Los cazanovias

John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) are business partners and best friends. They have a unique scheme to crash weddings and bed unsuspecting young hot women. When they crash the wedding of the season, John falls completely for bridesmaid Claire Cleary (Rachel McAdams) breaking all the rules. Jeremy must submit to her sex-crazed sister Gloria Cleary (Isla Fisher) as his loyal wingman.

The concept is great. Some of the jokes work but some really don't. This movie rises with the guys' chemistry. Vaugh's got the manic rantings, and Wilson's got the boy next door charm. Together they form the perfect bromance. And that is the big takeaway from this movie.

An excellent comedy, Vince Vaughn is a gifted comedian. He kept "Old School" going, was the only light in a dismal "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", and had a terrific debut lead in "Swingers". I highly recommend people considering this movie, to watch the extras on the DVD; there is a karaoke scene at an Asian wedding which will have you rolling. It is a shame it was cut from the movie, but as the director's comments stated, "They just couldn't find a place where it would fit." I was very pleasantly surprised at the number of times I laughed out loud, a rarity for me while watching comedies. The lines were witty, the delivery was crisp, and the jokes were mostly new and fresh. Rachel McAdams was stunning, an excellent casting choice to play the object of Owen Wilson's desire. Despite the more or less rehashed plot (two guys lie about themselves to meet women, only to find that they now have a dilemma when they find 2 they really like), the film is nonetheless novel and original. There are a number of obviously stereotypical characters, (drunken grandmother, artistic introverted son, psychotic cheating boyfriend, immoral mother, powerful father), but they work in this film. Particularly the grandmother, who is prone to drunken scatological exclamations, had me laughing my head off. It was quite unexpected.

Although many of the situations could come off as contrived, they were secondary to the excellent repartee between Wilson and Vaughn. Their comic pairing worked to a T.

R.

John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey are committed bachelors who enjoy their womanising ways. They specialise in crashing weddings and picking up women for one night stands by taking advantage of their lower defences. Countless scores of women later, John is getting tired but the offer of "one last big job" tempts him back to crash the wedding of Treasury Secretary Cleary's daughter. Things go well until John falls for Claire Cleary while Jeremy finds himself trapped with the frighteningly clingy Gloria as the pair accept an invitation back to the weekend retreat of the Cleary family.

This did not appear strong enough to draw me into the cinema on its release but, on an trans-Atlantic flight it looked like being good enough to fill some time – which is actually a pretty fair summary of the film's strengths and weaknesses. I say this because it is funny enough to cover the problems that it has and thus will serve up as an enjoyable experience if you're relaxed enough to let this happen. The strengths lie in the lead two characters – they banter, they are lively and they are funny. Funny enough to cover up the fact that they are exploitative and sexual predators and funny enough to mean that the scenes where they are doing their thing are generally enjoyable. Of course it helps that Wilson and Vaughn are both doing their thing as usually and have great chemistry together – good news if you usually like them but, if you don't, then why bother? The weaknesses come in with the actual story because, every time someone has to fall in love with someone else, the laughs stop, the pace slows and the whole thing takes on a mushy air that doesn't gel that well with the banter scenes. Likewise the plot devices in the second hour tend to feel a little forced where they are just used to provide direction and create a proper ending etc. This doesn't mean it is terrible but it cannot be a good thing when you actively wish the plot would take a backseat in a film. The support cast share the comedy reasonably well; McAdams is cool and appealing, Fisher is a bit OTT but is funny, Seymour plays on her sexy image really well while Walken is reliable as ever as Christopher Walken.

Overall this is an enjoyable if patchy comedy. It trades on the usual delivery and chemistry between Wilson and Vaughn and the two do well to produce the film's best scenes when they are together. The need for a plot, romance and separation does hurt the film a little (because it is not as good as the aimless banter) but not a massive amount. Not a great comedy then but certainly good enough to please anyone who liked Anchorman, Dodgeball and other films of similar styles of humour.

This movie will never win an Oscar, but it still surprised me and became my favorite summer movie this year. The plot, as in all good summer comedies, is simple. Two guys who crash weddings to pick up woman have zany adventures and learn a little something along the way. The real fun of this movie is in the actors, who deliver their performances perfectly. Owen Wilson is the aging California surfer type who may be ready to move on with his life. Vince Vaughn is his best friend who frequently acts like a spoiled, horny child but is actually a good guy. Christopher Walken is the slightly scary father of the love interest. So if you have seen Wilson in Shanghai Noon and Vaughn in Swingers and Walken in, well almost anything he has ever made, then you have seen these characters before. But still, they just work well together here. The movie contains just enough real emotion to keep you caring and enough absurdity and broad physical comedy to keep you laughing. This isn't Shakespeare, but it is funny. Highly recommend.

The opening sequence with Dwight Yokum and Rebecca De Mornay is one of the funniest in the film. The rest doesn't live quite up to it. The movie suffers from an improbability problem. I know from working weddings like some they went to, it's not easy to sneak into a wedding, especially high profile weddings with bouncers and giant men standing at the doors looking at your invite! Besides that, I will say I enjoyed the film. It's not as funny as say, 40 Year Old Virgin, but there's some good stuff in there. Keir O'Donnell has some of the funniest moments in the film as the goth/artist/gay son of Walken. These were some of the laugh out loud moments of the film.

Owen Wilson is very likable in the film as the partier-coming-to-grips with his age and wanting more out of life. He more or less plays the straight man to Vince Vaughn's antics.

Vaughn speaks in lightening fast dialogue most of the movie. Funny, and good, but at times I was left scratching my head. He's a strong actor and makes strong choices in this movie.

The directing by Dobkin sometimes feels less than good. Desk scenes shot with 2 cameras make it look like the actors are improvising most of their lines and leaves these "buddies" looking a bit too disconnected.

Bottom Line: If you enjoy comedies, especially of this genre, see it. It is very formulatic and if you're smart, you'll know how it ends about 30 minutes into this overly long comedy. (over 2 hours) PS: Will Ferrell turns in a very odd performance as Chazz Reinhold the ultimate wedding crasher. You might feel a little dirty after watching this near out of place character.