Mariage express

This is a pleasant little surprise of a movie, I had no real interest in seeing this as it just looked like an 'American Pie' rip off, with Jason Biggs playing Jim from 'American Pie'.

The movie stars Jason Biggs and Isla Fisher as two strangers who decide to get married on a whim. So they set off to meet each other's parents to share the good news.

So far, this sounds like a series of fairly predictable scenes. But they're redeemed by the writing and acting. There are some charming moments an some laugh out loud moments

The sequences involving the two sets of parents provide the heart of the movie, they strike just the right balance between affection and humour.

There were a lot of scenes I liked, but the movie seemed too tailored to Biggs' American Pie image.

Stand out performers for me were Ebon Moss Bachrach, Joe Pantoliano, Joanna Gleason, Edward Herrmann, Margo Martindale and the gorgeous Isla Fisher who I think deserves to be getting better offers than she seems to be.

It seems that the success of the American Pie trilogy which starred Jason Biggs and spawned a franchise of spin off movies bearing the American Pie branding, had somewhat slapped an unfortunate tag on actor Biggs. Of all the movies to date that I recall him in, they inevitably revolve around teenagers, sex, or romantic comedies. He can't shake off this tag, and I will be curious to see him take a big leap out of this unwarranted comfort zone, unless of course these are roles that appeal to him, and pays his bills anyway. What makes it ideal for him in roles as these, is his average everyday man looks and attitude.

Isla Fisher on the other hand, I've got to admit, despite being in a similar boat as Biggs, has got that exuberant charm that I can't get enough of. I guess it was her infectious smile and laughter in The Wedding Crashers as the psycho babe Gloria stalking Vaughn's Jeremy that made me take notice, and her turn as the carefree, free-spirited April in Definitely, Maybe, had placed the movie as a contender for one of my favourites this year. Perhaps it is her relatively small frame that can always pass her off as a young adult, that she gets saddled with such roles, and again she repeats another rather conventional performance for Wedding Daze, but I'm not complaining.

Biggs stars as Anderson, a man in between jobs and who still cannot get over the death of his fiancé (who actually hasn't said yes), spending twice as long a duration to mourn her, than the time spent with her. On his good friend Ted's (Michael Weston) advice to go out there and meet people. In a spur of a moment during a dare, Anderson proposes to the waitress serving his table, and surprise, Katie (Fisher) says yes. But of course things are never smooth sailing, as the couple soon discovers what they should have discovered during courtship, thus putting numerous spins and surprises that made this comedy go way out of control in the last 30 minutes, reminiscent of some of 80s styled comedies in this film written and directed by Michael Ian Black.

Sometimes you wonder what it would like to just take that leap of faith and plunge into deep waters. Our forefathers probably did that with matchmaking being the requisite way in which to find a mate. They had no say and everything's arranged through parents and parental contacts when a suitable age is reached. While in this case it's not matchmaking, but you just wonder if it'll work out should two people eye each other across a crowded room, like who they see on the surface of course, and decide that's it, he/she's the one? It's a fantasy proposition, but one which becomes key in love at first sight stories. Either that, or the usual courtship route would likely be a journey where flaws surface, and you start to question if you could live with them. Nobody's perfect, but the former way already bound you to an institution, versus a fairly constant probe where you can opt out at any time.

While the supporting characters specifically are present to provide laughter, they do somehow epitomize different aspects of relationships. Katie's mom personifies the typical indecisive woman who flits toward who currently can provide her certain advantages, while her real dad (Joe Pantoliano) and stepdad provide some laughs with the jokes on the latter seemingly a little culturally insensitive at times. But political correctness usually goes out of the window these days (unlike those of old) as it is possibly the quickest way to elicit laughs from an audience, and even sexual deviant acts come courtesy of Anderson's parents. Supporting characters also involve the maligned fiancé of Katie's (but she didn't say yes too), and his finding of his soulmate, best friends of Katie who are into circus tricks, and the very perfect fiancé of Anderson, who would inspire Anderson to have one of the best, honest lines toward the end of the movie, no matter how sappy it sounded, but made a lot of sense.

You might think that you've seen a number of similar movies already like What Happens in Vegas and Just Married, but those seemed a little more polished than the raw, indie treatment that is Wedding Daze, where jokes fly rather fast and furious, employing a whole repertoire of methods to deliver its punch lines, from sight gags to my personal preferences of extreme wit in dialogue where you really have to be at attention to catch them all. It might not be a big budgeted movie, but its charm more compensates for everything else.

Wedding Daze was a movie I wasn't sure what to expect over, I wasn't really sure if this movie was going to be an American Pie rip off, or a cheesy romantic comedy that would have me throwing up for half the movie at the sheer horror of it all. My hopes were strictly average for the movie, I thought it might be a funny little movie, but by tomorrow I wouldn't remember it at all. Added to that my hopes wren't raised when it turned out the movie was only showing in a run down little screen in my cinema, while Pirates of the Caribbean took up nearly every other screen in the cinema. Anyway while watching Wedding Daze, and about an hour in I suddenly realised I was really enjoying the movie. Actually more than that, I was loving the movie! Shortly after that the movie hit a little dip and made my opinion lower a bit, but by the end I realised I had seen a movie that genuinely entertained me and I'm highly unlikely to forget it for a long time. The movie is your typical rom-com, and of course as tradition with rom-coms it has to have its overly sentimental moments dropped here and there. But the movie also contains the sexual humour from movies such as American Pie. The two blend perfectly and leaves the movie feeling fresh and funny. The lead characters played by Jason Biggs and Isla Fisher are brilliant. The pair have great chemistry, and one of the scenes between the pair, and involving tooth paste had me crying for about five minutes afterwards. I won't spoil the scene but it is just one of many great moments to be found in this surprisingly funny little movie.

As I've just said the lead pair are brilliant. I have never been the biggest fan of Jason Biggs. He was pretty good in American Pie, but after that movie I always felt he was recycling the same role over and over again. In this movie he has moments when he's essentially playing the same character as from American Pie, but thankfully his character does have notable changes along the way. The opening scene with him is very well performed and its a truly funny set piece, it was also surprising as well. Isla Fisher is one of the actresses who is very much upcoming in terms of popularity. Wedding Crashers obviously made her noticeable, and in her first leading role she does a great job. I think she might also be a great dramatic actress given the right material, but until that time comedy suits her just fine. What surprised me in Wedding Dze was the fact that nearly all the supporting cast worked very well. A couple start to grate very much after a while, especially Katue's friend Matador, who while being funny at first ends up just being plain odd by the end. The pairs parents are probably the best supporting characters. Katie's mum and dad, played by Joanna Gleason and Jon Pantoliano are brilliant, Pantoliano makes a brilliant character and his scenes towards the end are pure genius. Anderson's sex crazed parents are also welcome additions, the scene we meet them is another laugh out loud moment involving cream, its odd, sick and nasty, but brilliant all the same.

The comedy of Wedding Dze ranges from two sorts, the subtle, clever dialogue kind, and the other in your face sex antics kind. Usually sex jokes in a movie start to get very irritating after a while, sure they're funny at first but after you've had five jokes on ejaculation you start to roll your eyes. Thankfully the sex jokes are never constantly in your face in this movie. The scene that had me laughing most isn't really a sex joke at all, its not really a dialogue one either but its still brilliant. But this movie is not all about the comedy, and there are genuinely touching moments. Anderson's best friend has a very well written moment where he tells Katie not to hurt him, its small, its not funny, but for some reason its very well written and you can't help but be a bit touched by it. The movie has great pieces of humour and it very rarely misses, only Katie's friend Matador is the weak link for comedy, as I've said he's too odd to be really funny.

So what are the weaknesses of the movie? Well like all rom-coms it loves a good but of sentimentality, and apart from the good scenes that aren't funny, it does feel a bit forced at times. The ending is also as predictable as can be, I already knew the ending before the film began, and it didn't disappoint. Generally the comedy hits, but some stuff misses. But all in all its still a very funny and well written movie that I do highly recommend for people. Its a 9/10 movie, and I genuinely hope this gets a broader release over the world. I'm amazed to see it isn't actually out in America yet, nice to see us Brits get it first.

this movie was funny i just saw it last weekend at a private screening and thought it was lacking something i cant tell what but maybe its the way the movie was edited. i do recommend people to go see this movie you'll get a great laugh out of it and there's some real funny parts that almost make you cry you laugh so hard Jason Biggs is a comedy genius and Isla fisher is so fine that they make the whole movie a comedy classic i would recommend this movie to anyone who likes dumb,silly, stupid comedy and just enjoy the movie and try not to judge it because its a nice movie and its real funny so please go see this movie when it comes out

Isla Fisher was great in this, but the movie itself, was simply not very good. What had the potential to be a nice romantic comedy storyline gets ruined with some really bizarre character developments. Though the movie had moments that were very funny, for the most part it was full of "humor" that was way too stupid to be funny. (juvenile humor -- some of it only "funny" because of the gross-out factor -- and if you're over 15 that kind of stuff isn't funny anymore.) It was hard to sit through to the end. It's worth watching if you're a fan of Fisher but otherwise, this one you can skip and you won't be missing much.