MOVIES: Wedding Crashers

Wedding Crashers is a great showcase for both Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. Wilson's laidback, fuzzy charms contrast perfectly with Vaughn's aggressive, hyper-fast, faux-hipster vibe. They make a perfect screen team, both as performers riffing off one another, and as the characters John (Wilson) and Jeremy (Vaughn), who have made an artform out of crashing weddings and seducing the bridesmaids, relatives, etc., who are already swept up in the romance of the day.

The movie is more than comfortable with being an R-rated sex comedy, and that's refreshing in and of itself. There's plenty of sex, and there are plenty of raunchy moments which makes this film more along the lines of Old School than, say, Dodgeball. For some reason, that didn't stop the people next to me from bringing their five-year-old to the theater, though. He spent most of the time bouncing up and down, or exploring the sounds his shoes could make on the sticky floor. So that was nice.

There aren't a great number of classic comedy lines that stuck with me after the movie was over; the comedy is primarily in the delivery from Vaughn and Wilson (and the wonderfully creepy demeanor of Christopher Walken, as the father of the girls who threaten to end Vaughn and Wilson's wedding crashing ways). You have to see the towering Vaughn telling his diminutive dancing partner, "I feel so tiny in your arms," to truly appreciate how hilariously, cheesily inane it is.

Rachel McAdams, as the object of Wilson's affections, does a decent enough job of not being overwhelmed by the performances of the leads, and being gorgeous enough that you'd understand why Wilson would want to give up his philandering ways for her, but it's Isla Fisher (apparently soon to be Mrs. Ali G), as McAdams' sister, who is the discovery here; as the "level five clinger" who obsesses over Vaughn, she's a riotous dynamo of craziness. What she does to Vaughn at a family dinner is one of the film's funniest, naughtiest moments. (By the way, in case you were wondering, in that sex scene with Vaughn? I hate to burst your bubble, but that's a body double. Hey, I'm a poet!)

There are only a few moments where the film drags, mostly in the scenes where Wilson moons over McAdams, or in which McAdams' boyfriend, played by Bradley Cooper (formerly of Alias) proves to be an even bigger asshole than Craig Kilborn was in Old School. Not the scenes where he interacts with Vaughn and Wilson, such as the brutal "touch" football game, but in the moments where he's on the phone alone, bragging about his cheating ways, or plotting to expose Vaughn and Wilson as the charlatans they are.

But these moments are few and far between. I laughed a lot in this film, and some of those laughs linger for quite a while. And they only get bigger with a surprise cameo near the end of the film, when a probably easy-to-guess comedy star shows up as Chaz, the king of the wedding crashers. The wrap-up to the film is fairly conventional, but the trip there is more than worth it. Oh, and a tip for those of you who like to wait for "Easter eggs" in the credits: don't bother, there aren't any, unfortunately.