The Wedding Party

I feel like a lot of people are giving this movie flack because they're comparing it to Bridesmaids. That's the problem with movie-goers. We call each movie, the next or the imitation or worst than or better than. On it's own, Bachelorette did really well. It's a dark comedy/ raunchy film but it's done so well. It's not common in Hollywood that you have movies where women are complex as the men. Some reviews state that they find the characters to not be redeeming, but I think that's what makes Bachelorette so strong. We have 3 complex, intriguing, and yeah, messed up individuals. What it gives you is a very plausible comedy. A review online called this the mix between Mean Girls + Bridesmaids. Aside from the similar wedding scenario, this is more the women version of the Hangover and fused with Mean Girls. Check it out, it's a good laugh ride if you're into dark comedies.

The Bachelorette (2012)

Wow. Basically horrible, sexist, weightist (if that's a word), and badly written. And badly edited. And routinely filmed and directed. It even has some good talent (Kirsten Dunst is the big name) and a decent basic if familiar idea--a girl gets engaged and her friends all go to the wedding where things go wrong and lots of old skeletons come out of the closet.

The humor is purposely trashy party humor. This is where a certain audience might have fun with it. It didn't work at all, most of the time. (There are partial exceptions, like the early scene on the plane where the woman tells a stranger man next to her the nuances of giving a blow job.)

So, what is the point of all this? It's mostly just young people incredibly mindlessly liberated, with lots of fun sex and drugs, and lots of old baggage and new lovers popping up and crossing paths. The scenes are lively, the music lively, the jokes, well, lively (which is not always funny, though there are some laughs).

The director and writer is Leslye Headland, and yes, she has to take almost all the blame, though the producers must have seen something, maybe a pretty face, that blinded them to the reality. But then, this is her first film on both scores (she was a stunt driver in one other movie prior), so we have even more questions marks--why her, why her?

Mostly this is horrible. And stupid. And horrible! There, I got it out. Squandered a good hour plus.

To be honest, I watched this film as my testosterones were firing on full once they heard the cast included Kirsten Dunst and Isla Fisher, not only are these two beautiful women but powerful and talented actresses. Then the cast just got stronger with Rebel Wilson, James Marsden, and Adam Scott all of which I've seen in better movies.

Bachelorette goes to show that you can still have a bad film with a great cast. Unfortunately, it;s the story and the implausible characters, which I found annoying and quite unbelievable. I am also tired of film-makers and writers trying to show drug addiction in a brighter light than it really is. I know addicts and none are like Isla Fisher's and Lizzy Caplan's characters. I find this to also be degrading to family and friends who know people suffering drug addiction. These people would not keep watching this film. There was no reason for this to even be in the movie, it just seemed like a "Quick Fix" to add some immature comedic moments. The writers and director should've taken a more responsible approach. With a little bit of work and creative writing, they would've had a stronger story and film.

So it sounds like I'm coming down on the movie and that I didn't like it, well if it hadn't been for Kirsten Dunst and Rebel Wilson I would've turned this off quite early. Because of them, I stayed to the end, and even though I suffered feeling embarrassed for the actors at the start of the movie, I wasn't too upset at the end of the film, where everything works out okay in the end.

This film suffers from weak writing and mediocre direction and could've been so much better. There are some good giggle moments, but nothing in the laugh-out-loud. If Immature humour is your thing then you may like this.

Three messed up high school friends Regan (Kirsten Dunst), Gena (Lizzy Caplan), and Katie (Isla Fisher) get together to be bridesmaid to their fat friend Becky (Rebel Wilson)'s wedding. However, a crazy night before the wedding leaves them scrambling to fix the wedding dress.

This movie starts off badly. The three girls are way too mean, and we don't get any sense why they're friends with Becky. Then the funniest actress in the bunch is sidelined to be the sweet character. It's a waste of Rebel Wilson. All the jokes just fall flat. As the movie progress, we get a sense of the girls' history and friendship. It improves the likability of the girls, and allows the jokes to hit better.

This is Leslye Headland's directorial debut based on her play. Maybe if she had put in scenes in the beginning showing the four girls' friendship. Maybe a flashback to their high school days would help. The movie definitely needs to show that they were real friends in the old days. Or else it's just three mean girls making fun of the fat girl from high school.

Following weakly on the heels of Bridesmaids is this other bridesmaids movie. It kind of sucks for the writer/director Leslye Headland, in that it's based on the play she wrote several years ago (and she likely already had the movie deal before Bridesmaids appeared). Even if it was beaten to the punch, though, it's not very good. The film follows three high school friends (Kiresten Dunst, Lizzy Kaplan and Isla Fisher) who gather back home for the wedding of another friend (Rebel Wilson). All three of the bridesmaids have pretty cruddy lives, and they're upset that their less attractive, fatter friend is getting married before them. The night before the wedding, on a coke binge, the three tear Wilson's wedding dress and then have to scramble to repair it. The thing that will put most viewers off of this film is that the three leads are just awful, petty people. Many of the supporting characters (notably James Marsden and Adam Scott) are even more despicable. You have to wonder how these people are friends with the bride and groom in the first place. I did think, after a while, they characterised the three women enough that we at least understood why they were so screwed up. There are a handful of funny moments. Any small bit of goodwill it had built, though, was jettisoned by its ultra-lame rush-to-the-wedding finale, and then a particularly painful and miscalculated post-wedding toast where Adam Scott tries to hook back up with Caplan, who was his high school girlfriend. The film's really just not worth sitting through.