THE WEDDING SINGER

INTRODUCTION: Another rom-com, not my preferred choice of genre I admit, but fleeing the general chaos and blood letting that accompanies a National Cinema day in Birmingham to Derby where I spent the first, put me at the behest of my host and so the Cheshire Cat's girlfriend chose it. The Cat himself promptly buggered off to Wales leaving me to face the music, quite literally. However picture this scene from The Wedding Singer Review part 2.

EXT. - UCI CINEMA, DERBY - A DIFFERENT NIGHT

MUTT sneaks out of the foyer into the concealing fog he has had created artificially, and removes his large hat. He is flanked by the CHESHIRE CAT'S GIRLFRIEND.

CHESHIRE CAT'S GIRLFRIEND

You hated it didn't you?

MUTT

Actually I enjoyed it too.

Surprise ending huh? More than you'll get from this movie, this was followed by the Devil appearing and asking where he could buy skates.

SYNOPSIS: Failed rocker Robbie Hart (Sandler) turns to singing at weddings to keep him in spangly outfits. Stood-up at his own wedding he is unable to carry on, but he is drawn back into the whole marriage milieu when friend and colleague Julia Sullivan (Barrymore) needs help arranging her own wedding to the odious Glenn (Matthew Gleue).

REVIEW: The plot, from scribe Tim Herlinky ("Happy Gilmore"), is slight and unoriginal, there just to provide a hanger for an overwhelming number of 80's references and a series of poor gags. Coraci's direction is ineffectual, and yet somehow the whole thing works. This can only be due to an impressive cast.

Sandler ("Happy Gilmore" & "Billy Madison"), blandly inoffensive as the eponymous wedding singer, is the latest 'Saturday Night Live' alumni to flesh out one of his skit characters for the big screen a la "Wayne's World" & "Blues Brothers". But unlike his predecessors Belushi, Murray, Ackroyd, Chase, Myers, Farley, Sandler has no discernible talent. This however could work in his advantage, granting him the kind of career longevity that has eluded (for more obvious reason in the cases of Belushi and Farley) the previously mentioned ensemble.

Barrymore, herself an icon of the 80's, steals the show as the loveable Julia. It is good to see her at last getting some reasonable parts, following her post child star, wilderness years in such straight-to-video classics as "Gun Crazy" and "Poison Ivy". I've always taken an interest in her roller-coaster career as we are the same age, and nothing to do with the fact that she is incredibly sexy.

Of the supporting cast Arquette deserves special mention for his performance as the Boy George clone George. Jon Lovitz and Steve Buscemi put in un-credited guest appearances as respectively a rival wedding singer and a drunk whose life is turned around by Robbie. Last but not least Billy Idol turns up all too convincingly as himself.

The film attempts to do for the 80's what "Boogie Nights" & "Velvet Underground" did for the 70's namely create a retro cool based on how un-cool it was first time round. The wonders of the ironic 90's at work. The sound track is of course key to this and with hits from Nena, Wham!, Buggles, Thompson Twins, Lionel Ritchie, Kajagoogoo, Culture Club, Musical Youth and of course Billy Idol, the film does as good a job recapturing the sounds of the 80's as it does the fashions and styles.

But like many of the people this film is aimed at, namely those who grew up in the 80's, my memories of the 80's are mostly bad, the Falklands' conflict, the miner's strike, Thatcherism, Reaganomics and galloping capitalism. Indeed the film has a very 90's moral; love wins out over money, the yuppie Glen is vanquished by the slacker Robbie, all very un-80's. An 80's revival! Personally I can't think of anything worse, and this is why I believe (hope) the attempt will ultimately fail.

As sex comedies go this one is above average, what I want to know is when are we going to have some extreme sex comedies.

Mutt's Rating: ****

I'm scared Lizard, something's very wrong, we're agreeing again.

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