Well Deserved Praise

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

disgusting, overrated, pointless

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

What could have made someone take a shot on another script by Justin Zackham? Was it the overwhelming brilliance of his last mediocre movie, "The Bucket List?" This movie doesn't even measure up that his last one. It's far from it. The saddest part is watching actors that used to make great movies stoop to taking part in something so unfunny and stale as "The Big Wedding." But I probably said the same thing after watching De Niro's last comedy "The Family." This movie is your typical Hollywood wedding comedy, complete with Robin Williams reprising his role as the priest he played in "License to Wed." Diane Keaton brings back the character she played in "Because I Said So" and takes it up a notch by being even less credible playing the mother of the groom. I won't go into the dysfunctional high jinks of the the two families that makes up the whole of the movie. Laughter does not ensue.

It's almost impossible to hate a movie with this cast. I realize this is an easy target for critics, because the movie itself is so mediocre, but it's not an awful movie. It just is unnecessary. It doesn't really go anywhere, or offer anything new. It also refuses to challenge the actors in the film with any good material. That being said, it is really easy for such terrific actors to excel in such incredibly bland roles. For that, I think the film is saved a little bit.Alejandro (Barnes) is getting married to Missy (Seyfried). They're both well educated, and their families are super rich. Alejandro was adopted by Don (DeNiro) and Ellie (Keaton), who have since divorced. Don is now with Bebe (Sarandon), who was Ellie's best friend. Everyone has remained amicable, it seems, though no one has spoken to each other in years. This wedding brings everyone together. Alejandro has two siblings, Lyla (Heigl) and Jared (Grace). Lyla's story is that she can't get pregnant, so she broke it off with her husband (Bornheimer) right before Alejandro's wedding. Jared's plot development revolves around him needing to lose his virginity (no, I'm serious, that's the plot they gave Topher Grace). Alejandro throws a big bomb into the family when he announces he invited his birth mother (Rae) to the wedding. She brings along his sister (I think), who Jared immediately develops a crush on. Mild drama ensues. Williams is underused as a recovering alcoholic priest.I say MILD drama. This movie refuses to tackle any major issues, and everything is resolved nicely with a neat bow on top. Everyone forgives everyone for everything ever. The movie is entirely beneath everyone involved. For their part, the actors pretty much all seemed to enjoy making the film, and work well as a unit. Keaton is the only one I might say felt like she was "phoning it in". Maybe she was only drawn to the project so she could work with Sarandon and DeNiro again. Williams could be accused of phoning it in, but I would argue he is underutilized in the first place. Don't cast a known funny man in what could be a funny role, and then not allow him to do his schtick.This could have been an awful movie with a different cast, but somehow they make it work. This really is an example of making lemonade from lemons. I'm not sure I would recommend this film to anyone, as it is largely a pointless film. But if you find yourself stuck watching it, you'll be surprised at how you didn't actually hate it by the time it is finally over. Well, you'll hate the film, but you'll still love the cast. It's odd how that works out.

As I sat in the theater a few months ago, I saw a trailer for what I believe to be a fun Spring release with a big name cast (heck, two of them were in The Godfather Part II). Added to that, I guess wedding season is coming up (I'm not married but I did look it up) so I figured this film was being put in theaters at just the right time. Now that I have viewed what is a true exercise in scatterbrain utopia, I'm realizing all along that a bunch of stars involved in any type of movie, or should I say, in any type of movie genre, doesn't guarantee greatness. Granted, I was entertained by little snippets here and there, but I thought to myself, am I watching a movie or am I just viewing dailies. I couldn't really tell ya to be honest. With this major gray area fluttering through my brain, I did however become enamored by the plot (or idea of a plot). It seemed original and sort of refreshing (so many films about weddings seem so arbitrary). It goes like this: Don Griffin (played emphatically by Robert De Niro) has an adopted son who plans on getting married in the next couple of days. His adopted son Alejandro (Ben Barnes), brings his biological mother all the way from Columbia to attend his wedding. Added to that, his biological mother believes that marriage is sacred and that no one should ever ever get divorced. This forces De Niro's character to pretend to be married to his ex-wife (Ellie Griffin played by Diane Keaton) for the remainder of the weekend in which the wedding occurs. So you see, there is a storyline here. It's too bad that the execution is so darn sloppy.So not to be confused with one of Robert De Niro's earliest films, The Wedding Party (1969), I am reviewing The Big Wedding which is not so much of a movie as it is a bunch of individual scenes crammed together inside all of 89 minutes. There are some funny moments and Bob's character is a riot (he plays the ultimate ladies man/lousy ex-husband and father), but along with him, there are far too many other subplots and adult situations to keep up with. What's worse, the film jumps back and forth in no particular order to established these subplots and throw at the audience, the chaos everyone is going through. This all happens all in the course of maybe a day or two. And it all happens at, you guessed it, a wedding and the pre-wedding festivities.What we have here with this blatant misfire, is that it's the type of vehicle that feels like it starts in the middle. Some movies do a somewhat of an effective job at portraying this. Common movie going knowledge says you have to figure out what has already happened in your imagination and try to keep up with the continuum of what is already going on. The Big Wedding sadly, is not one of those types of movies. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why certain characters were mad at each other or resented each other (if you want to know what I'm talking about, pay attention to Katherine Heigl's character, Lyla Griffin). Also, I got annoyed by a lot of scenes where the whole cast were feverishly trading dialogue with one another. It felt like they didn't talk to each other (or look each other in the eye) but kinda talked just to be heard. Or better yet, the banter between them in most scenes gave me the feeling that they were literally caught in a different movie all together. There were a couple of examples of this but mainly, you have to watch the sequence where the whole family is having lunch on the patio of their big Connecticut house. It almost looked like everyone's speaking parts were filmed individually. For the sake of all the crew who probably worked very hard on The Big Wedding, I'll just admit that I might be exaggerating.All things considered, The Big Wedding has a couple of amusing moments (I can't get the image out of my head of De Niro lighting up and smoking two cigarettes at once) and it's an hour and a half of mindless fun. It's probably worth a poultry 5-7 bucks for a matinée showing. But really, if you go into the theater thinking you're watching an actual movie, then you're in for a "big" disappointment.

'The Big Wedding': don't RSVPJustin Zackham's 2013 comedy showcases a stellar cast but fails to deliver a performance and plot to suitSkimming through the thousands of films on Netflix, one can't help but come to a halt at the sight of the all-star cast of 'The Big Wedding'. With Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams just to name a few, this comedy looks promising; if not for laughs, at least for easy watching with familiar faces.The film is a remake of the 2006 French film Mon Frère Se Marie (My Brother is Getting Married) written by Jean-Stéphane Bron and Karine Sudan. 'The Big Wedding', directed by Justin Zackham, marries elements of the romantic comedy and comedy-drama hybrid genres. The film is based around Ellie (Diane Keaton) and Don's (Robert De Niro) adopted Columbian son Alejandro (Ben Barnes) who is getting married. The 'twist' manifests when Alejandro reveals that his biological mother, Madonna (Patricia Rae) is coming to the wedding, and being the devout Catholic that she is, he says she will never forgive him or his adopting parents for divorcing years ago. So naturally when a romantic comedy crosses with a comedy drama, Alejandro's solution is to ask Ellie and Don to pretend to be still married while his mother is visiting from Columbia, resulting in chaos. Bebe (Susan Sarandon), Don's long-term partner, leaves the house upset at the situation, mostly that Don hasn't proposed after eight years, while Don and Ellie tackle feigning their happy marriage throughout the film. While far-fetched story lines make for some of the best films, this one borders so unrealistic that it verges on to childish. With award-winning actors and a standard budget of $35 million, the film's potential is held back by the unbelievable plot that relishes in characters and scenarios we've seen times before.To start off, there's Nuria (Ana Ayora), Alejandro's half-sister from Columbia who is visiting with her mother. Unlike the rest of the female characters, being the foreigner that she is, Nuria is presented as a brainless, sexual object right from the beginning. In the company of a lust-interest, she suggests they go swimming, and before he can say 'swimsuit', she has stripped off and dives into the water butt-naked at the family residence. As all female foreigners do, right? While Ellie tries to change the South American seductress' views by telling her she "deserves to be treated with respect", in the end, Zackham proves that she just cannot deny her innate overtly sexual tendencies. Then there is Don and pretty much every other male in the film who are all dealing with one of two (if not both) of clearly life's biggest problems: sex and marriage. If they're not remorselessly cheating, they're desperately wooing with one thing in mind; and if they're not getting any, it's because "they should've proposed by now, duh!"Despite its predictability, 'The Big Wedding' does get some points for trying to stand out amongst the plethora of comedy dramas and rom-coms. While the genre typically promotes a 'love conquers all' message, this film looks beyond conventional themes and also asserts the importance of acceptance and freedom of choice in the new age, covering topics such as homosexuality and religion. Zackham's satirical take on religion and the Catholic Church underlines most of the film's humour, which is a pleasant step away from the typical consistent toilet-humor or gender- specific jokes. There is also a shift from traditional romantic-drama comedies focusing on the young, beautiful, and sexy. Instead, 'The Big Wedding' focuses largely on the sexual lives of the older generations: their accounts, their challenges and their affairs. A smug "forty minutes, baby" and a sleazy wink is the last thing you'd expect to see Robert De Niro doing in this film. But trust that you will see it, you will definitely hear 'it', and for the first time in your life you may find yourself wanting to tell good old Rob to just shut the hell up because no one likes a bragger. There, feel better? You can stop cringing now.Overall, 'The Big Wedding' checks all the romantic-drama comedy boxes. After all, it is lighthearted, and it does provide some laughs. Hearing Diane Keaton drop the C-bomb is unbelievably refreshing, and who would expect to see De Niro, Sarandon and cunnilingus- in theory and in practice- all incorporated in the first ten of the 89-minute film?But disappointingly, with its simple-minded storyline and some real cringe-worthy stereotypes, the 'The Big Wedding' just doesn't ooze the same stellar quality like that of the cast. Perhaps Zackham's next romantic-drama comedy film could aim to see the women defined by more than a mere quest for marriage and the men driven by something other than sex. To avoid disappointment, don't let the cast fool you; definitely not a film for the kids or fans of De Niro pre-2000s. If you're after a (very) lighthearted film and after you've watched every other film on Netflix, then this one could be, maybe, possibly be for you. The film does entertain to a certain degree but it's one you probably won't watch again and won't feel bad for downloading illegally*. *I actually do not condone piracy of films.