Today’s Prayer Focus
MOVIE REVIEW

Wedding Crashers

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA) for sexual content/nudity and language.

Reviewed by: Evan D. Baltz
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating: Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Comedy
Length: 1 hr. 59 min.
Year of Release: 2005
USA Release: July 15, 2005 (wide)
Copyright, New Line Cinema Copyright, New Line Cinema Copyright, New Line Cinema Copyright, New Line Cinema Copyright, New Line Cinema Copyright, New Line Cinema Copyright, New Line Cinema
Relevant Issues
Copyright, New Line Cinema

Every time you buy a movie ticket or rent a video you are casting a vote telling Hollywood “That’s what I want.” Why does Hollywood continue to promote immoral programming? Are YOU part of the problem?

Should I save sex for marriage? Answer

How far is too far? What are the guidelines for dating relationships? Answer

What are the consequences of sexual immorality? Answer

How can I deal with temptations? Answer

For a follower of Christ, what is LOVE—a feeling, an emotion, or an action?

What is true love

Sex, Love and Relationships
Learn how to make your love the best it can be. Christian answers to questions about sex, marriage, sexual addictions, and more. Valuable resources for Christian couples, singles and pastors.

Featuring Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, Christopher Walken, Will Ferrell
Director David Dobkin
Producer Peter Abrams, Robert L. Levy, Andrew Panay
Distributor
Distributor: New Line Cinema. Trademark logo.
New Line Cinema
, division of Warner Bros. Pictures

“Hide your bridesmaids. Life’s a party. Crash it.”

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “Vaughn and Wilson star as a pair of divorce mediators who spend their weekends crashing weddings in a search for Ms. Right… for a night. But when one of them falls for the engaged daughter (Rachel McAdams) of an influential and eccentric politician (Christopher Walken) at the social event of the year, they get roped into spending a weekend at the family’s palatial waterfront estate and quickly find themselves in over their heads.”

“Wedding Crashers” is one of those paradoxical movies that are difficult to review. As a comedy, it delivers plenty of laughs. As an “R” rated movie, it delivers more than enough vulgarity. As a plot, it delivers nothing new. As a buddy picture, it delivers fun acting with ample amounts of silliness. In the end, is it a good movie? No. Is it funny however? Yes. Will it offend? Quite frequently.

Owen Wilson (“Meet the Fockers”) and Vince Vaughn (“Old School”) team up as a pair of thirtysomethings who have turned wedding crashing into an art form. Week after week, they successfully crash weddings and do it in style. The goal of course, beyond the free food and drinks, is the reward of a young unsuspecting woman for a one night stand.

When the two attempt a coup d’crash at the U.S. Treasury Secretary’s daughter’s wedding, their plans are complicated by real love interests. Secretary Cleary, played by the ubiquitous Christopher Walken, invites the two men back to the family estate following the wedding, and the men develop different relationships with his other two daughters. Walken is Walken; wryly humorous and sublimely peculiar. Both Wilson and Vaughn have added another notch on their growing comedic resumes. Wilson is sanguine and likeable, while Vaughn is more brazen and neurotic. The combination makes them a perfect pair for such a buddy picture. Rachel McAdams (“Mean Girls”), Wilson’s love interest, is charming and fun. It is an interesting cast, to say the least. A movie with Jane Seymour and Will Ferrell (brief cameo) in supporting roles is a rare bird. But somehow it all works and provides a good helping of out-loud laughter. Ferrell can’t help but be funny.

If I was laughing on the outside for a good portion of the movie, I was also cringing on the inside. There were some 50 uses of foul language, including a dozen or so instances of the Lord’s name being taken in vain. There were also numerous sexual innuendos, crude references, sexual situations, and topless women. I didn’t think the movie needed to be quite so crass, and would have been just as funny without all of that. It seems that Hollywood always thinks to be funny, one must be crude.

There aren’t too many plot points that will be surprising. Most of the story lines have all been done many times before. But the interplay between Wilson and Vaughn still feels fresh and fairly unscripted. I did check my watch though at about the 90 minute mark, thinking that the movie was running out of steam. It runs about 15-20 minutes long in my estimation. Something comedies must always be careful not to do.

If you are a sensitive movie-goer, this is definitely one to stay away from. Yes, those you are willing to stomach a barrage of vulgarities, may enjoy it. “Wedding Crashers” didn’t completely crash as movie. It delivered pretty much what one would expect from such an offering. However, the question is, do you really want to send Hollyood the message that you want more films like this? That is the message your ticket purchase will send. (See list of Relevant Issues)

Not recommended.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Negative—I would love to say that this film was just a bit of fun and that it was just average, but I can’t gloss over what I saw in this film. In one scene one of the main characters is raped by his “girlfriend” and yet almost everyone in the cinema was laughing around me. A scene or two later was worse, but I’m not even going to go into that. The film contains lots of needless swearing, and it promotes casual sex as the norm. It even portrays marriage as a big mistake throughout most of the film, and even though one of the couples ends up getting married, it’s not a standard marriage by any means.

Despite some funny jokes, this film focused far too much on sexual humour. I would advise against seeing it, and certainly don’t let children or young teens see it.
My Ratings: Very Offensive/3
Dave, age 24
Negative—This film is nothing short of disgusting. The entire plot (if you could call it that) is centered on two guys trying to have sex with as many girls as possible. It has no redeeming qualities that I could see. The odd, truly humourous moment was immediately overshadowed by the gratuitous sex or nudity immediately following it. My wife and I endured about 40 minutes of it thinking that “surely the rest will be okay”—we should have left after the first 5.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive/2
Dan, age 23
Negative—…I thought it would be a wholesome movie about love. I was kinda worried about the R rating, and that fact that Owen Wilson and Vince Vaungh were in it, because they have been in other inapproriate movies. I was hoping that they would realize the errors of their ways and reform. HOWEVER THIS IS NOT THE CASE!!! This movie is about one thing: LUST. The guys are going after dirty women at wedding after wedding in hopes of cheap thrills. In real life, they would have stopped long ago because they would have gotten an STD and learned their lesson… Also by “wedding crashing,” they make it seem like breaking into weddings is a good thing, however it is very sinful to defile an act of love with debauchery.

I hope that Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn will eventually realize the errors of their ways and make more wholesome movies…
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive/1
Kenny, age 22
Negative—My friend and I went to see this movie because we thought it would be funny …this movie had so much profanity that we asked our selves so many times why we were watching it. Then nudity started happening and it didn’t get better. We saw it in the theatre so we ended up walking out because it wasn’t getting better. These two men believed it was okay to have sex with whoever and whenever. We were extremely disturbed by this movie and don’t recommend it to any one.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive/4
Jennifer, age 18
Positive—Yes, many will be offended by this movie. Most the audiences are going for something like “Old School”, “There’s Something About Mary,” “Anchorman”, “American Pie,” etc. …but they will not find it. A fact most… are not pointing out is that in “Wedding Crashers”, Owen Wilson’s character is getting sick of the whole lifestyle. Now of course he enjoys it for a while (13 years) but he just isn’t what he used to be. He seems to regret lying and bedding a different woman every single night. Vince Vaughn’s character on the other hand, cannot get enough of the lifestyle. Owen Wilson falls in love with Rachel McAdam’s charcter, in a true, not lustful love. A great scene is when they are out on the bike ride and on the beach where he is explaining how we was “living a life that wasn’t really him, and it just became him.” He then talks of how he believes he could do something “so much better.” He can’t even confess his sins to the woman, though he tries many times. Out of shame? We don’t really know.

This is a Hollywood film, not made by Christians. It has the crude jokes and implications and inneundos (not as much as “Old School” or “Starsky and Hutch”, “Dodgeball”, etc.) but it does have course language and some nudity. Of course. it is not perfect, but I am happy that they showed the lifestyle was not working for them, and that it was hurting people’s lives! When Owen Wilson is at the funeral staring at the woman whose husband had died; how touching! …At least it shows marriage as humbling and a good act to do; which is a whole lot better than Hollywood has done before. Let us pray that more people will want to enter the sanctity of marriage and get out of their sinful lifestyles.
My Ratings: Average/3
Garrison Davis, age 18
Negative—Christians BEWARE! Movie borders on PORN. Every review I have read so far some how manages to leave out the single full shots about 10 in all of fully naked women as they are falling on the beds just before these “crashers” used them. I like comedy, and I like weddings, but this is not a movie that a single Christian dollar should go to support, I regret mine did. Sends the TOTALY WRONG message regardless of who you are. Very sad when they could have deleted several scenes and it could have been enjoyed by all. You could feel in the theater how uncomfortable the movie made each of us. In one sceen one of the main characters wakes up tied to the bed before being raped by his girlfriend, only to be left tied to the bed long enough for him to have his first gay encounter by the girlfriends brother. Take my advice and BEWARE!
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive/2
Kelly Easter, age 30
Positive—A pretty funny film, but definitely not for the easily offended. There is profanity, but it isn’t as bad as most films of this type. There’s a few blink and you’ll miss it moments of nudity. There’s a few brief sex scenes also but close your eyes and you’ll probably miss them. There is sexual humour also but it’s all done for laughs. But despite all the casual sex in the film, the guys do eventually learn their lesson. Recommended only to people who aren’t easily offended. Overall, it’s pretty fun, not for the easily offended, but it’s pretty funny for most of it’s 113 minutes, other than a cliched ending.
My Ratings: Very Offensive/4
Jonathan Bennett
Negative—Plenty of swearing and nudity… don’t see it. I thought it would be a good movie to see because of the humour, but for us guys, theres way too much temptation in the nudity and sexual references/acts etc. Sure people say it’s just normal these days… but why compromise?
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive/4
Jezmo, age 19
Positive—I did not find much to be offended at in “Wedding Crashers”. The “nudity” was comprised of a handful of topless girls in quick succession falling on a bed, demonstrating the progress over time of the main characters. The film had plenty of laughs, and the usual R rated material, but nothing too outlandish. I don’t recommend it for those who are easily offended, but what do you expect when going to an R rated comedy about two lying scumbags who use women for sex? I laughed, I hope you will too.
My Ratings: Offensive/4
Nathan Gundlach, age 20
Negative—I went to this movie with a few of my girlfriends and I was embarrassed and ashamed to be there. I thought this would be a silly and funny movie about men and weddings. However, the “F” word is said at least 4 times in the first 10 minutes. Full of nudity, sex and bad language, this is not a fun movie for a christian to see. Don’t waste your time or money!
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive/2
Shelray Aube, age 37
Neutral—First and foremost, let’s start out by saying “Wedding Crashers” is rated R. From an R-rating we can gather that there is an abundant use of foul language, sexuality and brief nudity simply based on what we know about R-ratings… “Wedding Crashers” was exactly what I expected it to be. Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are very funny men, with at times bizarre and/or a crude sense of humor. Their films are typically tasteless and juvenile. This wasn’t a good movie, but it was a funny movie. Would I recommend wasting seven dollars and 50 cents to see it in the theater, no. Would I recommend renting it for three dollars, yes. Just remember, it’s not for kids or the easily offended, which they tell you up front with the R-rating.
My Ratings: Offensive / 2½
Amber, age 26
Movie Critics
…Hollywood seeing how far it can push an irreverent comedy intended for mainstream audiences… a manifestly cynical comedy staged in salaciousness lite…
Ed Blank, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
…trick romantically vulnerable women into having sex… wallows in its negative elements, fishing for humor in a sea of “shocking” immorality…
Christopher Lyon, Plugged In
…a disdain for Judeo-Christian sexual morality… promotes ghastly behavior, including a totally debauched way of life… excessive foul language, over-the-top sexual jokes and situations…
Movieguide
…It assembles the elements for a laugh-out-loud comedy, but it can’t make them fly…
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
…The characters in “Wedding Crashers” seem headed down the same road to ruin, but their redemption is one altar speech away—just like we knew it would be…
Bill Muller, The Arizona Republic
…predictable… Although it contains crotch-grabbing, crude language and nudity, “Wedding Crashers” is never as boys-gone-wild as the idea that spawned it…
Duane Dudek, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel