REVIEW: The Wedding Singer
Review by Luke Buckmaster
3 stars out of 5
Following the success of popular teen flicks Billy Maddison and Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler now combines his singing and comical talents alongside Drew Barrymore in The Wedding Singer.
Whatever standards Sandler ever earned in the past are more than met: the loud voice that shouts nothing in particular, the face that looks like a school kid in mischief, and the overall manner that seems like a blend of Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers. But hes good very good with his new role as a hip wedding singer in the 1980s.
Sandler plays Robbie Hart, the wedding singer, who loves his job and has a natural gift for it. Also a love of his, is seeing newly wedded couples together, strengthening their relationships and celebrating in the festivities that follow. That is, until his own wedding arrives. When Robbie is standing at the altar reading to get married, he is stood up by his finance Linda (Angela Featherstone). Now disheartened and demoralized with the marriage scene, he quits his much-loved job after a rendition of Love Stinks. Meanwhile, he gets to know a new waitress named Julia (Barrymore) and begins to fall in love all over again. The only problem is, she is set to be married to a womanizing sleaze bag.
Anyone who is capable of reading this review will be able to figure out what eventually happens to these two forbidden lovers. Like most romantic comedies, the ending is cheerful and predictable but strangely satisfying.
By far the most enjoying parts of The Wedding Singer are its moments of song and comedy it is through these fabulously entertaining scenes that we truly feel like we have been taken back a decade. What fills the gaps in between these moments, however, fail to give any creativity to a film that at first seemed to be incredibly original. Luckily, watching Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore on the screen together is just enough to keep the film attractive and easygoing. But, surprisingly, most of the films laughs come from its supporting cast namely Steve Buscemi as an idiotic best man and an old alcoholic played by Carmen Filpi.
Mona Mays (Clueless, Romy and Micheles High School Reunion) costume design is eerily eighties, and brings back awkward feelings of fashions we thought wed seen the last of. And not only that, but the movie has also brought back an assortment of so-so 80s music in an attempt to make the mood feel ever more out dated. Its a pity that they had a whole decade to select music from but somehow managed to stuff it upthe recent Jackie Brown proved to have much greater taste not only in the choice of music but also the influence it had on the film.
OK, the films sets and costumes do look superb but if my mother taught be correctly its whats inside that counts. In the case if The Wedding Singer, listening to Adam Sandler raise his voice whenever he desperately wants us to laugh can only be funny for the first few hundred times. You get the feeling that Sandlers humor has been somewhat refined than what we have been exposed to in some of his previous films; and although the comedy occasionally comes off as a trifle lame, its generally clean cut and well executed.
The Wedding Singer is no Jerry Maguire or My Best Friends Wedding but could you imagine Tom Cruise in a bright blue suit, singing and entertaining in Hebrew at a Bar Mitzvah? I think not.
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