MSN.COM'S TOP WEDDING MOVIES EVER
10. 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' (2002)
Let's get it out of the way: 'Greek Wedding' isn't a great movie. But when you're talking celluloid weddings, neglecting it is like making spanakopita without the phyllo dough -- you just can't do it. This broad-as-the-Grand-Canyon comedy about cultural differences and family expectations centers on Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardolos, who also wrote the script), a frumpy Greek waitress who, in her own words, is 'thirty and way past my expiration date.' Despite the entreaties of her overbearing, loud, ethnically stereotyped and (some might say) completely insane family (the dad should be locked up over his Windex obsession), Toula decides there's more to life than marrying a nice Greek boy and having Greek babies. One makeover montage later and Toula meets Ian (John Corbett), a non-Greek vegetarian who's so white, he's clear. Suddenly, a big bloated wedding is the works, with awkward engagement parties (Toula's relatives are confused by the Bundt cake offered by Ian's WASPy mother), boisterous, hirsute bridesmaids, and a multitude of cousins named Nick. But the matrimonial mixing of Ian's bland family into the lamb-filled melting pot that is the Portokalos clan is eminently relatable, and helps explain why this light-as-baklava comedy earned $241 million.
9. 'Honeymoon in Vegas' (1992)
Before Nicolas Cage married the King's daughter, he donned the King's clothes as a member of the Skydiving Elvises in this romantic romp through Sin City. Cage is Jack Singer, a private eye who promises his dying mother he'll never marry. Cut to five years later, and Jack's fed-up girlfriend Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker) gives him an ultimatum: marry me or else. Commitment-fearing Jack finally caves and the couple heads to Vegas, where they're surrounded by more Elvises than you can shake a pelvis at (seems there's a convention going on). Trouble starts almost immediately when Jack loses his fiancée in a poker game with high-rolling gangster Tommy Korman (James Caan). Whoops. Turns out Tommy set Jack up because Betsy happens to be a dead ringer for his late wife. The rest of the film involves Jack's increasingly desperate attempts to win back his bride-to-be, who is falling under the spell of the dangerously charismatic Tommy. Luckily, Jack's skydiving Elvis routine rings Betsy's wedding bells, and the duo does the matrimonial deed in a cheesy chapel. Viva Las Vegas, indeed.
8. 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' (1954)
One of the least PC movies ever made, this toe-tapping, Stanley Donen-directed song-and-dance flick follows the seven backwoods-living, testosterone-fueled Pontipee brothers in 1850's Oregon and their quest to find a woman to have and to hold. When oldest brother Adam happily settles down with spirited Milly, the remaining brothers decide that married life is the life for them. Unfortunately, the brothers' idea of 'Goin' Courtin'' involves kidnapping women from town. A conveniently timed snow slide prevents the girls' fathers and suitors from coming to their rescue, and it's up to an outraged (and now pregnant) Milly to protect their virtue through the long winter. Come spring, the barn-raising brothers tie the knot with their former captives, vigilantly chaperoned by the girls' shotgun-toting fathers.
7. 'The Wedding Banquet' (1993)
Before he was 'Hulk'-ified, director Ang Lee made this quiet, warm-hearted matrimonial farce. Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) is quite content: he has a nice brownstone in Manhattan, a great career as a real estate exec, and a caring, live-in boyfriend named Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein). Life is good... except for one thing: his parents in Taiwan are constantly nagging him to marry a nice Taiwanese girl and produce grandkids to continue the family line. Rather than tell his parents he's gay, Wai-Tung lets Simon talk him into what he thinks is a win-win situation: he'll marry his tenant Wei-Wei (May Chin), a struggling Chinese artist who needs a green card, and his parents will leave him alone. ''It's my fate,' explains Wei-Wei. 'I always fall for handsome gay men.'' Faster than you can say 'here comes the bride,' here comes Wai-Tung's entire family from Taiwan, showering the increasingly uncomfortable bride with heartfelt gifts; staging an elaborate, alcohol-fueled traditional wedding banquet; and heaping honeymoon night humiliations on the faux bride and groom. Despite the deceptions, the twist ending is happy for everyone involved, including the audience.
6. 'The Wedding Singer' (1998)
It's 1985, and Adam Sandler is Robbie Hart, a singer who has built a solid career sweetly serenading couples on the happiest day of their lives. Sure, he's still living in his sister's basement, but he's okay with that. His spandex-loving fiancée, however, is not. She stands him up at the altar, telling him contemptuously the next day that she can't marry a wedding singer. Robbie's measured response: 'Things that could have been brought to my attention yesterday!' The only thing standing between Robbie and a full-on, Cure-scored clinical depression is Julia (Drew Barrymore), a sweet-natured waitress planning her own walk down the aisle with a philandering, Delorean-driving, Don Johnson wanna-be junk bond trader. As in all good romantic comedies, misunderstandings derail their fledgling romance, but with the help of an aging Billy Idol and a heart-tugging if hokey proposal song at 20,000 feet, the couple finally celebrates their own perfect nuptials. All this plus a rapping grandma and a Spandau Ballet-crooning Steve Buscemi? Totally tubular.
5. 'Father of the Bride' (1950 and 1991)
Equal parts comedy and cautionary tale, 'Father of the Bride' (we're talking both the Spencer Tracy-Elizabeth Taylor classic and the lesser but still enjoyable Steve Martin remake) works as a primer for frazzled, empty-pocketed dads of soon-to-be-wed daughters. 'Someday in the far future I may be able to remember it with tender indulgence,' Tracy's Stanley Banks grumps after the reception, 'but not now.' Tracy and Martin are paternally perfect as fathers who must come to grips with the grown women their little girls have become, and accept that they've been replaced for good. They also have to deal with being financially flattened by the cash-fueled steamroller that is the wedding machine: caterers, cakes, gowns, gifts, and, in the 1991 version, a control freak party-planner named Franck (Martin Short). Though there are forty years between the films, both end sweetly with the honeymoon-bound bride calling home to tell her daddy she loves him. Awwwww.
4. 'My Best Friend's Wedding' (1997)
It's easy to root for a ruined wedding when the bride is a brat or the groom is a cad. But that's not the case in 'My Best Friend's Wedding,' in which Julianne 'Jules' Potter (Julia Roberts) tries to nix the nuptials of good-hearted couple Michael (Dermot Mulroney) and Kimmy (Cameron Diaz) for no other reason than she wants the groom for herself. See, six years ago, Jules and Michael made a pact: if neither was married by age 28, they'd get hitched. Now, as Jules' 28th birthday looms, Michael calls out of the blue. Nope, he's not proposing -- he wants her to come to his weekend wedding to Kimmy, a sunny, funny heiress. 'I've got exactly four days to break up a wedding, steal the bride's fella and I haven't one clue how to do it,' a panicked Jules tells her gay best friend George (Rupert Everett, who walks away with
Let's get it out of the way: 'Greek Wedding' isn't a great movie. But when you're talking celluloid weddings, neglecting it is like making spanakopita without the phyllo dough -- you just can't do it. This broad-as-the-Grand-Canyon comedy about cultural differences and family expectations centers on Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardolos, who also wrote the script), a frumpy Greek waitress who, in her own words, is 'thirty and way past my expiration date.' Despite the entreaties of her overbearing, loud, ethnically stereotyped and (some might say) completely insane family (the dad should be locked up over his Windex obsession), Toula decides there's more to life than marrying a nice Greek boy and having Greek babies. One makeover montage later and Toula meets Ian (John Corbett), a non-Greek vegetarian who's so white, he's clear. Suddenly, a big bloated wedding is the works, with awkward engagement parties (Toula's relatives are confused by the Bundt cake offered by Ian's WASPy mother), boisterous, hirsute bridesmaids, and a multitude of cousins named Nick. But the matrimonial mixing of Ian's bland family into the lamb-filled melting pot that is the Portokalos clan is eminently relatable, and helps explain why this light-as-baklava comedy earned $241 million.
9. 'Honeymoon in Vegas' (1992)
Before Nicolas Cage married the King's daughter, he donned the King's clothes as a member of the Skydiving Elvises in this romantic romp through Sin City. Cage is Jack Singer, a private eye who promises his dying mother he'll never marry. Cut to five years later, and Jack's fed-up girlfriend Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker) gives him an ultimatum: marry me or else. Commitment-fearing Jack finally caves and the couple heads to Vegas, where they're surrounded by more Elvises than you can shake a pelvis at (seems there's a convention going on). Trouble starts almost immediately when Jack loses his fiancée in a poker game with high-rolling gangster Tommy Korman (James Caan). Whoops. Turns out Tommy set Jack up because Betsy happens to be a dead ringer for his late wife. The rest of the film involves Jack's increasingly desperate attempts to win back his bride-to-be, who is falling under the spell of the dangerously charismatic Tommy. Luckily, Jack's skydiving Elvis routine rings Betsy's wedding bells, and the duo does the matrimonial deed in a cheesy chapel. Viva Las Vegas, indeed.
8. 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' (1954)
One of the least PC movies ever made, this toe-tapping, Stanley Donen-directed song-and-dance flick follows the seven backwoods-living, testosterone-fueled Pontipee brothers in 1850's Oregon and their quest to find a woman to have and to hold. When oldest brother Adam happily settles down with spirited Milly, the remaining brothers decide that married life is the life for them. Unfortunately, the brothers' idea of 'Goin' Courtin'' involves kidnapping women from town. A conveniently timed snow slide prevents the girls' fathers and suitors from coming to their rescue, and it's up to an outraged (and now pregnant) Milly to protect their virtue through the long winter. Come spring, the barn-raising brothers tie the knot with their former captives, vigilantly chaperoned by the girls' shotgun-toting fathers.
7. 'The Wedding Banquet' (1993)
Before he was 'Hulk'-ified, director Ang Lee made this quiet, warm-hearted matrimonial farce. Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) is quite content: he has a nice brownstone in Manhattan, a great career as a real estate exec, and a caring, live-in boyfriend named Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein). Life is good... except for one thing: his parents in Taiwan are constantly nagging him to marry a nice Taiwanese girl and produce grandkids to continue the family line. Rather than tell his parents he's gay, Wai-Tung lets Simon talk him into what he thinks is a win-win situation: he'll marry his tenant Wei-Wei (May Chin), a struggling Chinese artist who needs a green card, and his parents will leave him alone. ''It's my fate,' explains Wei-Wei. 'I always fall for handsome gay men.'' Faster than you can say 'here comes the bride,' here comes Wai-Tung's entire family from Taiwan, showering the increasingly uncomfortable bride with heartfelt gifts; staging an elaborate, alcohol-fueled traditional wedding banquet; and heaping honeymoon night humiliations on the faux bride and groom. Despite the deceptions, the twist ending is happy for everyone involved, including the audience.
6. 'The Wedding Singer' (1998)
It's 1985, and Adam Sandler is Robbie Hart, a singer who has built a solid career sweetly serenading couples on the happiest day of their lives. Sure, he's still living in his sister's basement, but he's okay with that. His spandex-loving fiancée, however, is not. She stands him up at the altar, telling him contemptuously the next day that she can't marry a wedding singer. Robbie's measured response: 'Things that could have been brought to my attention yesterday!' The only thing standing between Robbie and a full-on, Cure-scored clinical depression is Julia (Drew Barrymore), a sweet-natured waitress planning her own walk down the aisle with a philandering, Delorean-driving, Don Johnson wanna-be junk bond trader. As in all good romantic comedies, misunderstandings derail their fledgling romance, but with the help of an aging Billy Idol and a heart-tugging if hokey proposal song at 20,000 feet, the couple finally celebrates their own perfect nuptials. All this plus a rapping grandma and a Spandau Ballet-crooning Steve Buscemi? Totally tubular.
5. 'Father of the Bride' (1950 and 1991)
Equal parts comedy and cautionary tale, 'Father of the Bride' (we're talking both the Spencer Tracy-Elizabeth Taylor classic and the lesser but still enjoyable Steve Martin remake) works as a primer for frazzled, empty-pocketed dads of soon-to-be-wed daughters. 'Someday in the far future I may be able to remember it with tender indulgence,' Tracy's Stanley Banks grumps after the reception, 'but not now.' Tracy and Martin are paternally perfect as fathers who must come to grips with the grown women their little girls have become, and accept that they've been replaced for good. They also have to deal with being financially flattened by the cash-fueled steamroller that is the wedding machine: caterers, cakes, gowns, gifts, and, in the 1991 version, a control freak party-planner named Franck (Martin Short). Though there are forty years between the films, both end sweetly with the honeymoon-bound bride calling home to tell her daddy she loves him. Awwwww.
4. 'My Best Friend's Wedding' (1997)
It's easy to root for a ruined wedding when the bride is a brat or the groom is a cad. But that's not the case in 'My Best Friend's Wedding,' in which Julianne 'Jules' Potter (Julia Roberts) tries to nix the nuptials of good-hearted couple Michael (Dermot Mulroney) and Kimmy (Cameron Diaz) for no other reason than she wants the groom for herself. See, six years ago, Jules and Michael made a pact: if neither was married by age 28, they'd get hitched. Now, as Jules' 28th birthday looms, Michael calls out of the blue. Nope, he's not proposing -- he wants her to come to his weekend wedding to Kimmy, a sunny, funny heiress. 'I've got exactly four days to break up a wedding, steal the bride's fella and I haven't one clue how to do it,' a panicked Jules tells her gay best friend George (Rupert Everett, who walks away with
