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The Rewatchables ·

Wedding Crashers

year 2005decade 00sdirector David Dobkingenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Sean Fennessey
All 15 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 38:13

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.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:21:12

"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

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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.

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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