I saw The Big Wedding recently and I was left puzzled. I'm sure you are also puzzled as to why I saw The Big Wedding, "But Popcorn or Snore, this film doesn't exactly fit with the past numerous films you have reviewed. We're there explosions, or car chases? Blood and guts and gore? Was the film inappropriate at all?" Lets be fair, I need to review films of all genres, and I honestly thought this film would be more clever and fun, similar to It's Complicated. So to answer your inquires simply: No, No, Yes. You are right reader, The Big Wedding wasn't exactly a heart pounding thrill ride or a nail biting thriller, however this film offered so much more and even less, leaving me speechless at the end, but not in a good way.
For starters as you can tell from the title of this review, and I'm sure you are all very intuitive, this film was, how might I put this, no bueno-no good-a bust! Not worth yours or your enemies time and troubles. The main problem was with the most important aspect, you guessed it: its story. This film was written/directed by Justin Zackham (wrote The Bucket List) Zackham was trying to create a fun story full of numerous plots all intertwining until ultimately terminating in one big happy resolution. This sounds convoluted because it seems like too much is happening for the resolution to be clean and easy. Another issue is that the film is 90 minutes, this doesn't exactly promote realistic emphasis on each character's problems. Instead of a film revolving around one issue, let's say being a wallflower, and having that issue pan out over the films duration leading towards the characters epiphany about his role in society, we instead follow multiple people each with unique dilemmas and a very down and dirty quick fix.
Basically what I am getting at is, it is too much too little time. This film had what I like to call the "Woody Allen Phenomena" It's an overload problem in the end, To Rome With Love anyone? Worst of all a lot of the problems are rather typical: divorced parents, love life issues, morality issues, etc. As you can assume these all lead to very obvious and predictable resolutions. In other words a 90 minute snore. The film unfortunately was never able to take off, instead it kept getting held down by the chunky typical story line.
Basically what I am getting at is, it is too much too little time. This film had what I like to call the "Woody Allen Phenomena" It's an overload problem in the end, To Rome With Love anyone? Worst of all a lot of the problems are rather typical: divorced parents, love life issues, morality issues, etc. As you can assume these all lead to very obvious and predictable resolutions. In other words a 90 minute snore. The film unfortunately was never able to take off, instead it kept getting held down by the chunky typical story line.
The cast ensemble was rather amazing which is why it is so disappointing that the story line was problematic: Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace. Okay, so the last few names are significantly less impressive than the first four names, whatever, my point is that an ensemble cast was put together to help draw in audiences, to this I say, "shame on you." How dare someone put together this many names drawing from so many demographics and then put them into such a sub-mediocre film. I hope those actors got payed in full and weren't hoping to get a percentage of the overall take, I think they would have been just as disappointed as me.
Let me try to convey to you the disappointment and shock I felt with this film: I was shocked!!!!
Not enough? Okay, how about the fact that for thirty minutes or so after the film I felt as though I was in a daze. I kept trying to make sense of what happened, sadly to no avail. I felt like i just woke up to an earthquake, yet had no clue what was happening. This film fell flatter than a potato's heart-rate monitor.
Oddly enough the acting wasn't atrocious, the location wasn't atrocious, even the directing from such an unaccomplished director wasn't atrocious, just the poor story WAS atrocious. I think that if the film was longer and was given more of an opportunity to expand with the individual story lines that this movie could have been more interesting; instead the whole thing was boring. The issue, besides the bad plot, was that you never felt an urgency to get behind the characters. I felt less attached to any of the characters and their lives in The Big Wedding than I did for Mark Wahlberg and/or The Rock in Pain & Gain. That may have been due to the predictability of the story, the "typical" issues faced by the characters, the lack of sticking with any one plot line, the quick paced back-and-forth between all of these issues, or all of it; I say all of it most likely aided to the bore. So when you add up all of these issues you get one big "WHAT?!" and very little desire to see how it plays out. Literally this film loses you before you ever sit down in the theater.
Not enough? Okay, how about the fact that for thirty minutes or so after the film I felt as though I was in a daze. I kept trying to make sense of what happened, sadly to no avail. I felt like i just woke up to an earthquake, yet had no clue what was happening. This film fell flatter than a potato's heart-rate monitor.
Oddly enough the acting wasn't atrocious, the location wasn't atrocious, even the directing from such an unaccomplished director wasn't atrocious, just the poor story WAS atrocious. I think that if the film was longer and was given more of an opportunity to expand with the individual story lines that this movie could have been more interesting; instead the whole thing was boring. The issue, besides the bad plot, was that you never felt an urgency to get behind the characters. I felt less attached to any of the characters and their lives in The Big Wedding than I did for Mark Wahlberg and/or The Rock in Pain & Gain. That may have been due to the predictability of the story, the "typical" issues faced by the characters, the lack of sticking with any one plot line, the quick paced back-and-forth between all of these issues, or all of it; I say all of it most likely aided to the bore. So when you add up all of these issues you get one big "WHAT?!" and very little desire to see how it plays out. Literally this film loses you before you ever sit down in the theater.
The film tried its best to be funny and provide comedic relief, however the "comedy" was not LOL worthy and there was no "relief" in the comedic relief, just a sense of awkwardness among the viewers. Instead of chuckling from the one-liners and the situations in which these characters were thrown, all I could think was "awkward" and then all I could hear were crickets chirping. About the funniest thing this film had to offer was that it presented itself as a legitimate film. Hilarious!!! Another part that added to the eternal awkwardness was that The Big Wedding had similar language problems as any and every episode of SouthPark. If I was born in a different era, I would say this film needs a big 'ole bar of soap in its mouth. Literally it sounded like a conversation between fraternity brothers. Lot's of sexual innuendos and perverse language. The film also had its fair share of sexuality, both in nudity as well as sexual references and acts. Now I know, I get it, The Big Wedding wanted to be more realistic, and perhaps it was. Perhaps it achieved said realism because no life is story book perfect. Of all the weddings how many go smoothly? How many start and end without some form of a hiccup? So to this one extent I can give a ton of credit, because it cannot be an easy undertaking to make a film where things don't necessarily happen because they can, but more because it makes more sense. But come on!!! Can you at least make the story entertaining? I mean it was like the film version of Murphy's Guide: everything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Until next time, happy viewing!
Review Rating : Based on popcorn sizes; small, medium, large, extra-large
When films get a snore zzz... worth skipping
Final words: ZZZ
This film was not worthy of a budget certainly not worth your time and money. Even if you happen to be the biggest fan of any one of these people, I assure you you will be left with a sour taste in your brain. This film contains nudity, adult situations and language. No kids, or any human for that matter, should see this film.
Until next time, happy viewing!
Review Rating : Based on popcorn sizes; small, medium, large, extra-large
When films get a snore zzz... worth skipping
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