License to Wed (2007)
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Format Viewed: Theatrical Release
Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.
There were a lot of people from The Office in this movie…
Talk about a backwards month of movie watching craziness, I tell ya! Inversed as apparently my taste in movies is, I went into Knocked Up last week thinking it was going to be barely watchable and a quick perusal of the subsequent column will prove that my opinion was quite the contrary … and then we jump ahead to this week with License to Wed – a flick that I actually was really looking forward to, and it ended up being total crap. White is black, up is down, good is bad – ladies and gentlemen, welcome to bizarre world!
Now as you may possibly recall from my look at the summer “blockbusters” at the beginning of last month, I was really looking forward to License to Wed because not only was this an opportunity to see if John Krasinski from The Office could actually carry the same weight on the silver screen as he does on primetime, but it also would offer up a healthy dose of wedding humor and you just can’t get enough of that when you’re planning a wedding yourself, right?! Well, if only that were true then maybe this flick wouldn’t have ranked as simply abysmal in my books, but when we count down all of the wrong things here in just a moment, I think it’s pretty plain to see that the only way I could’ve possibly enjoyed this movie would be if John Krasinski had starred in a completely different movie that also happened to be about weddings. That’s right – different co-stars, different plot, different everything…
So what didn’t I like about the cast, other than the fact that damn near every single person from The Office made a cameo at one point or another?! For starters, I know that his crazy antics were supposed to carry the movie, but honestly, I wasn’t all that impressed with Robin Williams’ performance. It was a bit too outlandish, and we were already shown his funniest scenes in the movie trailer itself months earlier, so there really isn’t much to look forward from him in this one. At his side is one of the creepiest characters since Mini-Me, and in fact, I might even suggest that the dude is creepier than Verne Troyer was in the Austin Powers because at least Mini-Me had his moments when he was trying to kill everybody! I think it was the scene where he planted the bug that finally killed it for me – I just couldn’t look at him the same after that.
But the worst of all, believe it or not, was Mandy Moore’s character, and I’m aware that I’m probably saying this with a certain amount of bitterness, but there’s just no way that I’d ever even think about marrying a woman who acts like she did in this movie! I mean, the whole premise of the story is that the guy is pretty much forced to go through this insane pre-marriage counseling program without any of his own input, and that just rubs me wrong enough that I just wasn’t able to see the humor in it at all. It’s just one thing after another, too – her church, her crazy minister, and then she’s got the nerve to cash in on their honeymoon without him?! Sorry if I just ruined the movie for you, but in fact, I think that I actually did you a favor because you’re better off just finding the most self-centered person that you know and arguing with them for a couple of hours instead of watching this movie. It’d be a whole lot cheaper, anyways…
So I stunned myself, but apparently this time the cards just weren’t in my favor and Knocked Up rocked in all the places where License to Wed was supposed to take precedent. I guess ultimately I’m just a little bummed for Krasinski, though, because although I know that technically he has had other film work before this, let’s face it – he really wasn’t a big time actor until The Office caught on and this would’ve been a great chance to get him into the spotlight to help pave the way for his role in other comedy flicks in the years to come. I honestly felt that he did the best that he could with this one and he had the strongest performance, but I simply hope that he’ll get another chance in the comedy world because License to Wed doesn’t even come close to doing his talents justice. I can really see him starring in something of a romantic comedy, maybe along the lines of an Alex & Emma or even a High Fidelity – a smart comedy. Hands down, this guy’s the main reason that I still watch The Office and I still look forward to his next big screen flick – hopefully it’ll fare a landslide better than License to Wed did!
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