= 4 stars

Starring Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore
Directed by Frank Coraci

Amazon link

Every once in a while we pull out this flick - I think I’ve seen it five or six times, now. I’ll admit I skip out during the ending (right after the Flock of Seagulls guy in the airport), but everything up until that point is still quite hilarious - to me anyways - as I’m a definite product of the 1980s.

I remember first watching Adam Sandler on the old MTV television game show Remote Control, and thinking he was pretty “meh”. But he soon moved up to Saturday Night Live where he wrote goofy songs that were occasionally really funny - I also liked Opera Man. Anyhow, The Wedding Singer is a transition film, where there’s some of the song-singing Sandler but also a move towards a funny character actor. Sandler does a darned decent job playing the hapless wedding singer Robbie Hart, who after being dumped at the altar, learns to love again after meeting Julia (Drew Barrymore). When he sobs miserably before launching into Love Stinks, I laugh, but also because I truly believe this guy is emotionally screwed up - the definition of sad in the 80s was lying in a dark basement listening to Boys Don’t Cry.

You may sense the real joy I find in The Wedding Singer is its eighties satire, so much so that the plot is besides the point. Who can forget the strange band-mate George (Alexis Arquette) who keeps singing Do You Really Want To Hurt Me, to annoyed crowds thinking “yes!”, or Adam’s goofy friend Sammy (Allen Covert) who wears the hip fashions of the time that today look ridiculous. In one scene he has a Michael Jackson Thriller jacket complete with silver glove, and in another, a rayon shirt, acid washed jeans, and a fake earring. Other characters sport the Madonna Like A Virgin look and Miami Vice pink T-shirt with white sport coat.

But don’t feel too smug, because it’s a safe bet today’s acoutrements like belly button piercings, low-riding jeans, unusually large sunglasses, and iPods will look equally as ridiculous come 2027.

All throughout The Wedding Singer are neat touches - I always laugh at a brief scene featuring Jon Lovitz as a seriously cheesy, too-competitive wedding singer. There’s one brief moment where he stares, crazy eyed, from behind a curtain, and speaks a strange, sinister line. That alone earns half a star.

IMDB: The Wedding Singer

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Categories: 4 Star Movies, General, Movies :: Tags: 4 stars, Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Frank Coraci :: Trackback URL
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