License to Wed

It wasn't until about half way through this movie that I realized that it was trying desperately to be another Meet The Parents. The wife thinks it more closely resembles a failed Anger Management. With Robin Williams and half the cast from The Office you'd think this movie would be hilarious, but while it does have its funny moments, it's not spectacular.

It's not that the actors themselves are lousy, it's just that they don't mesh well together. I can buy Robin Williams as a Reverend, and he's exactly what you expect him to be. His little crony is pretty funny too, and together they're a fun combination. Her family is delightfully dysfunctional, and just the kind of family you'd expect Mandy Moore to come from. Ben's buddy is basically a bitter sitcom character, and does little more than personify the stereotypes that women hate in men.

One big problem is the happy couple themselves. I never cared enough about them to worry when they started having difficulty. They're annoyingly "perfect couple" at first, their falling out isn't very interesting, and their reconciliation is among the worst you've ever seen. It's a romantic comedy that tries hard to keep its genre a secret.

Bottom line, this movie has some funny parts to it, but overall isn't all that great. It's too bad too, because there's a lot of comic potential in the cast, which unfortunately gets beaten into mediocrity by a lot of crappy writing.

high points: Creepy robobabies. Awesomest animation in a romantic comedy since Better Off Dead.
low points: A resolution to the story... I knew I had left something out when I wrote it, but give me ten minutes and I'll knock something out. So many funny people, so little fun. Dude, you can totally do better than Mandy Moore, and why not go for a girl with some personality next time.