Motorboatin' (#51: Wedding Crashers)

Some people watched the entire Orange Bowl tonight. Others (yours truly), watched the first quarter, popped in a DVD, and then caught the fourth to see OSU end a bowl game in their typical fashion: bitter disappointment.

I wrote that solely to make Buckeye fans* think of this:

#51: Wedding Crashers

Jeremy Gray (Vince Vaughan) patters with the best of them. John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) has a rakishly broken nose to go with his hangdog charm. Together, they are terrible people who parasitically feast on the happiness (and vulnerability) of others by crashing weddings and taking bridesmaids home. They are morally indefensible and so is this film.

Well, considered in light of the funeral crashing Chazz Reinhold (Will Ferrell), they don't look so bad.

MEATLOAF!

The whole idea that the vibrant, intelligent Claire Cleary (Rachel McAdams) would even for a second consider an engagement to testosterone addled Sack Lodge (Bradley Cooper) or breaking that engagement for the likes of a serial liar and perpetual adolescent like Wilson's John. Far more likely is the relationship between Gloria Cleary (Isla Fishler) and the equally demented Vaughan's Jeremy. Kathleen Cleary (Jane Seymour) baring her breastseses is buy-able as well (pun intended?).

And I will believe Christopher Walken (as Secretary Cleary) screaming anything, including a line as random as this:

David Dobkin (his directing credits are pretty terrible otherwise) capably steers this fairly stacked cast through what is a really (let's be honest) insipid, borderline misogynist (if not misanthropic) story. The manic-depressive Vaughan/Wilson chemistry works perfectly to keep the whole thing on the rails. Vaughan, particularly, seemingly flop-sweats his way through absolute clunker after clunker until finally force-feeding you to laugh.

It's a stupid movie. But we laugh at it and so will you, if you have a pulse and no sense of shame (or one that is easily overcome).

FINAL VERDICT: KEEPER!

NEXT UP: The sophomoric humor continues with a Kevin Smith retrospective.

*Michigan, at least, doesn't have the habit of inspiring false confidence, as Ohio State does. The Wolverines are either clearly good or clearly not good (this year, sadly, the latter).