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The opening wedding-crash montage set to Shout

The first wedding crash montage, which crosses a couple of lines, took a week to shoot, and the hosts are not surprised: they went all in, with the two singing Shout at 17 different weddings, and the first 20 minutes leave one host feeling ecstatic.

The touch football scene is unbelievable and could have gone on three or four more minutes with more button hooks from Rachel McAdams; the hot route call is a joke one host will take to the grave from playing Madden with friends, the Kennedy-compound-style house in Delaware is a real estate highlight, and Cooper's rugby shirt is fantastic.

"Hey ma, can we get some meatloaf"

Walken has a couple of good quotes, including nature versus nurture, nature always wins, a good lesson for life; the lower-back tattoo bullseye line was the first time one host heard it in a movie, though another heard plenty of it in college, and it might not fly now.

The film

Wedding Crashers (2005)

Directed by David Dobkin · Drama

119 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Cast credits have not been imported yet.

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

38:13

Most Rewatchable Scene

The opening wedding-crash montage set to Shout

The opening wedding-crash montage set to Shout

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:13Read transcript
  • The first wedding crash montage, which crosses a couple of lines, took a week to shoot, and the hosts are not surprised: they went all in, with the two singing Shout at 17 different weddings, and the first 20 minutes leave one host feeling ecstatic.
  • The touch football scene is unbelievable and could have gone on three or four more minutes with more button hooks from Rachel McAdams; the hot route call is a joke one host will take to the grave from playing Madden with friends, the Kennedy-compound-style house in Delaware is a real estate highlight, and Cooper's rugby shirt is fantastic.
  • The dinner-table scene in which Vaughn's character is groped under the table is flat-out funny and one of the better Vince Vaughn three minutes, though more explicit than remembered; the unrated version is just longer versions of the same scenes, and the hosts marvel at scrolling over the running time and finding 51 minutes still left.
  • Other nominations are the Will Ferrell cameo, the motorboating exchange right after the Jane Seymour scene, which one host would watch on YouTube every day, and the Dwight Yoakam and Rebecca DeMornay mediation scene that throws the fastest pitch first; Vaughn's speech from it is played.
  • Asked for a favorite, the opening montage is picked as the best and the signature moment of the movie.
  • Dobkin wanted to shoot the montage for two weeks and had it in his head to start the movie on that note; one host remembers wanting to stand up and applaud in the theater when it finally ended.
47:34

What’s Aged the Best?

The painting; Coldplay's Sparks; Isla Fisher; Bradley Cooper as Sack Lodge; the Wilson and Vaughn banter; the soundtr...

The painting; Coldplay's Sparks; Isla Fisher; Bradley Cooper as Sack Lodge; the Wilson and Vaughn banter; the soundtrack; the wealthy DC-area setting; Bradley Cooper shooting Vince Vaughn with birdshot months before Dick Cheney's hunting accident

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:34Read transcript
  • The painting still really makes one host laugh, and Coldplay's Sparks might be the band's best song 15 years later and a perfect part of the movie; a host recalls hearing it in college and expecting a different kind of band, with Sparks here and Don't Panic in Garden State becoming part of those movies.
  • Isla Fisher has probably never been better; she did a karaoke version of this role in Tag this year, people thought she would be a huge movie star before she married Sasha Baron Cohen (as transcribed) and got sidetracked, and worst case she should have had a seven-year sitcom; the pronunciation of her first name is corrected.
  • Bradley Cooper as a preppy dick plays well against his later backstory: after Alias he worried about being typecast as a nice guy, and Sack Lodge is a Hall of Fame dick with no redeeming quality, talking about other women and sharing the private eye conversation with Trapster; if made in 2018 he would have a line about golfing with Don Jr.
  • It is hard to believe nobody knew Cooper would be a star; one host watched Alias religiously and found his best-friend role bland and one-note; he was only 30 here and graduated from Georgetown in 97, and unlike Vaughn and Wilson he took control of his career, from All About Steve, Valentine's Day and the A Team through Limitless, Place Beyond the Pines and Silver Linings, aiming to be Warren Beatty, Redford or Eastwood.
  • Limitless is when one host believed in Cooper, since a premise that stupid only works if you like the lead; he has withstood Aloha, Burnt, Joy and the barely released Serena, and a Burnt digression follows: one host's wife loves kitchen movies like Under the Tuscan Sun, Unfaithful and No Reservations, Cooper is good in Burnt even though the movie does not work, and Daniel Brühl is the maitre d'.
  • Cooper saved his career with voice acting: Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy without the green screen work Chris Pratt does, and the boyfriend's voice in 10 Cloverfield Lane; the Hangover sequels were his torn ACL, with Hangover 3 excruciating.
  • While researching A Star Is Born, a host read that Cooper talked to Clint Eastwood about directing while making Sniper and was told Clint did Play Misty for Me at 41; the hosts love the heat check of entering the Clint conversation, are all in on the directing career and the coming promo tour in a denim jacket, and note Clint is making The Mule.
  • Also aged well: the Wilson and Vaughn repartee; a pretty good soundtrack for a broad Hollywood comedy, with In the Summertime on the bicycles, Rod Stewart's Stay With Me and the Coldplay song as big set pieces; and the wealthy DC area in summertime, which was supposed to be Boston and Cape Cod around the Kennedy compound, though you cannot tell it was 130 degrees when they filmed.
  • A late addition: Bradley Cooper shooting Vince Vaughn in the backside with birdshot approximately eight months before Dick Cheney shot somebody in the face in a similar environment.
58:29

What’s Aged the Worst?

The depiction of the forcible rape of Vince Vaughn's character in a humorless light; the homophobia; the Todd charact...

The depiction of the forcible rape of Vince Vaughn's character in a humorless light; the homophobia; the Todd character; the racist grandmother; the central plot of lying to women; the ethnic code-switching aliases

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:29Read transcript
  • The hosts feel they already did this in the first 30 minutes of the show; the film was criticized even in the moment, before Twitter could mobilize, for depicting the forcible rape of Vince Vaughn's character in a humorless light, and it took heat for homophobia then too.
  • The whole character of Todd is an error that does not work in 2018, and the racist grandmother did not age well either.
  • Earlier the central plot of pretending to be other people to have sex was judged not to have aged well and would launch a torrent of hate pieces today; the racial and cultural code switching of the aliases, like a yarmulke and the name Lou Epstein, is in good fun but pretty inappropriate now, as is the funeral scene.
59:01

Casting What-Ifs

Vince Vaughn pushed for Justin Long as Todd, who auditioned as Buffalo Bill; Will Ferrell turned down John Beckwith f...

Vince Vaughn pushed for Justin Long as Todd, who auditioned as Buffalo Bill; Will Ferrell turned down John Beckwith for a smaller role; Jane Seymour beat out Raquel Welch; Nicolas Cage was the backup for the Will Ferrell part

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:59:01Read transcript
  • Keir O'Donnell won Todd, but Vince Vaughn really pushed for Justin Long, whose interpretation of the character was Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs and who thought he had the job; the hosts call it a phenomenal what-if that would have made the character more acceptable by being so ridiculous, instead of a gay art school kid who is also a psycho and is mocked homophobically by his grandmother.
  • The black sheep character can be awesome, with Spalding in Caddyshack (as transcribed) the greatest example, and Christopher Walken himself played one as the brother in the Minnesota scene of Annie Hall.
  • Will Ferrell was offered John Beckwith, the Owen Wilson role, and turned it down for a smaller role, which the hosts are glad about because of Chaz; Jane Seymour beat out Raquel Welch.
  • Asked whether he would rather have had Raquel Welch, the answer is that it is hard to see anybody but Jane Seymour in the role now, and he loves her. — Chris Ryan
  • Seymour was great stunt casting after Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman; Nicolas Cage was the next call after Ferrell's no, which the hosts would like to see, though Cage reportedly gets called for parts like this and it never quite comes off, as in a Seth Rogen story, because he still thinks it is 1999 and must be the star, with tax liens against his Scottish castles.
1:01:56

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:56Read transcript
  • Among the most hotly contested Waiters Awards, with nominees Bradley Cooper, Isla Fisher (transcribed 'Elah Fisher'), Chris Walken and Jane Seymour, Will Ferrell has to be the winner; the meatloaf clip is played.
  • Ferrell is really in two scenes, including the funeral, despite revisionist history calling it one; he is in the movie seven minutes and scores 22 points, so Bradley Cooper deserves special recognition but Ferrell is the technical winner, one of the all-time Waiters performances where every Chaz line is funny, catching him on a string of hits.
  • Dobkin lets scenes play out in real time, as when Owen Wilson shows up with nunchucks around his neck and Chaz lords over him for a second, like he just got a hit of smelling salts; the hang gliding imitation is one of the funniest things, and the hosts could almost rename the award the Chaz Award but love Deion Waiters too much.
  • Belatedly, Rebecca DeMornay and Dwight Yocum (as transcribed) are put in contention, with their scene among the most rewatchable; the hosts do not understand why DeMornay did not have an insane comedy career after this and wonder if it was a Kathleen Turner situation, noting John from Cincinnati went nowhere.
1:03:54

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Henry Gibson

Henry Gibson

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:54Read transcript
  • For one host it comes down to Keir O'Donnell, whose name the host did not know, the unfortunate character in the film; but Henry Gibson, the priest, is one of the all-time those guys, from Animal House to The Long Goodbye and The Burbs, so the award goes to Gibby, which the other was thinking too.
1:04:25

Roger Ebert's review

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:25Read transcript
  • Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, writing that there are individual moments that are very funny but that the director has too much else on his mind.
  • The hosts float a new category, Are We Sure Roger Ebert Was Good, since every time they do the show it turns out Ebert disliked the movie; one read the review the night before and found it not on the money and missing the point.
  • Ebert on comedy is weak, the archetype of the critic who does not get why young people like comedies, and Sisko (as transcribed) balanced him out; another defends Ebert's greatness as making important films like Citizen Kane and Mean Streets understandable to mass audiences, and his Wedding Crashers review is not something that host sought out.
1:04:25

Half-Assed Internet Research

David Dobkin directed two Tupac videos; Owen Wilson found the script corny and he, Vaughn and the writers rewrote mos...

David Dobkin directed two Tupac videos; Owen Wilson found the script corny and he, Vaughn and the writers rewrote most of it; John McCain and James Carville cameo in the first Cleary wedding and McCain gave his $700 to charity; the website sold fake Purple Hearts until the military intervened; The Real Wedding Crashers ran four episodes on NBC in 2007; Will Ferrell shot for one day; Dobkin, Vaughn and Wilson once came up with an idea for a sequel with Daniel Craig as a superior crasher; Isla Fisher announced a sequel in 2017, used a body double and talked producers down from five nude scenes to one; Vince Vaughn did not keep the painting

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:25Read transcript
  • Burned early: David Dobkin directed two Tupac videos, I Get Around and Keep Your Head Up, two of his first jobs and two classics.
  • Per a 2005 Owen Wilson quote, the script was not comfortable on first read, a funny concept but partly corny, so Wilson, Vaughn and the writers changed most of the movie, including the arc of Jeremy's romance, and dropped a Graduate-like wedding scene; that prompts the Wayne's World 2 parody and a wish for a Mike Myers episode, with So I Married an Axe Murderer called his best.
  • John McCain and James Carville appear briefly in the first Cleary wedding; McCain donated his $700 salary to charity and got shit for the fake Purple Hearts the crashers use for free drinks; the movie website sold fake Purple Hearts until the military intervened, which the hosts mock as a 2005 way to spend 11 minutes online.
  • The creators made a reality show, The Real Wedding Crashers, which ran four episodes on NBC in 2007; a host wonders whether it would seem reprehensible now, and Kevin Clark's Ringer story on Jerry Rice as a real-life wedding crasher is recalled.
  • Will Ferrell's two scenes were shot in one day; according to David Dobkin, he, Vaughn and Wilson came up with a sequel in which John and Jeremy compete with a superior wedding crasher played by Daniel Craig; Isla Fisher announced on Andy Cohen's show in November 2017 that the sequel was a go, but nothing has been heard since the Me Too era.
  • Isla Fisher used a body double for her nude scene and told Entertainment Weekly she talked the producers down from five nude scenes to one; she watched Fatal Attraction and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle before her audition, and De Mornay is in the movie; it is not true that Vince Vaughn kept the painting Todd gave Jeremy.
1:14:46

Apex Mountain

Owen Wilson; Rachel McAdams

Owen Wilson; Rachel McAdams

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:14:46Read transcript
  • Owen Wilson is first met with a no and the question of what his apex is; a self-described controversial opinion offers Marley and Me, and Life Aquatic is floated and called ludicrous.
  • The case for yes: Wilson has never been more famous or had more movie options than after this, probably his biggest movie even against Zoolander, in the middle of the rated-R comedy boom and setting up Cars in 2006; the doubter concedes it is his apex.
  • Vince Vaughn's apex is not this film: Swingers is one answer, The Breakup another, a big hit while he was dating Aniston and in Us Weekly every week, playing basically himself, with the tweak that filming The Breakup was the apex.
  • Rachel McAdams is a yes after Mean Girls, The Notebook and this, never more famous; Red Eye with Killian Murphy (as transcribed) and The Family Stone followed an amazing first five movies, though she wound up on True Detective, where movie stars are now.
  • Nobody else is worthy, not Walken, unless David Dobkin, who has had a successful career but for whom this is the biggest hit.
  • Later, closing Who Won the Movie, this performance is called Vaughn's Apex Mountain slash best movie, at odds with the earlier placement of his apex at The Breakup.
1:17:53

Is This Movie Better With…?

Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:53Read transcript
  • Honestly all three could work, but Buscemi is the pick as very Buscemi-esque; rather than Walken's part he could have played the priest, which is agreed to be good.
1:18:08

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Todd, the over-the-top brother

Todd, the over-the-top brother

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:18:08Read transcript
  • Obviously the over-the-top gay brother, who was really going for it.
  • Also going for it with his four lines is Sack's friend from the football game, the crab cakes and football guy who gets screamed at by Cooper and is jokingly described as the one who picks Cooper up after the convertible incident; there is a reason he has not been seen again, and why he is staying at the house is unclear.
1:18:51

Picking Nits

The daytime wedding, boat ride and football game all on the same day; the family inviting two strangers to an intimat...

The daytime wedding, boat ride and football game all on the same day; the family inviting two strangers to an intimate gathering with no vetting or Secret Service; the best man showing up late to the wedding; Rachel McAdams's character dating the obviously awful Sack

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:18:51Read transcript
  • Timeline: the first rich-family wedding is during the day, then they take a boat to the house and play football the same day, which has always bothered one host because the crashers' rules are built for accelerating at night; listeners are asked to email the mailbag with the time continuity.
  • Randomly inviting two dudes to a pretty intimate family gathering without more questions is weird; a government official, the Secretary of the Treasury, would run their names and have a Secret Service person, and the hosts picture Steve Mnuchin in the Walken role.
  • One host hates nitpicking dumb comedies but has problems with the best man showing up late to the wedding, Owen Wilson being Vince Vaughn's only best man; the biggest movie bullshit is why Rachel McAdams' character is dating Sack, so obviously a prick that it is not credible, though it is tough to nitpick a comedy.
1:21:12

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"Hey ma, can we get some meatloaf"

"Hey ma, can we get some meatloaf"

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:21:12Read transcript
  • Walken has a couple of good quotes, including nature versus nurture, nature always wins, a good lesson for life; the lower-back tattoo bullseye line was the first time one host heard it in a movie, though another heard plenty of it in college, and it might not fly now.
  • The meatloaf line is called the quote of the movie, and the motorboating line is thrown in after it.
1:21:29

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Why not name Vince Vaughn's character Trent and make it a Swingers sequel? Is it acceptable for an actor to play a ch...

Why not name Vince Vaughn's character Trent and make it a Swingers sequel? Is it acceptable for an actor to play a character with his own name? Should TV characters cross over into other shows?

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:21:29Read transcript
  • Why not just name Vince's character Trent and make it a sequel to Swingers, since they never acknowledge they are borrowing the IP.
  • On actors playing characters with their own name, like Jack Nicholson playing a Jack, one host is all in and another finds it vexing, either the actor not wanting to think of another name or everyone deciding Jack fits, noting Chinatown moved to Jake.
  • On extending a character into another vehicle, one host is fine with it and recalls Coolidge from The White Shadow becoming the janitor on St. Elsewhere, made by Gwyneth Paltrow's dad, and an episode where the actor who played Salami appears as a different character; the later version is Richard Belzer's Munch moving from Homicide to Law & Order; Boghossian (as transcribed) being the same guy in Billions and Succession would have shattered it.
1:23:46

Who Won the Movie?

Vince Vaughn

Vince Vaughn

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:23:46Read transcript
  • Vaughn at the peak of his powers, a virtuoso performance including the constant eating, the breakfast plate and his immaculate bullshit, up there with Stripes and the great Bill Murray performances and Fletch and the great Chevy Chase performances.
  • There is little to add: lines like built for speed or comfort are really funny, he is great and agreed upon, the motorboating exchange is played, and with competition from Wilson and Ferrell this is called his apex mountain slash best movie, with kudos to Vince Vaughn.
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More from the conversation

Asked whether this movie gets made in 2018, the answer is an emphatic no.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:49Read transcript
The film is called the most dated 13-year-old movie that ever existed, astonishingly so, yet still funny and a real line crosser; the hosts date the line to Twitter taking off in 2009 and place the film in the 2003 to 2009 R-rated comedy boom from Old School to The Hangover, noting R-rated comedies always existed (Caddyshack, Stripes, Animal House, Porky's) before a late-90s PG-13 era, with Girls Trip and Deadpool as modern versions; in 2005 it came out of the Maxim era and nobody discussed line crossing.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:49Read transcript
Asked for his reaction on rewatching, the answer is that it is very funny and very rewatchable but 52 minutes too long, and that the punchline to many jokes is simply that someone is gay, as in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Hangover, which makes it strange to revisit.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:03Read transcript
Two kinds of line crossing: the gay jokes feel dated and inappropriate, and the premise is men tricking women into sex with false identities for the first hour; but the character gets a comeuppance and turns into the Will Ferrell cautionary figure, though the final joke is all four crashing another wedding. One host liked that it was not overly sensitive, from an era when a stupid comedy did not have to mean everything to everybody.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:03Read transcript
The movie has the riffing feel of the era's R-rated comedies: Vaughn and Wilson reportedly rewrote their scenes in rehearsal; director David Dobkin rehearsed the cast for a week and storyboarded every scene, and the film is well shot for a comedy, with pans and dolly shots from his music video background.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:17Read transcript
Box office recited: a $40 million budget, a $33 million opening weekend, $285 million total and 76 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Vince Vaughn's arc: Swingers made him an iconic 90s character, then he fled Double Down Trent into The Psycho remake, Made, Domestic Disturbance, Clay Pigeons, The Cell and The Lost World before Old School and this brought him back; this is called his best other than Swingers, he is reportedly subdued in person, and he and Owen Wilson are a Hall of Fame duo who oddly made only The Internship afterward.
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:07Read transcript
Swingers was discovered by word of mouth before the internet; Vaughn rebelled against the Trent lines, then ran off Old School, Starsky and Hutch, Dodgeball, Anchorman, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, this, The Breakup, Fred Claus and Four Christmases; a Timothy Oliphant (as transcribed) story about Vaughn at the Go premiere party casts him as this generation's Bill Murray, while another host sees him as a non-cocaine Chevy Chase who could have played Fletch or Ty Webb.
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:17Read transcript
Apatow's 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up are personal films, whereas this is a commercial property with no subtext; Owen Wilson once looked like the next Robert Redford but ran two tracks, Wes Anderson co-writer and paycheck star, with three screenwriting credits among the best films of 30 years; the Vaughn and Favreau friendship is compared with Damon and his best friend.
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:34Read transcript
A long tangent on retroactively legislating old content: Paul Newman hitting Charlotte Rampling's character in The Verdict, Raging Bull, John Candy mud wrestling in Stripes, Porky's, the indefensible Revenge of the Nerds mask scene and Animal House; nudity with consent is fine but rape jokes are not, drama differs from comedy, and the care taken to have the scheme backfire on Owen Wilson is credited, along with the smart Vaughn and Isla Fisher story of two bullshit artists finding each other.
Approx. transcript time · 00:21:30Read transcript
On where comedy goes: a host who fought ESPN editors over jokes worries about a generation conditioned to say can't go there; the Chappelle Netflix specials land harder on a second watch, a Kimmel writers room crossed lines to make each other laugh, Kevin Nealon and Sacha Baron Cohen show extremity is still funny, and the hosts agree the Hangover baby joke still works even though the central plot and the ethnic aliases have not aged well.
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:16Read transcript
Rachel McAdams' first three big roles were Mean Girls, The Notebook and this, still her best until Spotlight; the hosts ask why she did not become Julia Roberts 2.0, cite a Tina Fey remark about her acting with her eyes, and report that she got a sailing certification for the role and listened to Fleetwood Mac's Landslide to cry on cue.
Approx. transcript time · 00:33:20Read transcript
A weddings tangent off the Shout montage: whether a generational shift ended institutional control of wedding music once YouTube and social media showed everyone had the same wedding, Sean's wedding playlist versus a band and Pearl Jam, the shame of a cash bar, and the hosts rating themselves as wedding guests, one a solid Alan Trammell-level guest and enthusiastic eater whose dancing is the hole in the resume, another always available for a cigarette.
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:39Read transcript
Con Air was on TNT and one host is ready to do it: Chappelle is prominently involved, Cusack's outfit, sandals and wig deserve a podcast, and he lands an airliner on the Las Vegas strip.
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:10Read transcript
Wedding-crashing stories: one host nearly crashed a Lake Tahoe wedding after hearing Shout from the next room, another did it once 20-plus years ago when two weddings shared a hotel; then the rules of a morally acceptable crash, a real wedding planner's story of a bride trying to eject the groom's uncle, and the view that anything transactional crosses the line while bigger weddings are easier.
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:08Read transcript
The hosts admit they did not pay Walken proper homage: it is both a mail-it-in and a great Walken performance, he takes it seriously, and it comes during the Walken renaissance.
Approx. transcript time · 01:20:42Read transcript