It’s funny after all

I didn’t want to catch any of the regular screenings of The Wedding Crashers at the malls because I was told it had been heavily butchered by the MTRCB. The only way to see it in its entirety I thought at that point was to get a VCD or DVD of this movie. But then, nothing really beats watching a movie on the big screen and so off to Robinsons Galleria Cinema I went. It was already on its second week and the theater (one of the small ones in the upper level) was almost full and I was able to conclude right away that it’s also a box-office success here – just like it was in the States.

At the beginning of the film, I couldn’t understand why it became a hit – except for the fact that it’s glossy and it’s about weddings and audiences the world over like movies about weddings – with My Best Friend’s Wedding as the best example.

The film – about two divorce mediators (played by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn) who like to crash weddings to be able to meet and bed girls – isn’t funny at all. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it had been tampered with (some scenes, especially the sex parts, really look like they were excised or shortened) and this made the comic parts come out pale and watered-down.

In the film’s first 20 minutes or so, I was begging for laughter and nothing came. All I remember was that I was beginning to hate the movie and its two obnoxious lead characters. There’s nothing to like about them. They come uninvited to the wedding, charm the skirts off the female guests (the bridesmaids are the prime victims) and end up in bed with their unsuspecting conquests. Really the scum of the earth. And they even have the gall (and the huge appetite) to partake of the food – like they gorge and stuff themselves with the finest of cuisines.

But when I was about to completely swear off the film and dismiss The Wedding Crashers as nothing but crass, the story finally develops and takes an interesting turn when the two detestable leads crash the wedding ("the Kentucky Derby of weddings") of the eldest daughter of the Secretary of State (played by Academy Award winner Christopher Walken).

Vince Vaughn victimizes the bride’s youngest sister, Isla Fisher, while Owen Wilson, for a change, seriously and sincerely falls in love with Christopher Walken’s second daughter, Rachel McAdams.

The laughs start coming here at last – especially when we meet the other members of Walken’s family: wife Jane Seymour, son Keir O’Donnell and mother Ellen Dow.

When the setting moves to the Secretary of State’s summer home, the comic scenes are turned on full blast – thanks to the idiosyncrasies and wackiness of the members of this supposedly distinguished family. Mama Jane Seymour tries to seduce Owen Wilson, son Keir O’Donnel turns out to be gay and with a bad temper and grandma Ellen Dow drinks heavily and has no social graces and refinement at all.

But it’s Isla Fisher who is my favorite because she turns the table around on Vince Vaughn and it’s he who becomes her victim. Rachel McAdams, on her part, proves to be so charming you fall in love with her and even with the film.

Yes at this point, you get completely hooked on The Wedding Crashers because it becomes so funny you’ll laugh your head off with the comic situations.

And just when you thought the movie is about to end, there is another whole chapter where Owen Wilson discovers another venue to meet and bed some more girls and the sequences here are riotous.

Of course, The Wedding Crashers ends on a happy note (hey, it’s a comedy) and you come home happy – relishing in your memory all those hilarious scenes (and there are so many).

When I came out of the theater, I was glad I didn’t wait for the film’s VCD anymore because I had a grand time watching it in the regular run.

Can you imagine how much more fun I could have had if I saw it whole and some of the scenes had not been excised?