The Wedding Singer

Year: 1998
Running time: 95 minutes
Certificate: 12
Language: English
Screenplay: Tim Herlihy
Director: Frank Coraci
Starring: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Christine Taylor, Allen Covert, Matthew Glave, Angela Featherstone

Robbie Hart, crooning for newlyweds.

Most Adam Sandler movies are the cinematic equivalent of root canal surgery – painful to experience, with nothing funny about them – for example, I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry (look everyone, isn’t homophobia funny!). Generally, with the exception of the decent Funny People, the further back you go, the less dreadful it is - Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison prove to be just about watchable. Having established that every now and again, even this monkey hits pay-dirt, this '80s homage is, along with The Waterboy, easily his best, and The Wedding Singer was the movie that made Sandler a household name in this country (something I’m sure most of us have now come to regret).

Enough Sandler-bashing (for now), back to The Wedding Singer. Sandler’s Robbie Hart is a wedding singer who suffers the indignity of being stranded at the altar when his bride-to-be Linda (Angela Featherstone) decides he’s not cool enough anymore. He meets Julia (Drew Barrymore), a girl who’s engaged to Glenn (Matthew Glave), a guy she’s too good for, yada yada yada, they end up together (I know that’s a bit of a spoiler, but I mean, come on, of course they were going to end up together).

Drew Barrymore: impossible not to love.

Sandler is genuinely likable, and Barrymore is as effortlessly sweet as she was in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, and the two of them are helped out by a decent supporting cast, including the eminently unlikable Glave, nailing that '80s moral vacuum yuppie stereotype to great effect. The movie has an absolute heart of gold, and there are countless comedy moments that make up a really great whole – favourites being Robbie playing his Cure-influenced break-up song to Julia, Steve Buscemi (obviously), the rendition of Love Stinks and Sandler employing his angry-guy shtick before it got old at a newlyweds’ reception ("I have a microphone and you don't SO YOU WILL LISTEN TO EVERY DAMN WORD I HAVE TO SAY!") and, best of all, Billy Idol saving the day!

Funny, romantic, with a great soundtrack.

Score: 7/10

The Ace Black Blog is in broad agreement, but Vince at Qwipster is not a fan.