My wife and I rented a couple of movies the weekend before our vacation. We got Wedding Crashers for the adults since we’d read good things about the movie, and Madagascar for the family, since we’d heard good things about it. We learned to trust word of mouth more than what you read in the media.
We watched Wedding Crashers first, and boy, was that a lousy movie. At then end, my wife and turned to each other and in unison said “I thought it was supposed to be a comedy.” I know what you’re thinking – I’m just an old fuddy duddy. All I can say is, I found the American Pie movies quite funny, even if they were tasteless. Wedding Crashers was about two self-centered jerks who after suffering a series of completely unfunny experiences were by the end of the movie still a couple of self-centered jerks. I’m beyond the point of laughing at something that is “inappropriate” just because it isinappropriate. When I watch a comedy, I want to laugh, so I’m willing to let almost everything slide except the laughs. Wedding Crashers didn’t make me laugh even once, but it did lead me to coin the Owen Wilson rule of movies – he makes every movie worse, and he’s only funny if he’s paired with Jackie Chan. I think the Jackie Chan pairing works because they have opposite onstage personas. Compare Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers – the one without Wilson was much funier than the one with, even though it was a sequal. And don’t get me started on The Royal Tenenbaums which had both Wilsons, and which was 109 minutes of boredom for just one laugh. Yes, when there is only one, I can keep track. The only reason I can think Wedding Crashers did so well is that there are so few (OK, pretty much none) good grown-up comedies out there.
On the other hand, Madagascar was sheer delight. Funny, inventive, memorable, yes, fun for the whole family. There were jokes, situational humor, sight gags, references to other movies – I laughed throughout the movie. You couldn’t go wrong with a movie that included penguins in a major role in 2005.
