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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Wedding Crashers (2005)

Wedding Crashers (2005)

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Released 2-Feb-2006

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Romantic Comedy Main Menu Introduction
Menu Animation & Audio
Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain
Audio Commentary-Owen Wilson And Vince Vaughn
Audio Commentary-David Dobkin (Director)
Deleted Scenes
Featurette-Audience Reaction Clips, With Intro And Commentary
Featurette-Event Planning
Featurette-The Rules
Notes-The Rules Of Wedding Crashing
Teaser Trailer
Theatrical Trailer
Music Highlights-Soundtrack, With Previews
Music Video-'Circus' By The Sights
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2005
Running Time 114:07
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By David Dobkin
Studio
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Owen Wilson
Vince Vaughn
Christopher Walken
Rachel McAdams
Isla Fisher
Jane Seymour
Ellen Albertini Dow
Keir O'Donnell
Bradley Cooper
Ron Canada
Henry Gibson
Dwight Yoakam
Rebecca De Mornay
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI $39.95 Music The Flaming Lips
Rolfe Kent
Joe Lervold


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (128Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (128Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired
English Audio Commentary
English Audio Commentary
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Wedding Crashers totally blew away all box-office expectations last year. The comic duo of Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn laughed all the way to the box-office bank with worldwide takings of over $280 US million. It was also in the top five money makers of 2005 for Australian moviegoers. Not bad for a film that only cost $40 million to make.

    Every year John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) look forward to the time of year where they can gate crash weddings. At the biggest society wedding of the year, though, things start to go seriously wrong when Vaughn gets a "stage 5 clinger" in the scene-stealing form of Isla Fisher. If her Hollywood star doesn't take off because of this role then she can count herself as seriously unfortunate. She has some of the best moments of the movie.

    Owen Wilson's love interest is played by the delightful Rachel McAdams (she must have one of the best agents in Hollywood - she's literally come out of nowhere over the past year or two.) Christopher Walken is funny as their father and Jane Seymour plays their sexually aggressive mother. Will Ferrell also has a hilarious, if somewhat disturbing cameo.

    All in all the cast is first class.

    Considering that the two leads crash weddings to take advantage of the sexually charged women in attendance, it's high credit to the script and the likeable Wilson and Vaughn that the premise can be pulled off and be funny. The two play off each other like some of the best comedic duos that Hollywood has ever had to offer and there is no doubt that Vaughn has emerged as a serious comedic talent. He often outshines Wilson. The banter that so fluidly goes back and forth between the two is hilarious. There are a tonne of classic one liners in this film.

    A dampener, however, is the length. At 113 minutes it's about 15-18 minutes too long. Most comedies come in at under or about 90 minutes for a reason and unfortunately Wedding Crashers runs out of steam (and ideas) in the final minutes but it's still a deeply enjoyable and funny movie.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This disc is presented in PAL at the theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    Overall the picture was pretty good but for such a new movie this transfer had a few minor issues that hurt its overall presentation.

    In closer shots the image was quite sharp and pretty easy to watch. Unfortunately, in a lot of wider shots (especially outdoor) it just loses clarity and looks a little disappointing. It's a lot less noticeable on TV but on my projector it was quite distracting sometimes. I saw this picture at the movies and I don't recall seeing this then.

    On a more positive note the colours are great, skin tones are natural, black levels look good and shadows are fine. Outdoor scenes with blue water and greenery really come alive in vivid and yet realistic colour.

    In some darker scenes there can be a little grain but nothing severe.

    Thankfully there are no film artefacts and edge enhancement is not an issue either.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The main track is a pretty competent English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) track.

    In comedies it's imperative to be able to hear the dialogue clearly, especially when the banter is as fast as Wilson and Vaughn. This track does a great job, dialogue is always clear and there are no sync or drop out issues.

    At different stages there are some pretty good music scenes that add a lot to the film overall.

    As far as this kind of film goes, surround sound action is not overly important, and whilst this track does a good job it is certainly not stand out.

    There was no subwoofer usage, but it wasn't really expected for this kind of film.

    There is also an English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) track and two English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (128Kb/s) tracks.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Main Menu Introduction

Menu Animation & Audio

Audio Commentary

    An amusing commentary with Wilson and Vaughn - it's pretty obvious they had a lot of fun making this film and that they are genuinely funny people.

Audio Commentary

    Director David Dobkin does a decent job and it has its interesting moments but it's not as funny as the previous commentary.

Deleted Scenes

    4 deleted scenes that were probably cut for good reasons.

Featurette

    Scenes with audience reaction - laugh tracks from actual audience viewings are included. Fun the first time round but after that nothing special. The audience does laugh a lot though!

    The scenes shown are; Football game, Dinner and Motorboat.

Featurette - Event Planning (11:34)

    Pretty standard making of/promo fare.

Featurette - The Rules (7:26)

    Clips of interviews with Wilson and Vaughn.

Trailers

    Teaser and Theatrical.

Music Highlights

    Promo for Soundtrack and Circus Music Video.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The US has an 'Uncorked' edition that's 9 minutes longer, but I'm not convinced that is a good thing given the already lengthy running time. Special Features are identical.

Summary

    Overall, this is a funny film with a great comic duo.

    The video is good.

    The audio does a fine job.

    Plenty of special features.

    Worth a look for sure.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ben Smith (boku no bio)
Monday, April 24, 2006
Review Equipment
DVDMarantz DV4300, using Component output
DisplaySony VPL HS10 projector on 100 inch 16x9 screen + Palsonic 76WSHD. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderSony STR-DE685. Calibrated with THX Optimizer.
AmplificationPioneer
SpeakersDB Dynamics VEGA series floor standers + centre, DB bipole rears, 10" 100W DB Dynamics sub

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