DVD Review, I Guess
I know what you're thinking: "Dan, you pasty, arrogant little guy you, Wedding Crashers came out on July 15. Why are you only now talking about it in January?" Well, I didn't see the movie until recently. I meant to see it over the summer, sure, but I was busy and broke, and the weeks kept slipping by and I just never saw it. I was never assigned to review it, either, and since I'm no longer in a collegiate setting, there was no pressure to see it so we could all begin endlessly quoting it. Also, getting to more than one movie a week, though enjoyable, isn't always possible. But, thanks to my roommate's generosity, I was able to sit down last night with the "Uncorked Edition" DVD, which presumably manages to get, you know, just off-the-charts insane in 8 extra minutes of re-inserted footage, including extended conversations between Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) and Gloria (Isla Fisher). Um, awesome.
The longer edition is unrated because it wasn't submitted to the MPAA for rating, not, as many might believe, because it's extra raunchy or sexy or whatever. The additional scenes do nothing to enhance the story, and in fact only drag out what's already an over-long comedy. This is the main problem with Wedding Crashers: Among other things, it needs to be at least 20 minutes shorter.
Director David Dobkin, of Shanghai Knights infamy, oscillates between sex comedy and trite romance, and this kills the momentum. As John, Owen Wilson is forced to play the straight man in a sappy romance subplot, while the viewer is left wanting more of Vaughn. What should have been done:
Cut out most of the third act. After Claire (Rachel McAdams) inevitably discovers John's secret life as a tail-chasing wedding crasher, she blows him off and begins to plan a sad wedding and unhappy marriage to boyfriend Sack (Bradley Cooper). John hatches an elaborate plot to crash their engagement party as a waiter, only to be ejected and beaten up by Sack and his cronies. This whole thing is pointless. Similarly, Jeremy and Gloria get engaged, and John and Claire reunite at their wedding, which takes far too long. This is Wedding Crashers, after all, not some actual movie. Just have John and Jeremy crash Claire's wedding and rescue her.
Get rid of most of Will Ferrell's scenes. He cameos as Chazz, the guy that supposedly invented the "rules of crashing" and handed them down to John and Jeremy. But watching him yell "Mom! Meatloaf!" gets old fast. Have him show up for the finale, at the wedding. Less is more, especially with Ferrell.
Kill most of the beginning. We meet John and Jeremy at work, where they do ... something. Divorce arbitration? It's never made clear. Why give them such a successful job if they spend each wedding season inventing vocations and looking for bridesmaids? Give them crappy jobs, or don't even mention it.
I could go on. Trust me. But I won't. And don't misunderstand me, either: I liked the movie, especially Vince Vaughn as an older, more desperate version of Trent. But the film's reach far outmatched its grasp, and the result is less than satisfying.
