Wedding Crashers Review

Ah, a wedding - a gloriously happy day where two people declare their love and commitment to each, other under the admiring gaze of their closest friends and family - and various freeloaders who've only turned up for the free booze and food. Two such opportunists are John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Klein (Vince Vaughn), a pair of divorce mediators who spend their free weekends inventing new personas and crashing various weddings in a bid to eat well, drink better and bed as many vulnerable young women as possible. But for John, this is all set to change when, at the biggest bash of the year, he meets and falls for Clare (Rachel McAdams), the daughter of a powerful politician (Christopher Walken), while Jeremy is cornered by a "stage five clinger" (Isla Fisher) who's planning their future together after just a quick fumble on a beach. Soon an invite is extended and the lads find themselves hanging out at Clare's swish family pile. Now if John could just get rid of her alpha male boyfriend and Jeremy could find some respite from his adoring shadow, this could turn into a fun weekend - but things rarely work out that way!

Packed full of plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, "Wedding Crashers" is bound to appeal to anyone keen on previous Wilson / Vaughn collaborations ("Zoolander" and "Starsky & Hutch" some to mind) but, while those films were all a bit 'laddish', this latest offering has an all together softer centre. Vaughn and Wilson possess an easy and relaxed chemistry which you can't help but fall for but it's McAdams who continues to bolster her growing reputation with a sweet and spirited performance. Walken and Fisher too are more than watchable and even Jane Seymour pops up - and out - as Clare's perpetually pickled mother.

Reasonably green director David Dobkin obviously isn't overawed by the big names he's working with and keeps the movie flowing at a decent pace - although the last half an hour does seem a bit unnecessarily long. He also manages the balance between the humour and the heartfelt flawlessly, making "Wedding Crashers" a perfect date movie.