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They're coming to your wedding—with or without invitations.

Wedding Crashers is a 2005 comedy directed by David Dobkin and starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. Bachelors and lifelong best friends, John Beckwith (Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vaughn) are partners at a law firm in Washington D.C. who frequently "crash" wedding parties to meet women; working from a set of rules taught to them by a past "crasher", the duo always have cover stories for inquisitive guests and inevitably become the hit of every reception — all so they can charm their way into bed with ladies at the wedding for a one night stand.

After a sequence of successful "crashes," Jeremy spots the wedding of the daughter of the Secretary of the Treasury William Cleary (Christopher Walken) and his wife, Kathleen (Jane Seymour (Actress)). After infiltrating the lavish event as brothers, John and Jeremy set their sights on two bridesmaids, also daughters of Secretary Cleary: Claire (Rachel McAdams) and Gloria (Isla Fisher). This 2005 film is the very definition of...you know.

Not to be confused with The Wedding Crashers; they both involve weddings being crashed, but that's about it similarities-wise. For the otherwise unrelated trope formerly named after this movie, see Wedding Smashers.


Tropes available:

  • And the Adventure Continues: The two couples decide to crash weddings together at the end of the film.
  • Ax-Crazy: Sack Lodge, though he doesn't need an axe to be mad. One shotgun to hunt quails is enough. He's actually a surprisingly threatening villain for a romantic comedy.
  • Basement-Dweller: Played with. Chazz is a ladies man and has much better social skills than are typically seen with this trope; however, he is a Manchild who lives with his mother, does not appear to have a job, and ultimately illustrates the emptiness of a life spent pursuing an endless string of meaningless one-night stands rather than a deeper connection.
  • Becoming the Mask: The two friends crash weddings for sex, but they manage to work out a happy ending.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sack Lodge, at least to Claire and her family.
  • The Big Guy: Throughout the movie a number of references are made to Vince Vaughn's (and thus Jeremy's) large size.
    Jeremy: C'mere, let the big bear put his paws on ya!
  • Bitter Wedding Speech: John does one during a montage.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: John and Jeremy are sleazy, womanizing liars, but they're going up against Sack Lodge, who is a ruthless, cruel Faux Affably Evil bully.
  • Black Comedy Rape: Gloria ties Jeremy to the bed and forces herself on him. The morning after, he tells John that he "...felt like Jodie Foster in The Accused". He ultimately falls in love and marries her.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The Cleary sisters: Gloria (redhead), Claire (brunette) and Christina (blonde).
  • Blue Blood: Oh so much, but see the archetypical WASP-y looking Bradley Cooper as "Sack" Lodge for your best example.
  • Broken Pedestal: John is quite disappointed when he finally meets Chazz, and discover he's a pathetic manchild Basement-Dweller.
  • The Brute: Sack Lodge practically embodies this trope.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Chazz is a manchild who lives with his mother and goes to funerals to pick-up women. And it works. While John is disturbed by what he does, he admits it's incredibly successful.
  • Butt-Monkey: Jeremy. Raped by Gloria and almost done by Todd, her closeted brother; tackled full contact during a touch football game and shot ("accidentally") by Sack...
  • The Cameo:
  • Casting Gag: Christopher Walken and Jane Seymour (Actress) starred as Max Zorin in A View to a Kill and Solitaire in Live and Let Die, which were Roger Moore's last and first James Bond films, respectively.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Gloria thinks that Jeremy's next step was having a proposal of a threesome with a Brazilian girl they met, when Jeremy meant an actual proposition.
  • Cool Old Guy: Randolph, the Clearys' butler, who is one of the few Only Sane Man of the house and even helps John to try to win Claire's heart.
  • Depraved Homosexual: Todd, who forces his way into bed with Jeremy and insists that they have a "connection."
  • Disposable Fiancé: The Evil All Along category. A better use of the trope than in some other romantic comedies, in that while Sack is a Jerkass, he is also charming and charismatic enough that it isn't a complete mystery that Claire is dating him in the first place.
  • Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Gloria literally ties Jeremy up while he's asleep and tapes his mouth shut to stop his protests when he wakes up. The next day he outright refers to the incident as a "midnight rape"—yet he falls in love with her and marries her by the end of the movie.
  • Easily Forgiven: When the protagonists' charade is revealed, everyone is understandably angry, except Gloria, who not only does not hold a grudge against Jeremy, but makes clear that she is still obsessively in love with him.
  • Evil Is Hammy: Sack, most notably when he proposes hunting quails where he laughs like crazy and shoots at the air.
  • Fanservice Extra:
    • Diora Baird and all the other actresses that flop down on beds with Vince and Owen in the sex montage.
    • Gloria is briefly played by a body double of Isla Fisher in a scene where she surprises Jeremy in his bedroom nude.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Sack can be charming and charismatic, but is also batshit insane.
  • Fetishized Abuser: Gloria has the perfect way of getting her man: first scare the shit out of him by acting crazy, then tie him up against his will and rape him. Of course he eventually learns to like it, and their relationship seamlessly develops into normal roleplaying.
  • The "Fun" in "Funeral": The protagonists' mentor, Chazz, (played by Will Ferrell) eventually replaced "getting women at weddings" with "getting women at funerals". And he brings John along for a demonstration. It is this practice that qualifies as his Moral Event Horizon.
  • Get Out!: John delivers this to Jeremy at one point during his Darkest Hour. All the more poignant as they are Heterosexual Life-Partners to each other
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: Jeremy's girlfriend, Gloria, asks if he wants to watch her do it with a Brazilian girl. He proposes. He was actually intending to propose to her all along when he asks about "taking the next step," she simply assumed he meant a threesome. But her assumption does excite him, as it would most men.
  • Hidden Disdain Reveal: Downplayed. When Sack tries to get Secretary Cleary to back him up during his argument with John and Claire, Cleary reveals that the main thing he liked about Sack was that Sack seemed to make Claire happy. If being with Sack doesn't make Claire happy anymore and John does, Cleary will gladly stand by her choosing John instead.
  • Horrible Judge of Character:
    • Claire and her family when it comes to Sack.
    • Subverted with William Cleary. He seems close with Sack until the end of the film, when he is shown to be aware of Sack's Jerkass traits. He was willing to turn a blind eye to Sack's behavior as long as Sack was making his daughter happy, but once that is no longer the case... cue the Hidden Disdain Reveal from papa Cleary.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Jeremy and Gloria, as with any actress who gets paired with Vince Vaughn as a romantic lead.
  • Hypocrite: Sack repeatedly harasses and assaults John whenever the latter tries to get close to Claire despite the fact that he himself frequently cheats on her (even during their engagement party).
  • Jerk Jock: Sack, big time.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: William Cleary is a staunch traditionalist and also a borderline eugenicist, if his admiration of Sack's ancestry is anything to go by. But at his core, he is a decent guy who is hospitable and a loving family man at the end of the day.
  • Kick Them While They Are Down: Sack Lodge repeatedly tackling Jeremy very hard during a casual game of football (it is clearly stated to be a game of touch football, where full contact tackles are not meant to be used), without second thoughts of how badly hurt the latter may be. Sack's followers even rub it in Jeremy's face, saying "That's what we call a sack lunch!" (In fact, the tackle was not a sack because Jeremy threw a forward pass before it.)
  • Lady Killer In Love: Jeremy and to a degree John.
  • Large Ham: A movie with the excellent talents of Vince Vaughn, Christopher Walken, Bradley Cooper and the guest appearance of Will Ferrell. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
  • Laxative Prank: John does this to Sack.
  • Loners Are Freaks: Todd. A closeted homosexual who loves to paint alone in his room.
  • Manchild: Chazz is 40 but acts like a teenager. He lives with his mother, makes her cater to his every whim and objectifies women.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Sack Lodge.
  • Mrs. Robinson: Kathleen takes a liking to John the first time she sees him. She visits him one night completely naked and tells him to touch her newly enhanced breasts. He does so and she slaps him calling him a pervert. And that's the end of it.
  • Naughty Under the Table: Gloria gropes Jeremy under the dinner table.
  • The Public Domain Channel: What Will Ferrell's character is watching in his first scene.
  • Racist Grandma: The grandmother loves saying inappropriate things about Eleanor Roosevelt.
  • Rape Portrayed as Redemption: The two main characters continuously crash wedding to have sex with women, but Gloria turns out to be a complete nutjob to the point where she refuses to leave Jeremy alone and does many things to him including rape. This in turn causes Jeremy to switch from a womanizer to being Happily Married by the film's end.
  • Romantic Comedy
  • Scenery Porn: Maryland is an awfully pretty state (at least the parts on display here).
  • Seven Minute Lull: When Jeremy is talking about his "first Asian".
  • Sex Montage: The montage of John and Jeremy's wedding crashes at the beginning finishes with them engaging sex with their respective conquests.
  • Sexual Karma: Jeremy getting raped by Gloria and molested by her brother is treated as just desserts for sleeping around.
  • Smug Snake: Sack Lodge.
  • The Sociopath: Sack Lodge, though he puts on a humanitarian act when impressing Claire's parents.
  • Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: John does this, although he's doing it to someone who is not the one getting married at the moment.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Gloria.
  • The Unapologetic: Jeremy had made a foul remark about one of the proper ladies in the wedding, earning him the glares from the guests. He then claims this statement to John:
    Jeremy: I'm sorry. I'm not sorry. Okay? I'm not gonna apologize, I'm a cocksman! (gets glares from wedding guests again) Tourette's.
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: John and Jeremy, oddly enough. A lot of the humor in this movie would be very uncomfortable, except for one thing: the main characters are philandering serial liars until they get a little Character Development forced on them, so who cares what happens to them?
  • What Does She See in Him?: Claire and Sack. Sure, he's played by the muscular Bradley Cooper, but he is one of the most over-the-top assholes in cinematic history.
    • As Roger Ebert put it in his review, "in a comedy the villain is supposed to be funny, and not a hateful, sadistic, egotistical monster".
    • It's implied to be just a relationship of convenience more than anything else.
    • She may also partly want to please her father, who keeps talking about the merging of two great American families.
  • Yandere: Gloria wants Jeremy in the worst way, throwing herself at him at every opportunity and ultimately tying him up and raping him. She's yandere enough that she is termed by the cast as a "stage 5 clinger".

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