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'Wedding Crashers' takes a while to get the party started

Weddings never make good movies. (I particularly despise "The Wedding Singer.") That alone should make you nervous about "The Wedding Crashers."

With Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as luckless slackers, the film does have the pedigree of the Frat Pack. In various combinations, the group that includes Vaughn, Wilson, Wilson's brother Luke, Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller has succeeded with movies such "Old School," "Starsky & Hutch" and "Zoolander." The invite list also includes Christopher Walken, Jane Seymour and Rachel McAdams ("Mean Girls," "The Notebook").

New Line Productions 'Wedding Crashers' 2 out of 5 stars Director: David Dobkin Starring: Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, Christopher Walken, Will Ferrell Run time: 119 minutes Release date: July 15, 2005 Rating: R for sexual content/nudity and language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Wedding Crashers"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Basically, the film is about a couple of guys content with being aspiring Casanovas until a special girl finds the vulnerabilities in their Rico Suave armor and they end up growing up. Throw in some dodgeballs or some anchormen and this would easily be a movie we've seen before.

If you skip the first 20 minutes and the final 30 minutes, "Wedding Crashers" could rate with "Zoolander" and "Snatch" as one of the best comedies of the past 10 years. But those hackneyed, borrowed parts drag the film down.

The film's introduction is bloated, with Wilson and Vaughn going through the motions as cavalier desperadoes who spout pickup lines like: "You know how they say you only use 10 percent of our brains. Well, I think we only use 10 percent of our hearts."

Vaughn's in rare (sometimes good, sometimes bad) form as screeching wingman John while Wilson plays up his stoner affectations of a vacant stare and slurred speech as Jeremy. The two can bed any woman at any wedding by recounting their (fake) hard-luck stories or brandishing their (fake) "Purple Hearts" bling.

You get the sense, especially when they alone share the screen together, that their mugging and fooling around has nothing to do with the plot. An extended montage set to the Isley Brothers' "(You Make Me Wanna) Shout" — one of the most annoying songs ever — features our two heroes sporting Cheshire cat smiles as they invade wedding after wedding and pick up women. It's too long and totally unnecessary.

Fortunately, the film picks up when John and Jeremy attend the wedding of one of Treasury Secretary William Cleary's (Christopher Walken) daughters. After John falls for Claire, one of the secretary's other daughters (rising star McAdams), the guys tag along to the wedding afterparty at the Clearys' Maryland mansion, gleefully unaware of the perils of their latest mission. From then on, the film turns into "Meet the Clearys."

At first, the family seems like stereotypical blueblooded WASPs with a penchant for pastel, plaid and, of course, sailing. In fact, they boast enough neuroses to rival the Kennedys, who seemed to have inspired the fictional family. Grandma Mary (Ellen Albertini Dow) may appear sweet, but she'll just as easily fire a rifle or out her grandson Todd (Keir O'Donnell). Cleary's wife, Kathleen (Seymour), begs to be called "Kitty Kat" and reveals a liking for young men. And while the Clearys are stock characters, there's a certain saving grace in each, whether it's Walken's always enjoyable and unpredictable presence, Seymour's sexy shakeup of her "Dr. Quinn" image or O'Donnell's over-the-top turn as a tortured artist who's always drawing terrible portraits. The culture clash between the trashy crashers and the upper-crust Clearys is hilarious, especially when the boys go quail hunting.

But the final third of the film nosedives into "boy loses girl and boy gets depressed" cliches. Again, there's a lot of screen time for Wilson and Vaughn, and they make poor use of it.

It's not the only misstep in how the film uses its actors. Seymour is significantly underutilized, while there's just way too much Ferrell. The comic, in a slump since "Anchorman," is one of the cast's weakest links in an extended cameo as an extravagant lout who lives with his mother and crashes funerals instead of weddings for the grieving babes.

In fact, it's at a funeral that Wilson sees the error of his ways and the film's trite conclusion is reached. In the course of it all, both Wilson and Vaughn say some interesting things about growing older (and hopefully wiser) but what you're left with is still a mixed movie — flaccid beginning, predictable ending, but a golden middle that could rival the best Frat Pack films.

Here's hoping that if there is a sequel, there'll be more family dysfunction and less bachelor high jinks.