Movie Review: Downhill (2020)

Genre: Dramedy  

Director: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash  
Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Will Ferrell, Zach Woods, Zoe Chao  
Running Time: 86 minutes  

Synopsis: Married couple Billie and Pete Stanton (Julia Louise-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell) arrive at an Austrian Alps ski resort for a vacation with their two teen-aged sons. There is tension in the marriage, and Pete is frequently distracted by his phone. An avalanche mishap exposes Pete's poor judgment under pressure, and Billie is further infuriated when he avoids communicating. The arrival of Pete's friend Zach (Zach Woods) and his partner Rosie (Zoe Chao) adds further strain.

What Works Well: This remake of Force Majeure occasionally finds the biting seam between compromise and confrontation. Billie and Pete are largely performing as happily married for the benefit of their children, but she is reaching the end of her patience bandwidth. When he flees the avalanche leaving his family in harm's way, pretense is replaced by barely contained hostility. While their passion suffocates beneath the snow, moments of irreverent humour lighten the mood.

What Does Not Work As Well: Although they try hard, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell are both miscast, their personas less than suitable for the dark hypocrisy, emotional vengeance, and self-delusional defensiveness required by this story. The short running time does not allow a deep dive into churning emotions, and the ending is abrupt and all too pat.

Key Quote:

Billie (referring to the avalanche): It looked like it was gonna kill us...

Pete: For a moment.

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Movie Review: Barbie (2023)

Genre: Satirical Comedy Musical

Director: Greta Gerwig

Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Kate McKinnon, Will Ferrell

Running Time: 114 minutes

Synopsis: Barbie (Margot Robbie) lives in Barbieland, an idyllic matriarchy where the resident Barbies believe they have solved all of women's problems. Ken (Ryan Gosling) and the other men play subsidiary roles, mostly as beach decoration. When Barbie suddenly starts thinking about death and her feet turn flat, Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) advises a trip to the real world to find her troubled owner. Barbie and Ken are shocked to discover that Los Angeles is a patriarchy, and Ken uses his awakening to transform Barbieland. Meanwhile Barbie learns about real women from the mother-daughter pair of Gloria (America Ferrera) and Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt).

What Works Well: For a movie about an iconic doll coveted by pre-teens, the script (by director Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach) is ambitious: snide comments about feminism, the male-female power imbalance (in all directions), ditzyness, faux intellectualism, and performative enlightenment pepper Barbie's adventure. The humour is steady and harmless, while the production design animates a doll's vivid world with imaginative plastic. Extra points for an opening inspired by a classic, and Helen Mirren's narration. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The none-too-serious throw-everything-at-the-wall attitude is suitable for child attention spans, but in the search for humanity behind symbolism, not much sticks beyond the obvious lecturing about impossible expectations placed on women. Most of the musical interludes smack of padding, as does the would-be intervention of Will Ferrell as the Mattel CEO and his doofus band of men-in-suits. 

Conclusion: As an industrial-scaled marketing machine, nobody is putting Barbie back in a box.



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Movie Review: Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (2004)

A satire of television newsrooms in a male-dominated era, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy features more comic misses than hits and falls victim to the culture it attempts to skewer.

It's the 1970s in San Diego, and Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is the leading news anchorman in town. Unintelligent but possessing self-proclaimed excellent hair and therefore full of himself, he leads an entourage consisting of sportscaster "Champ" (David Koechner), field reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and imbecilic weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell).

Their reign of toxic masculinity using the workplace as hunting grounds for women is threatened when station manager Ed (Fred Willard) hires ambitious news reporter Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) in the name of improving diversity. Ron and his buddies immediately make gauche moves to seduce and belittle Veronica intending to stop her career before it starts, but she proves a tough opponent.

Featuring plenty of improvisation and no shortage of vulgarity, Anchorman showers the screen with coarse humour. With a cast also including Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Seth Rogen in minor roles, the talent surplus is not matched by sharp wit. The comedy is often at the throw-the-dog-off-the-bridge slapstick level, compounded by plenty of outright yelling and wailing.

The ultra male shenanigans step well over the stupid border, and while a few moments of humour survive and a couple of lines land, the film remains mired in a clueless celebration of body parts and imbecility.

The counterbalance is provided by Christina Applegate's steady role as Veronica Corningstone, and she emerges as the best thing in the movie, working hard for future generations to truncate the man in Anchorman. The film is not smart enough and too invested in Burgundy to properly leverage Corningstone's strengths, but expanding her perspective would have dramatically enhanced the otherwise flimsy narrative.

The more positive notes include a delightful non-sequitur gang rumble scene and Steve Carell's deadpan interventions. Director Adam McKay does create a wonderfully ridiculous visual feast awash in loud 1970s clothes, absurd hair and the decade's sickly colours (brown and orange everywhere), although a lack of ambition prevents a meaningful extension of the aesthetic to the outdoors.

A mostly tedious exercise in attempted hilarity, Anchorman is too smug and self-satisfied with guys believing the legend in the mirror.

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Movie Review: The Other Guys (2010)

A buddy cop comedy, The Other Guys combines sharp wit, good character dynamics and wild action.

In New York City, rock star police detectives Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (Dwayne Johnson) grab all the headlines with spectacular arrests of multiple bad guys. Meanwhile detective Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) is known as a paper-pushing dimwit, and his partner Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) will never live down mistakenly shooting baseball superstar Derek Jeter. Their harried boss Captain Gene Mauch (Michael Keaton) does not believe they will ever amount to much.

When Highsmith and Danson are suddenly rendered inoperable, Allen and Terry agree to stop bickering and start doing field work. Allen's dogged investigation of construction scaffolding permit violations leads them to arrest corrupt billionaire Sir David Ershon (Steve Coogan), unknowingly triggering a massive pursuit as Ershon is at the centre of an illegal money transfer scheme involving international criminals. Meanwhile Terry is stunned to meet Allen's knock-out wife Dr. Sheila Ramos Gamble (Eva Mendes) and learns more about his partner's chequered college history.

The oil-and-water buddy cop movie genre is long in the tooth, but director and co-writer Adam McKay injects a large dose of revitalizing energy. By yanking background officers to the forefront and allocating good focus on their backstories, The Other Guys combines familiar bickering with unusual character-driven touches, always accompanied by a steady current of irascible humour.

Much joy is derived from Allen Gamble's unexpected story. From a stunning surgeon wife to a shady college business passing through hidden magnetism, there is more than initially meets the eye with the always happy brown nosed paper pusher. Through the eyes of his tightly would partner Terry, McKay sequentially teases out the always funny surprises. Will Ferrell is in his sweet spot, finding laughs by playing Allen straight, smart, but definitely different.

When it comes to jolts of wild action, McKay delivers with over-the-top panache. The car chases, crashes, and shoot-outs are perfectly paced, never over-used, and always played for exaggerated laughs. Other than some dubious editing, the carnage fits perfectly within the film's ambition.

The Other Guys will never be accused of startling originality or a cohesive plot. Despite Steve Coogan's best efforts to provide villain David Ershon with sophisticated smarm, the bad guys are generic and the money transfer deception barely sketched in. But the film happily skips past its weaknesses, riding a wave of fun with the unlikely partners experiencing the spotlight.

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Movie Review: Zoolander (2001)

A sharp no holds barred satire of the fashion world, Zoolander is a wild ride through a haughty industry.

When Malaysia's newly elected President promises reforms to end cheap child labour in the garment industry, the evil barons of the fashion world are sent into a panic. Top designer Mugatu (Will Ferrell) is tasked with plotting an assassination of the President. He identifies none-too-bright top fashion model Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller), who works for a model agency run by Maury Ballstein (Jerry Stiller), as the perfect sap to be unwittingly recruited as an assassin.

Unfortunately, Zoolander, despite his famous Blue Steel "look" and miniature cell phone, is plunged into a personal crisis of confidence when reporter Matilda (Christine Taylor) publishes an unflattering profile in Time magazine and then he loses his model-of-the-year crown to the much-too-cool Hansel (Owen Wilson). This does not stop Mugatu and his top henchwoman Katinka Ingabogovinanana (Milla Jovovich) from launching their plan to brainwash Zoolander and turn him into a martial arts assassin to the tune of Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Co-written and directed by Ben Stiller, Zoolander is successful at drawing good and sustained laughs out of abject stupidity. Stiller sharpens his knives and does not try to be respectful. This is an all out assault on stupid models, corrupt business owners, and laughable designers, and the film mercilessly pokes away at the parties, the prancing, and the attitudes. The only rational character in the entire movie is the reporter Matilda, and she acts as the outside observer lifting the lid on the vacuous, corrupt and exploitive underpinnings of the industry.

The highlights are many. Zoolander and Hansel engage in a walk-off duel, a melange of boxing bout and showdown at high noon judged by none other than David Bowie. The brainwashing scene featuring psychedelic Mugatu images is a classic riff on The Manchurian Candidate. And the conspiratorial contribution of hand model Prewett (David Duchovny) gives the assassination plot and the broader fictional history of the fashion industry's involvement in high profile deaths pop culture legitimacy. Stiller even finds time within the 89 minutes of running length for a "going home" sojourn to the "coal mines of New Jersey", where Stiller reconnects with his roots including dad Larry (Jon Voight).

Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell find the perfect material to complement their madcap brand of improvisation-rich comedy, and they all deliver. Stiller infuses enough naive self-doubt into the Zoolander character to make him an appealing central figure, while Hansel's effortless ability to exude chill domination is flawlessly matched to Wilson's persona.

Ferrell is liberated by wild makeup and lets loose as the out-there designer Mugatu. His launch of the homeless-inspired Derelicte line is not only a sharp jab at the fashion world's lack of ethics, but also sadly inspired by a real campaign. Zoolander spots the weaknesses in its target trade, and attacks with ferocity and a devious smile.

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Movie Review: Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby (2006)

A sports satire, Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby skewers the world of NASCAR racing with a rusted tie rod.

Ricky Bobby is born in the backseat of a car to semi-professional racer and heavy pot user Reece Bobby (Gary Cole), a mostly absentee father, and his wife Lucy (Jane Lynch). Ricky grows up idolizing his Dad, and adopts Reece's throwaway line "if you ain't first, you're last" as his life's mantra. A grown up Ricky (Will Ferrell) finds work as a NASCAR pit crew member on the circuit's worst team owned by Larry Dennit Sr. (Pat Hingle) and his son Jr. (Greg Germann). When the Dennit driver goes AWOL, Ricky jumps into the car and achieves third place.

Ricky quickly establishes himself as the best driver in the field and starts accumulating wins and championships. He forms a formidable "Shake 'n Bake" partnership with his teammate and childhood friend Cal Naughton Jr. (John C. Reilly), although Ricky never lets Cal win. Ricky gains immense wealth, a trophy wife in Carley (Leslie Bibb), and two bratty young boys. But when ex-Formula One champion and openly gay Frenchman Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) invades NASCAR, Ricky's life starts to fall apart.

The world of racing where the cars only ever turn left in big circles may be an easy target, but director Adam McKay, who co-wrote the film with Ferrell, bites into it with venom. Talladega Nights features none-too bright drivers married to buxom gold-digging beauties doing battle for dimwitted owners married to perpetually tipsy wives in a modern version of chariot racing dominated by sponsors. While the laughs are plenty and the characters goofy if not stupid, McKay and Ferrell also handle the subject with enough affection to avoid outright meanness.

McKay wisely stays away from too many actual racing scenes, the sport a primarily boring exercise in going round and round until someone crashes. When Talladega Nights does go to the track, it is to generate over-exaggerated crashes and big laughs, including Ricky's infamous mental meltdown prompting a stripdown to his undies. It's a wild enough sequence that deserves the encore that duly arrives, as the film's second half focuses on Ricky's long road to redemption.

Off the track the film circles back to Ricky's family, and to McKay's credit the story gets better when dad Reece and mom Lucy re-enter Ricky's life. What the young boy lacked in proper upbringing he will receive from his parents through the pixelated lens of an already warped adulthood, and the film motors its way to a satisfying conclusion where men stumble upon their improved selves.

Will Ferrell has rarely been better in a straight comedy, with the strong material allowing him to ride the story without appearing to try too hard. The characters of Cal Naughton Jr and Jean Girard are the catalysts who steer events in Ricky's life, and both John C. Reilly and Sacha Baron Cohen are perfect in providing support. Reilly ensures that Naughton is the perfect side-idiot, while Baron Cohen somehow keeps a straight face playing the arrogant Frenchman sipping macchiatos inside the racing car while waiting for someone - anyone - to challenge him at the front.

The three lead actors engage in plenty of sharp improvisation, and the lines of dialogue frequently veer wildly off-topic, prolonging some scenes beyond what is necessary but adding to the satirical wackiness.

Amy Adams gets a small role but makes a big impression as Ricky's mousy assistant who turns into a tiger helping Ricky fight his demons. Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby burns rubber with enthusiasm, but of course it's the big career wreck and subsequent recovery that grabs all the attention.

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The Movies Of Will Ferrell

All movies starring Will Ferrell and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery (1997)

Zoolander (2001)

Elf (2003)

Starsky And Hutch (2004, uncredited)

Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (2004)

Bewitched (2005)

Wedding Crashers (2005, uncredited)

Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby (2006)

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

The Other Guys (2010)

Downhill (2020)

Barbie (2023)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Elf (2003)

A feel-good Christmas story for older kids and their parents, Elf trades heavily on Will Ferrell's physical comedy skill set. The film offers good and awkward moments in equal measure in the tale of an out-of-place elf searching for his real dad and trying to reignite the Christmas spirit.

As an infant, curious baby Buddy Hobbs crawled into Santa Claus's toy bag and inadvertently made his way back to the North Pole. Raised as an elf, Buddy grew up into a happy if rather dim adult (Ferrell). Once he finally realizes that he is a human and not an elf, his adoptive father (Bob Newhart) reveals that Buddy's real dad is New York businessman Walter Hobbs (James Caan). The small problem is that Walter is on the naughty list.

Undeterred, Buddy sets out on a journey to find and reconnect with his father. Once in New York he struggles to get to grips with modern society, but quickly finds Walter, a cut-throat book publisher working for a heartless corporation. Walter's wife Emily (Mary Steenburgen) and son Michael (Daniel Tay) eventually warm up to Buddy, although he does manage to wreck their house. Buddy also meets and falls in love with toy department store clerk Jovie (Zooey Dechanel). With the Christmas spirit in short supply and Santa Claus (Ed Asner) struggling to complete his annual toy deliveries, Buddy has to inspire Walter to rediscover his humanity and also help save Christmas.

Setting any Christmas story in a decked-out New York is a sure way to gain an immediate advantage, and after a rather tired prelude at the North Pole, director Jon Favreau quickly gets into the spirit of the season with an overgrown-elf-on-the-loose-in-New-York premise. It's an easy pathway to laughs for kids, with the silly moments including Buddy spinning in a revolving door and pressing all the buttons in the Empire State Building elevator. Ferrell also overdoes the eating habits of an elf, which consist of any concoction (including messy spaghetti) where a lot of sugar is added to a lot more sugar.

The film is always better when Ferrell's more immature tendencies are coupled with James Caan's easy turn as a crusty businessman happy to play hardball with nuns and knowingly approving the publication of a children's book with missing pages. Also good if a bit obviously fragile is Zooey Deschanel as the love interest, her discomfort with singing in public an obvious set-up for the smarmiest of endings.

Favreau gets a lot of mileage by dropping Buddy into the Gimbels toy store where a full mock North Pole set-up is arranged for kids' photos with Santa. Of course as far as Buddy is concerned there is a real North Pole and only one Santa, leading to a couple of good set-pieces first involving elaborate decorations and then Buddy publicly unmasking the fake Santa in front of an army of squealing kids.

The final act takes a rather sudden turn away from Buddy's personal story and into a more ambitious let's-save-Christmas agenda. Elf has its heart generally in the right place for the season of good will and needless spending, somewhere between obviously manipulative and harmlessly funny.

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Movie Review: Bewitched (2005)

A stale attempt to revive a brand from a bygone era, Bewitched makes a feeble effort to uncover new ideas, and finds none.

Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) is an egotistical movie star going through a bad patch. In an attempt to revive his career he agrees to star as the husband Darrin in a revival of the classic 1960s television sitcom Bewitched. He sets out to find an actress to play the key role of Samantha, the cute housewife witch. Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman) is a real witch tired of using her bag of tricks to get through life. Despite the protests of her father Nigel (Michael Caine) she wants to be normal, find a career, a man, and settle down. Jack bumps into Isabel at a bookstore. Not knowing that she is a witch he convinces her to audition, and she handily wins the role of Samantha.

With veteran actress Iris Smythson (Shirley MacLaine) cast in the role of Samantha's mom Endora, Jack conceives of the show as being all about him, and contrives to barely give Samantha any speaking roles. Test ratings are miserable, but the audience reacts well to Isabel, and she demands a greater role and more respect. At the same time, Jack and Isabel start to fall in love.

Despite the acting talent involved, Bewitched is remarkably thin on the ground and offers nothing beyond its flimsy premise. There is not enough here to even qualify as a romantic comedy, that most undemanding of sub-genres. The laughs are intermittent at best, Ferrell's childish overacting coming across as more obtuse than funny. The magic is limited and the chemistry non-existent.

Director Nora Ephron, who co-wrote the script, registers her own career low point, many miles away from the fresh and witty material that earned her deserved plaudits for writing When Harry Met Sally... and writing and directing Sleepless In Seattle. Here she displays an abject bankruptcy of ideas both in the script and behind the camera, and the film just dies a wretched death mired in predictability.

Will Ferrell is at his worst, over emoting to distraction, while Nicole Kidman quickly runs out of tricks as the naive but well-meaning witch. Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine are wasted as unnecessary parodies of their late-career screen personas. Steve Carell makes a late appearance and adds an unhelpful dose of lunacy.

Bewitched causes a nose twitch, for all the wrong reasons.

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Movie Review: Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

A dramedy with serious themes of mental stagnation and death weaved into a comic structure, Stranger Than Fiction tackles writers block, mid-life angst and the value of life within a refreshing package.

In New York City, Internal Revenue Service auditor Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is lonely, bored and boring. He lives his life metronomically and according to strict routine. Without warning Harold starts to hear a woman's voice in his head narrating his life. Although Harold does not know this, the voice belongs to celebrated author Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), and Harold is the main character in her latest attempt to write a book. Once the darling of the literary world, Karen is now suffering a serious case of writer's block and has not published for 10 years. She is struggling to find a way to kill Harold, as she does with all her main characters at the end of each book.

Harold is tasked with auditing the bakery business of Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and finds himself helplessly falling in love with Ana. But he is driven to distraction by Karen's constant stream of narration, and gets no relief from a couple of doctors (Tom Hulce and Linda Hunt). He finally turns to literature professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) for help. Together Harold and Jules start to piece together the mystery of Harold's predicament. They have to figure out if he is a character in an unfolding comedy or tragedy, and how to influence the ending.

Directed by Marc Forster, Stranger Than Fiction is smart, funny and creative, as the Lindsay Doran script deploys an innovative premise to get into the head of two intriguing characters grappling with endings and beginnings. Harold, for all practical purposes, is already dead. His life is passive and he has no meaningful connections with other people. Lacking ambition and not feeling passionate about anything, Harold is marching to an inevitable and inconspicuous ending; when and how he actually dies will be generally immaterial.

Once Harold becomes keenly aware of his own impending end, thanks to Karen's interventive narration, he is pushed out of his middle-age malaise and starts to live, and suddenly dying is a big and scary deal. Harold pursues a relationship with Ana and is forced into a friendship with a co-worker. He starts to pursue a long dormant guitar passion, changes his clothes, and stumbles onto a life mentor in Jules. Now with multiple purposes driving his existence, Harold is eager to prevent his premature death.

Karen is also going through a painful mid-life crisis and is professionally dying a slow death. Now fading from memory as a once-famous author, Karen needs to unblock her creativity, and finding a meaningful way to kill Harold will spark her revival. His death will breathe life into her career, but Karen is also struggling with the perversity of her success riding on the shoulders of the demise of all her main characters. The death that used to come easily on the written page is now a struggle, forcing Karen to ponder whether the value of life comes only at the price of death.

Will Ferrell puts his frat boy humour to one side and delivers an affecting performance as Harold. Containing himself and delivering soft humour through pathos, Ferrell demonstrates appreciated depth. Emma Thompson plays Karen as anguished and borderline depressed, while Maggie Gyllenhaal presents Ana as the anti-Harold, full of life, impulsiveness and not afraid to break the rules in small demonstrations of personal anarchy.

A bright treatment of death's place in emphasizing life, Stranger Than Fiction is an adroit confirmation of enduring human realities.

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Movie Review: Wedding Crashers (2005)

A raucous comedy, Wedding Crashers thrives within a clever premise that feeds themes of friendship, growing up, and meeting your match.

In Washington DC, John and Jeremy (Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn) are best friends and colleagues at work, where they mediate between married couples going through nasty divorces. Well into adulthood but still acting like college fratboys, they get their kicks by crashing weddings, enjoying unlimited food and drink, dancing the night away and picking up women revved-up by the idea of idyllic romance for hot one-night stands.

After a hectic season of wedding crashing, John begins to question the juvenile lifestyle. But Jeremy insists on one last wedding: the daughter of William Cleary (Christopher Walken), the very wealthy Secretary of the Treasury, is getting married. Despite John's protestations they crash the wedding and a subsequent Cleary family weekend, and unexpectedly get entangled in complex relationships with two of Cleary's daughters. John falls in love with the free spirited Claire (Rachel McAdams), who is already in a relationship with the insufferable Sack Lodge (Bradley Cooper). Jeremy seduces the wild youngest daughter Gloria (Isla Fisher), not knowing exactly how much trouble he is getting into: she is more lustful than he is, and plays him like a cheap fiddle. Meanwhile, Cleary's wife Kathleen "Kitty Kat" (Jane Seymour) is prowling all available men to get her cougarish kicks.

Wedding Crashers is often hilarious. Director David Dobkin quickly establishes the unique yet rational premise, and allows his two lead actors to let loose. John and Jeremy behave like teenagers who have found the magical key to a life of unlimited partying and casual sex with beautiful women. But the film succeeds well beyond its title. After the initial montage of wild crashing, the story settles down to what's next for the two men, and the challenge of finding their way out of unevolved and circular habits to launch into something resembling adulthood.

Vaughn and Wilson make for a terrific pair of underdeveloped men, John and Jeremy unwilling to let go of their youth despite John's growing doubt that they should really be beyond immature antics. Wilson gets the more thoughtful role, and imparts sensitivity to go along with fading boyishness. Vaughn is more driven to hang on to the past, Jeremy living his life according to an arcane code of caveman behaviour developed by the legendary Chazz (Will Ferrell, who makes a late, uncredited appearance).

John is therefore more open to fundamental change and once he sets eyes on Claire he can start to see his way to a different and better future. Jeremy is generally blind to any life that compromises his instinctive need to have uncontrolled fun, and it takes a large wallop to the side of the head in the form of Gloria to knock him off his default path. The shifting dynamics between the two men is at the heart of the movie, as their deep friendship is tested by diverging expectations.

Rachel McAdams is her usual appealing girl next door, although in this case a very rich girl next door, and McAdams tends to smile too much throughout the film. More fiery is Isla Fisher who creates in Gloria a borderline nymphomaniac, an impulsive, uninhibited, and fun-loving woman, the kind who can singe Jeremy with her own afterburners.

The script by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher populates the Cleary family with weird and wonderful members, including an uncensored grandmother (Ellen Albertini Dow), a creepy artist son (Keir O'Donnell), the lustful Kitty Kat and, most troublesome for John's pursuit of Claire, her intended beau Sack Lodge. In a pre-stardom role, Bradley Cooper goes all out to make Sack a loathsome rich jock full of self-entitlement and just enough social talent to fool many people most of the time. They combine to create a madcap family with enough pitfalls to trip up the best that John and Jeremy can offer in terms of infiltrative deceit and subterfuge.

The Wedding Crashers are definitely uninvited, but prove to be spectacularly funny and successful guests.

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