That's what more or less happens in Wedding Crashers, which is reasonably enjoyable until its guys are forced to grow up. Because bad behavior is usually more fun to watch than good, the movie is especially fine during the preliminaries. With their lies neatly tucked away, the conspirators hit churches, synagogues and other houses of worship. John deploys eyedrops to simulate weeping during one ceremony; Jeremy twists balloons into shapes at a reception so it looks as if he's good with kids. Finally, in an orgiastic sequence set to the song Shout that grows progressively faster and funnier, the pair party with and then bed a succession of women amid a flurry of edits.
It's crude, yes, but also funny; too bad these lost boys can't stay lost. Although Rachel McAdams, as John's inevitable love interest, and Isla Fisher, as Jeremy's, are watchable in their different ways, the film predictably starts to lose its fizz when they enter the picture. McAdams, who grows more appealing with every new role, makes the most of her underdeveloped character, Claire, the goody-two-shoes daughter of a powerful politician (Christopher Walken, doing his usual weird thing, but doing it well). As her considerably naughtier sister, Gloria, Fisher brings some serious Rick James-style freakiness to a supporting role that might otherwise barely register. She even manages to steal scenes from Vaughn, an inveterate scene-stealer.
Like clockwork, the film soon mutates from a guy-oriented sex comedy into a wish-fulfillment chick flick. Love blooms and almost withers after the sisters take John and Jeremy to their family estate, where men wear colors rarely seen outside of a restricted country club. Something happens, something else happens, but before the filmmakers tie everything up with a bow, they throw in a surprisingly resonant scene in which Claire's fiance, Sack, wallops John. The beating, however, seems like a pretext for the smirking remark Sack makes about a waitress as he enters his own engagement party. For him, the only difference between a woman he lusts after and a woman he marries is that he calls one his wife. Crude? Yes. Funny? Well, that's up to you.
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