Wedding Crashers (Pseudo Movie Review)

DISCLAIMER: Contains non-specific spoilers regarding the (predictable) ending.

After months of hearing friends tout Wedding Crashers (2005), I can finally add it to the catalogue of movies I've seen. And, much as I hate to say it, I was sufficiently entertained.

I.e. The humor wasn't too grotesque, and the script was clever enough that I regularly chuckled (though that may have been more so a response to Washington guffawing next to me). And it was simplistic only insofar as there was a clear moral ("Don't take advantage of women" — or some such variation), but not so much so that my eyes regularly rolled into the back of my head.

But that's not to say a part of me wasn't entirely repulsed by the attitude that drove the content. In other words: even if we don't buy into the male stereotype typified by the two lead characters, I suspect most of us know men who remind us of them. In other words: it's difficult to watch this film, particularly as a female, and not feel an ounce or two of disgust.

Of course, the men "learn their lesson" — and find "true love" with some of the very women they try to manipulate. This is part of the aforementioned moral... something that borders on being a spoiler, but is so typical of such films that you're bound to anticipate it. What really bothers me about this film, I suppose, is that the sleazing ultimately pays off. By this design, the film subverts its own moral.

[The old cliche about having (and eating) cake comes to mind.]