Go for the montage - stay for the boobs

The montage sequence is one of those 80s movie hallmarks that cause much eye-rolling in the film snob community. But we’re allowed to be wrong sometimes.

Though Roger Ebert apparently disliked Wedding Crashers, he too admitted the opening montage of this golden summer funfest was awesome. I’d daresay it is the best montage sequence in the history of montage sequences as it so perfectly sets the audience up for exactly who the main characters are and what they’re about.

Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) and John (Owen Wilson) are, of course, about the chicks. The montage (set to wedding staple/Animal House throwback “Shout”) features our protagonists crashing every manner of wedding – Asian, Jewish, Hindu, Greek, Catholic – and becoming the life of the party at each one (and bedding plenty of gorgeous women along the way). Never before has a montage sequence had so much booze and boobs…and that’s what makes it so damn great. From that point on, you can no longer despise or even doubt Jeremy and John for being such lotharios because you wish you could be them.

The plot sets itself up in a typical summer comedy fashion, with the protagonists taking on a “big job” – in this case, that means crashing the high-society wedding of Treasury Secretary Cleary’s eldest daughter. Yes, they go. Yes, they find women – Jeremy goes after youngest sister Gloria (Isla Fisher) and John tries wooing beautiful middle child Claire (Rachel McAdams) - and madness ensues. But that madness, I think, moves beyond the American Pie formula because of absolutely superb casting.

Christopher Walken plays the Robert De Niro role as the snooty Secretary Cleary, Jane Seymour (yes, that’s Dr. Quinn) plays his horny lush of a Mrs. Robinson-style wife to much hilarity. You have the old lady from The Wedding Singer as the token funny old lady…and “Jack & Bobby” hottie Bradley Cooper as the token asshole. The real find, though, is the absolutely hysterical fisher as batshit-crazy Gloria. As predictable as the buddy comedy plot can be, Vaughn and Wilson carry the film along in such a fashion that you can’t believe this is their first pairing (Vaughn’s more of a buddy to the other Wilson).

In short, if you’re looking for high-brow, head over to the indie theater. But if you prefer a laughfest complete with jokes about boobs, bodily functions and S&M – hit up the multiplex for the heir to Old School.