Your Love is like a Shadow

I came back from my honeymoon (more on that later) to hear my friend Adam comparing Wedding Crashers to Old School. I wanted to see Wedding Crashers already, but this merely upped the ante. The result: Wedding Crashers does not in any way, shape, or form compare to Old School.

Don't get me wrong, Wedding Crashers is funny, but it can't hold a candle to Old School. The major difference is that Wedding Crashers features legitimately sad moments, something that Old School simply does not have. Was it funny when we see a despondent Owen Wilson reading the "Don't Jump" book? No. That's very much sad-making. Possibly the saddest moment in Old School, when they are all expelled, is hilarious, because Weensie details how his mother will kill him. When Blue dies, there's Will Ferrell singing, and Vince Vaughn telling Luke Wilson that "hey that's what old people do, they die".

Another black mark on Wedding Crashers is that the scene with and cameo by Will Ferrell was not even remotely essential to the plot. It was like they were sitting around at the last minute and said, "hey wait this isn't funny enough, maybe we should actually have a scene with Chaz, get Will Ferrell on the phone".

Wedding Crashers does have Christopher Walken, but Old School has a whole movie worth of Will Ferrell, plus Snoop Dogg, Sean William Scott, Craig Kilborn, Andy Dick, Elisha Cuthbert, more nudity, more explosions, and more KY wrestling. Not to mention Jeremy Piven, one of the more underrated actors of my generation.

Also, the plot of Old School is only going to lead to more frat-related shenanigans. Wedding Crashers could have some serious societal ramifications. How many assholes that think they're smooth are going to try to crash weddings and funerals trying to get laid now?

Another point against Wedding Crashers is that they utilized the deceptive trailer pitch. The trailer makes it seem like the whole thing is about crashing weddings, when it really only focuses on one wedding, and then becomes a love story, with a cheesy, very predictable ending. Old School employed no misleading advertising.

Wedding Crashers had no bloopers in the credits. What the &^*)_ ? Sorry, I need to see some Vince Vaughn out-takes. And a lot of the comedy was physical comedy, like when hothead kept decking Vaughn in the football game, or beating up Owen Wilson, or Vaughn decking him at the wedding. Little comedic value there in contrast to say, Will Ferrell kicking a stranger's shopping cart at the grocery store and yelling "I am BACK!".

Overall, there really is no comparison. Wedding Crashers comes off more as a Wedding Singer or a 50 First Dates. You know it's funny, but the jokes are a little less funny each time. It's kind of a guy's chick flick. Whereas Old School is right up there with Animal House, Spaceballs, Stripes, etc. as one of the funniest movies of all time, one that loses no comedic value each time it is viewed. Wedding Crashers just doesn't have lines like "Hey you think KFC is still open?" or "Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond. I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time".

Old School is a 10. Wedding Crashers is an 8. That's not to diss Wedding Crashers, as far as movies go, an 8 is damn good. It's just not a 10.