Okay, so it's a silly premise. Two guys crash weddings to have no strings attached sex with the women who go to weddings. (Okay, maybe it's not that silly, since I could totally see people I know doing that sort of thing.) It's a formulaic plot -- one of the guys actually meets someone he cares for at one of these weddings and gets into trouble because he's made all this stuff up to get into the wedding and meet the girl in the first place. But it's still funny. Wilson and Vaughn play off each other very well; you believe that they are best friends. Vaughn (who always plays, well, Vince Vaughn) takes the laughs while Wilson plays the sensitive, straight man. Movies like this are not really about the plot, since you know exactly what's coming. Nor are they about character, since every character is rather "stock" -- crazy sibling, uptight dad, the rich, villainous boyfriend. This makes it easier to for us to identify people and get into the film without exposition. No, these movies are about the little, absurd bits in between all that that make us laugh. The first half of this movie has plenty of those.

And then, something happens. I can hear the studio execs now:

"Hey, this Wedding Crashers movie is pretty funny!"
"Yes, but we're alienating the female demographic. There are lots of failrly crude jokes in the beginning. And lots of breasts."
"Can't have that happen. Turn it into typical romantic film at about minute 50. That'll get the women back in!"

So, after the hijinks are up for Vaughn and Wilson -- after they are found out to be wedding crashers, the funny stops. Not just peters out -- stops. The movie goes from way funny to not at all funny. It simply becomes a romatic semi-comedy. Wilson mopes, tries to get the girl back, alienates Vaughn, etc. Blah.

Why can't filmakers make a movie that is just funny, from beginning to end? I'm thinking Landis here (and Vaughn/Wilson being compared to Ackroyd/Belushi just brings this further into my mind). Did The Blues Brothers have a "message"? Did Animal House have a major romantic subplot? Nope. They were just designed to make you laugh from beginning to end. The last movie I saw that really did that was Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Despite (or, really, because of) it's absurd, juvinile plot and gags, I was very entertained and laughed very hard. A lot.

I stopped doing that (laughing) about halfway through Wedding Crashers. Which is not what is supposed to happen in a comedy.