David Galindo
Screenwriter
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- Mar 30, 2003
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[c]Wedding Crashers (UMD)
Region 1 • Unrated • Dolby Digital • Available January 3rd
[/c]
New Line continues their stellar UMD releases with Wedding Crashers, their first UMD release to coincide with the DVD release on the same date.
Thoughts on the Movie
Wedding Crashers seems like one big missed opportunity. The goods are there to make this a knockout comedy, but instead it derails and gives us a love story we haven’t seen since the last one a few days ago. It gets so sappy at the end that it’s a pale shadow of the first dozen minutes or so of the movie.
Vince Vaughn (Jeremy Grey) and Owen Wilson (John Beckwith) star as wedding crashers who go by a playbook of rules for attending random weddings to score hot chicks. Now that seems like a golden idea, and in fact the movie starts off with a montage of wedding crashing, which starts off funny and goes on for quite a while. No wonder: it’s the only wedding crashing done in the whole movie.
Soon Vaughn scores a big wedding: the US Treasury Secretary William Cleary’s daughter is getting married and hosting a huge reception. Soon they both crash the wedding, and before you know it they end up at the Secretary’s summer home near the beach.
The Secretary is played by Christopher Walken, who seems to be in every movie these days which is not nearly enough. Give him any dialogue...ANYTHING...and Walken can deliver it with such zest and zing that everyone will be rolling in the aisles. The movie makes the incredibly stupid mistake of placing him as the sane father figure, giving the duo cautious looks and offering good advice to his daughters. Why oh why waste such golden talent as Walken?
Vince Vaughn is also terrific as the wedding crasher, and in one instance is questioning Wilson about his sexual escapades and indeed bouncing around every topic that I was laughing hysterically (find it at 1:01:30). That, my friends, is pure comedy gold. And yet the movie doesn’t focus on Vaughn quite as much as Owen, who is just not as interesting and plays his character totally straight, trying to win the heart of Rachel McAdams (Claire Cleary). She has a fiancé, but instead of having to make a difficult decision of choosing him or John, the movie makes it easy by having the fiancé from hell. He plans, schemes, and at one point beats John up in an alleyway, comments to his friends about the rack on that waitress, and walks right back into his own engagement party. Why, that villainous man is not right at all for Claire! Oh, if only John can woo her back before the wedding! Gasp!
Finally, there’s a late cameo that’s the second best part of the movie, but once again we get the short end of the stick and in no time at all we see John trying to win back Claire’s heart. At this point, I wanted to say to the movie that I didn’t honestly care if John or Claire gets together. If you are going to try to make me care, at least make it funny along the way. But if you’re going to sideline Vaughn and Walken and the hilarious cameo in favor of the completely transparent love plot, then you seriously have your priorities in the wrong order. Ah, if only the movie could listen.
There are some terrific scenes here, some great ideas and some hilarious moments, but then the movie trips over itself to deliver a love story that wasn’t interesting to begin with. For a movie called Wedding Crashers, there’s a ridiculously low supply of crashing at all.
The movie is “Uncorked” but there aren’t any real unrated scenes here, just some added footage that is mostly funny. I can’t quite say what’s new since I missed the theatrical release, but the commentaries pointed some of them out (such as the rendezvous with the troubled son after the horny mom scene with Owen).
Video Quality
Hooah, this transfer is great! Man, you got spectacular colors, excellent sharp detail, and great black levels in the 2.35 ratio. The green forests really stand out, as do the sometimes colorful locations the movie takes us to. This is definitely one of the best transfers from New Line, and it looks fantastic on the PSP.
5/5
Audio Quality
The audio is loud and nicely separated, especially in the music department. The volume is quite loud and the commentaries are at the same level, though the deleted scenes are a bit quiet. The audio on the main film sounds great, and delivers what it needs to make the movie great to watch.
5/5
Extras
New Line did a nice job with the menus, including a random rule generator that goes through two dozen or so rules from the wedding crasher playbook. When you pop the movie in, it goes straight to the menu...no forced trailers, and all the FBI and legal warnings appear after the movie is completely over. Now that’s the way a UMD should be.
In terms of bonus features, we get a great addition of two full length film commentaries, one with Director David Dobkin along with a second commentary by Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. The director talks about the tech side of things, while Vince and Owen mostly ham it up and give some great stories about the shoot.
As far as featurettes go, we get some Deleted Scenes (7:04) that can also be viewed with Commentary by the Director. None are all that interesting, but worth a view. Finally, there’s a sneak peek of Dumb and Dumber: Unrated and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle: Extreme Unrated.
I’ve said before that I would gladly take commentaries on the film over any kind of video feature. To get two as well as some deleted scenes is quite nice (we’re only missing two small featurettes from the DVD), and New Line really sets the standard of UMD extras. Believe it or not, it isn’t quite as packed as previous New Line UMDs, but it’s still quite loaded.
4.5/5
Overall…
While I was disappointed in the movie itself, the superb video and audio transfer knocks the UMD out of the park, and the bonus features are pure icing. It’ll retail for the same price as the DVD ($18 if you shop hard enough) but definitely comes recommended for those interested.
5/5
IGN CONVERSION:
Movie: 6/10
Video: 10/10
Audio: 10/10
Extras: 9/10
Overall: 9.5/10
Editor's Choice: Yes
Region 1 • Unrated • Dolby Digital • Available January 3rd
[/c]New Line continues their stellar UMD releases with Wedding Crashers, their first UMD release to coincide with the DVD release on the same date.
Thoughts on the Movie
Wedding Crashers seems like one big missed opportunity. The goods are there to make this a knockout comedy, but instead it derails and gives us a love story we haven’t seen since the last one a few days ago. It gets so sappy at the end that it’s a pale shadow of the first dozen minutes or so of the movie.
Vince Vaughn (Jeremy Grey) and Owen Wilson (John Beckwith) star as wedding crashers who go by a playbook of rules for attending random weddings to score hot chicks. Now that seems like a golden idea, and in fact the movie starts off with a montage of wedding crashing, which starts off funny and goes on for quite a while. No wonder: it’s the only wedding crashing done in the whole movie.
Soon Vaughn scores a big wedding: the US Treasury Secretary William Cleary’s daughter is getting married and hosting a huge reception. Soon they both crash the wedding, and before you know it they end up at the Secretary’s summer home near the beach.
The Secretary is played by Christopher Walken, who seems to be in every movie these days which is not nearly enough. Give him any dialogue...ANYTHING...and Walken can deliver it with such zest and zing that everyone will be rolling in the aisles. The movie makes the incredibly stupid mistake of placing him as the sane father figure, giving the duo cautious looks and offering good advice to his daughters. Why oh why waste such golden talent as Walken?
Vince Vaughn is also terrific as the wedding crasher, and in one instance is questioning Wilson about his sexual escapades and indeed bouncing around every topic that I was laughing hysterically (find it at 1:01:30). That, my friends, is pure comedy gold. And yet the movie doesn’t focus on Vaughn quite as much as Owen, who is just not as interesting and plays his character totally straight, trying to win the heart of Rachel McAdams (Claire Cleary). She has a fiancé, but instead of having to make a difficult decision of choosing him or John, the movie makes it easy by having the fiancé from hell. He plans, schemes, and at one point beats John up in an alleyway, comments to his friends about the rack on that waitress, and walks right back into his own engagement party. Why, that villainous man is not right at all for Claire! Oh, if only John can woo her back before the wedding! Gasp!
Finally, there’s a late cameo that’s the second best part of the movie, but once again we get the short end of the stick and in no time at all we see John trying to win back Claire’s heart. At this point, I wanted to say to the movie that I didn’t honestly care if John or Claire gets together. If you are going to try to make me care, at least make it funny along the way. But if you’re going to sideline Vaughn and Walken and the hilarious cameo in favor of the completely transparent love plot, then you seriously have your priorities in the wrong order. Ah, if only the movie could listen.
There are some terrific scenes here, some great ideas and some hilarious moments, but then the movie trips over itself to deliver a love story that wasn’t interesting to begin with. For a movie called Wedding Crashers, there’s a ridiculously low supply of crashing at all.
The movie is “Uncorked” but there aren’t any real unrated scenes here, just some added footage that is mostly funny. I can’t quite say what’s new since I missed the theatrical release, but the commentaries pointed some of them out (such as the rendezvous with the troubled son after the horny mom scene with Owen).
Video Quality
Hooah, this transfer is great! Man, you got spectacular colors, excellent sharp detail, and great black levels in the 2.35 ratio. The green forests really stand out, as do the sometimes colorful locations the movie takes us to. This is definitely one of the best transfers from New Line, and it looks fantastic on the PSP.
5/5
Audio Quality
The audio is loud and nicely separated, especially in the music department. The volume is quite loud and the commentaries are at the same level, though the deleted scenes are a bit quiet. The audio on the main film sounds great, and delivers what it needs to make the movie great to watch.
5/5
Extras
New Line did a nice job with the menus, including a random rule generator that goes through two dozen or so rules from the wedding crasher playbook. When you pop the movie in, it goes straight to the menu...no forced trailers, and all the FBI and legal warnings appear after the movie is completely over. Now that’s the way a UMD should be.
In terms of bonus features, we get a great addition of two full length film commentaries, one with Director David Dobkin along with a second commentary by Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. The director talks about the tech side of things, while Vince and Owen mostly ham it up and give some great stories about the shoot.
As far as featurettes go, we get some Deleted Scenes (7:04) that can also be viewed with Commentary by the Director. None are all that interesting, but worth a view. Finally, there’s a sneak peek of Dumb and Dumber: Unrated and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle: Extreme Unrated.
I’ve said before that I would gladly take commentaries on the film over any kind of video feature. To get two as well as some deleted scenes is quite nice (we’re only missing two small featurettes from the DVD), and New Line really sets the standard of UMD extras. Believe it or not, it isn’t quite as packed as previous New Line UMDs, but it’s still quite loaded.
4.5/5
Overall…
While I was disappointed in the movie itself, the superb video and audio transfer knocks the UMD out of the park, and the bonus features are pure icing. It’ll retail for the same price as the DVD ($18 if you shop hard enough) but definitely comes recommended for those interested.
5/5
IGN CONVERSION:
Movie: 6/10
Video: 10/10
Audio: 10/10
Extras: 9/10
Overall: 9.5/10
Editor's Choice: Yes
