is the latest installment in the new, over-the-top comedies cut from the same cloth as Old School or Meet The Parents. It will take it's rightful place in history along side these great comedies as it deserves.

Business partners John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) are also best friends that go way back. Every year they get together and go on a binge of crashing weddings to take advantage of the romance in the air and ultimately, to score with the jealous bridesmaids, or any other single woman for that matter. John and Jeremy are very smooth and do a lot of research to get a back-story that explains who they are, how they are connected to the families and why they are there. They also have what seems to be at least a hundred rules to ensure the crashing of the wedding goes as planned and of course, this could not be possible without the original wedding crasher, Chaz (Will Ferrell), who is not only THE wedding crasher, but also an innovator, as you will see.

This all works very well for them until they decide to crash the wedding of weddings, Secretary Cleary's (Christopher Walken) daughter and her new husband-to-be. John was unable to achieve his goal at the Cleary wedding of establishing a relationship with his other daughter, Claire (Rachel McAdams), who he is also falling in love with. Jeremy, too, is having his problems after achieving his goal with the Secretary's other daughter, Gloria (Isla Fisher), perhaps a bit too quickly, as he finds out it was her first time and she quickly attaches herself.

The long story made short, both John and Jeremy end up on an extended weekend with the Cleary family and hilarity ensues, very much the same way Ben Stiller was put in uncomfortable positions by his fiancé's family in Meet The Parents.

This was a great comedy in which I have heard compared to There's Something About Mary. I would not place it on such an iconic platform but it was very good and holds it's own along with other great comedies of today. Vaughn and Owen are a great team. Will Ferrell is typical Will Ferrell in his small bit part as Chaz. Christopher Walken's part was too small to really be noticed. Isla Fisher played the psycho first-timer in such a way that it even scared me.

The biggest surprise of this movie for me was Rachel McAdams. I took notice of her in Mean Girls and I believed she would be typecast in such roles for probably her whole career but she proved she could carry a movie as the lead love interest and was very captivating with her gorgeous smile.

If you liked the movies mentioned in this review, then I highly recommend seeing this one as well. It will not disappoint. 8.5/10