Wedding Crashers: Uncorked
New Line Home Entertainment
Cast: Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams
Extras: Commentary Tracks, Deleted Scenes
Rating:
Vaughn and Wilson deliver in this hilarious comedy.
Along with "40 Year Old Virgin, " "Wedding Crashers" was one of the top comedies of 2005. Starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, Wedding Crashers follows John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn), two single guys that crash weddings in their spare time. To elaborate, when these guys crash weddings, it means that they show up uninvited and rely on their charm and made up back stories to get them inside the wedding. From there, they try to pick up as many women as possible. Bridesmaids, family members, guests; no one is safe (except for the bride luckily) from these two wedding crashers.
Soon after "wedding season" was over, Jeremy lets John know about a wedding that is being thrown by one of his favorite political figures, Senator Cleary (Christopher Walken). It seems that his oldest daughter is getting married and they are throwing a huge wedding. Both see this as an opportunity to attempt one of the biggest crashes of all time. As they attempt to pull it off, they soon realize that they might have bit off more than they can chew.
Vaughn is hilarious as Jeremy and has most of the movie's funniest moments and one liners to his claim. His rapid fire delivery leads you to wonder whether or not most of his lines are improvised which goes to show you how naturally he delivers them. He's definitely the wild and crazy guy of the duo and he plays the part incredibly well.
Wilson as John is funny as well, but he's the straight man. He seems so laid back in his delivery that it all seems effortless for him. Although he does have some funny scenes, most of the time he's either feeding off of Vaughn's energy or piggy backing off of one of his lines. Still, every over the top character needs a straight man and Owen Wilson plays the part to a tee in Wedding Crashers.
This movie is at its best when both Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are interacting with each other. Owen Wilson undoubtedly has great chemistry as well as comedic timing with Vince Vaughn, more so than Owen's younger brother Luke Wilson who starred with Vaughn in the modern classic (in my eyes at least) Old School.
Despite the laughs, "Wedding Crashers" does have its share of drawbacks. The romantic element between John and Claire (one of the Senators three daughters) bogs the movie down, especially towards the end. Although they seem to have good enough chemistry, the whole romantic angle seems forced and unnatural. The entire movie would have came to a screeching halt at the end if not for a special appearance that I won't spoil here for the few that have yet to see the movie. Despite the "blah" underlying love story, "Wedding Crashers" still excels in what it attempts to do, and that's make you laugh your ass off.
As a side note, the PSP version of the film is the "Uncorked" edition of the film. This version adds 8 ½ minutes to the original theatrical cut of the film. There are some funny scenes thrown in this cut of the film, but nothing that was stellar. Still, it's more funny for your money (that's right, I said it).
"Wedding Crashers" is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Despite the fact that you have to endure the big black bars on either side that further minimize the amount of the screen the picture is on, you still get a good looking transfer that maintains the aspect ratio. Everything is clear and crisp. The only complaint I have with this transfer is that the colors look a bit washed out, especially in comparison to the DVD version of the film. Sans the color issue, it's still a great overall transfer and I'm impressed with the job that New Line has done with this UMD. It's just not in the upper echelon of transfers that a movie like "Sin City" is.
The audio is just as rock solid as the video. It plays loudly whether you have headphones on or not, and the quality is crisp and clean. Despite the fact that this isn't the type of movie that relies on audio for enjoyment of the film, New Line decided to ensure that you got a quality soundtrack either way. The commentary tracks on the UMD sound just as crisp as the main track of the film, which is an added bonus.
Speaking of bonuses, the "Wedding Crashers" UMD comes with a good share of them. You get two commentaries, one by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, and one with Director David Dobkin. Naturally, the Wilson/Vaughn commentary track is the better of the two, but they are both informative and entertaining on their own merit. You even get a few of the funnier deleted scenes that were in the DVD version of the film. The DVD edition of this film had a few more extras that weren't included, but the stuff that didn't make it in the PSP version of "Wedding Crashers" was filler stuff to begin with, so you won't miss much.
"Wedding Crashers" is a great comedy that would have been much better without all the filler romantic portions to the story. It was still one of the funniest movies that came out last year, and one hell of a UMD, definitely recommended.
