Movie of the Day – The Wedding Singer

So in just a mere few hours, my friends Peter Burger and Amanda Francis will by tying the knot on Guy Fawkes Day.  So while I tinkered with the idea of doing a movie of the day on V for Vendetta, I figured a wedding themed post will suffice.  There in lies the problem I have.  I don’t like wedding movies.  Sure Muriel’s Wedding, Four Weddings and a Funeral (not really appropriate) The Proposal and a handful of other Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lopez centric movies would have been fine, I haven’t seen any of them.  So there are only two wedding movies that I enjoy, one would be Wedding Crashers which didn’t really fit since it’s about to adolescent men crashing parties and banging the bridesmaids or something.  The other is The Wedding Singer, which is one of the few Adam Sandler movies I can stand.  So in honor of Peter and Amanda getting married, this post is for them.  Congrats!

In 1985, Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler) is a vocalist whose rock band stubbornly refuses to get off the ground. In the meantime, he makes a living playing wedding receptions, where his easy charm and ability to schmooze brings him a steady income. Robbie meets Julia Sullivan (Drew Barrymore) when she’s working as a waitress at one of his wedding gigs; he immediately takes a shine to her, but since he’s engaged, he keeps his distance. Robbie learns that Julia is also engaged; unfortunately, her fiancée Glen Gulia (Matthew Glave) is an obnoxious, self-obsessed yuppie who is chronically unfaithful to her. When Robbie gets stood up at the altar by his fiancée, it’s a crushing blow to his ego, and he moves from working weddings to bar mitzvahs to avoid the humiliating issue of matrimony, and he considers giving up on music altogether. In time, Robbie realizes that he needs to step in and stop Julia from marrying Glen before the woman he’s come to love ruins her life.  ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This movie does have a lot going for it.  An entertaining story, funny characters and all the pop culture references that a person like me can get behind.  It really is a great 80s movie, but was made in the 90s.  At times, movies like this can be cheesy and almost parody like, I mean the 80s gave us a lot of weird things to lampoon, but this is a honest inclusion of all things 80s.  The movies embraces the music, the style and the bravado.

While Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore can be grating at times in different roles, I actually found them both to be endearing and lovable in this movie.  Robbie Hart and Julia Sullivan are characters who you sympathize with and you can get behind both of them in their quest to be together.  Also both actors are fantastic when it comes to the comedic elements of the movie, which drive the entire tone and story of the movie.  The Wedding Singer is a funny movie with great musical renditions of the 80s music we know and love, all while being a better 80s movies than what could have been made in the actual 80s.

So I am not saying that this movie applies today to Peter and Amanda’s special day.  They do seem like they would hire a wedding singer as it would be kitschy and fun to have someone come sing the hits of the past.  In the grand scheme of things, this made a lot more sense than say Wedding Crashers as nobody wants Owen Wilson to come and crash their wedding.  Maybe Vince Vaungh would be OK as he seems like a cool guy to hang out with.  Just saying.  Anyways congrats to the special couple!