Entertainment

10:56 AM CST on Friday, January 6, 2006

By TOM MAURSTAD / The Dallas Morning News

Wedding Crashers is a movie divided between hilarious scenes and sickly sweet love story. What it needs is a remote-control editor to zip from laugh to laugh and cut out all the pseudo-sensitive stuff.

That's how a good movie becomes a great DVD. Before the disc is in the player, fans of this Owen Wilson-Vince Vaughn comedy can start rattling off the scenes that are going to be in heavy rotation: the opening weddings montage; the touch football game; the family dinner; the scene involving Mr. Vaughn, a four-post bed and some rope (simply called "A Long Night"); the afternoon spent quail hunting; and the concluding segment that introduces Will Ferrell's Chazz, the master crasher.

This movie should be required viewing for anyone wishing to speak fluent Poplish – there are so many ready-made references and one-liners ("You lock it up." "No, you lock it up.") that can serve as in-crowd passwords. But it's also a movie that rewards repeated viewings; amid all the big laughs the first time around you miss some of the subtler flourishes. Mr. Vaughn, especially, is a one-man band of hilarious mutterings and expressions. His performance during the family dinner when something unmentionable is going on under the table – the squints, the twitches, the glazed eyes, lines such as "He's just joking ... it feels so good when he jokes" – is worthy of its own special Oscar.

The DVD is heralded on the box as the "Uncorked Edition," giving viewers the option of watching the movie with 8 ½ more minutes that make it "Longer! Wilder! Funnier!" After repeated viewings, one thing is certain: The added footage does make it longer. As for the other claims, that seems little more than a marketing tease intended to stir hopes of some Caligulan excesses that didn't make the theatrical cut. Nope. Whatever extras were stirred back in are just more of the same. In this case, who cares? The funny stuff was already in the movie, but it's a cautionary example of the empty hype that has become an industry standard in the DVD market.

A bigger disappointment is the bonus features. If ever there were a movie custom-made for hilarious outtakes and behind-the-scenes shenanigans, you would think it would be Wedding Crashers. But again, nope. The deleted-scenes section just serves to prove again that most scenes are deleted for good reason. The commentary with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn has some funny moments, but the time vs. payoff yield makes it a poor investment. The best of the bunch is "The Rules of Wedding Crashing," which offers the following advice: "Never confess," "Never use your real name" and, of course, rule No. 1, "Never leave a fellow Crasher behind."

E-mail tmaurstad@dallasnews.com

Wedding Crashers

Grade: B
Starring Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher and Jane Seymour. Directed by David Dobkin. R (sexual content, nudity, language). 119 mins. plus extras. $28.98.