The film takes place in 1985, and Adam Sandler plays the role of a (You guessed it) Wedding Singer, who gets stood up at his Wedding from his girlfriend Linda (Angela Featherstone). A heartbroken Adam Sandler, falls in love with a woman named Julia (Drew Barrymore) that works at the place where he sings at, and he falls in love with her. However, she's engaged to marry a millionaire named Glenn (Matthew Glave). However, she too falls in love with Sandler. When I heard that this film is an 80's period film comedy, starring Adam Sandler as a Wedding Singer singing 80's hit, and having Drew Barrymore as the love interest, I was hoping that this was going to be Sandler's best work. However, I was utterly disappointed.
Adam Sandler, well, I'm glad that he isn't playing the childish character that he was known for at the time. I'm also glad, that he isn't playing the straight uncaring asshole either. He's basically just playing a regular heartbroken guy. While he's decent at playing the role, I found him and his character very boring and uninteresting. I honestly don't find anything memorable about this character or performance. Even when he tells jokes, I don't find myself laughing at all. What about his singing, that's got to be good right? Well, I love the comical songs he writes, I think he's great as Operaman, but since his singing and songs isn't played for laughs in this film, it's actually not good. Even the songs that were made for the film that Adam Sandler sings aren't funny either. His heartbreaking song that's in the style of songs by "The Cure" called "Somebody Kill Me", is depressingly unfunny and awkward; and his love song "Grow Old With You" is corny as crap! Drew Barrymore, she's charming, but her performance and character is still bland, corny, and forgettable. In fact, the love between her and Sandler is not only corny, but it's predictable and cliche as hell. You know that the two will get married in the end. I mean you have the whole I'm engaged to another person cliche; the friendship that obviously becomes a relationship cliche; and plenty of misunderstandings along the way that become a real tease. If the actors and characters weren't so boring and actually had chemistry, then I wouldn't mind the cliches so much. But sadly, this couple has neither of that.
The supporting cast and characters fail just as much as our two romantic leads do. Christine Taylor as Barrymore's best friend, I keep forgetting that she's in the film. She does so little and is so boring, that every time I see her on screen, I keep thinking "Oh yeah, forgot that you were in the movie". Matthew Glave as the man that Barrymore is engaged too, is not only boring, but he's really just a one dimensional antagonist. Allen Convert as Sandler's best friend, is not funny in the least, and is just as dull as all the other characters. Angela Featherstone as Sandler's ex-girlfriend, she's ok and is more memorable than the film's main antagonist, but never the less, she's still a bland character. Ellen Albertini Dow as the old lady that Sandler gives singing lessons too, is a really annoying character and performance, and that scene when she talks about a man's private, is really gross, unfunny, unnecessary, and awkward as hell! There's a cameo of Steve Bucesmi as the drunk party guest, and while I enjoy him in almost every role he takes, I sadly didn't get a laugh out of him when watching this film. The only character I liked was Jon Lovitz as Sandler's competitor, who I personally think would be more suitable for this role than Sandler, however, he only makes a cameo in this film.
The film taking place in the 80's really fails at being a period comedy film about the 80's. I know the film is trying to look like the 80's with the clothing, music, and pop culture references, but I'm sorry I still get a strong vibe of the film taking place when the film was made. The 80's humor and pop culture references feel more forced and are dully played out, then they are funny. It's like watching a bad parody film like "Date Movie" or "Epic Movie"; it's just making the reference, than it is trying to do something funny or clever with it. The 80's music being played in this film, felt forced too. In fact, I don't think they played enough of it to really capture that 80's feel. Most of it is sung by Sandler, which feels like that he's in a bad 80's tribute band, than he is actually performing in that time period. The film also has a band members played by Alexis Arquette who is a parody of the 80's singer Boy George, and while I liked the idea of the character, he's just as forced and unfunny as the whole film trying to capture the 80's. There's even a cameo of 80's singer Billy Idol, who's just in the film so the film can at least have one iconic 80's performer appear in the film. I wasn't around in the 80's, so maybe this film does represent the 80's fine for the people who lived it, but for me and what I've looked up and learned about the 80's, this film being set in the 80's felt so forced and so phoned in, that this film might as well take place in the 90's.
While the film isn't as insultingly or annoyingly bad as most of Sandler's films, it's still bad. It's cliche, bland, boring, and unfunny with its story, forgettable characters and performances, and forced 80's pop culture references.
RATING 1/5
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