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The Wedding Singer

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Revision as of 22:57, 8 June 2023 by 2001:d08:2920:9a4f:fc6c:2344:1ace:5075 (talk) (Replacable yes)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 1998 film by Frank Coraci This article is about the 1998 film. For the 2006 musical, see The Wedding Singer (musical).

The Wedding Singer
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrank Coraci
Written byTim Herlihy
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyTim Suhrstedt
Edited byTom Lewis
Music byTeddy Castellucci
Production
companies
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • February 13, 1998 (1998-02-13)
Running time96 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$18 million
Box office$123.3 million

The Wedding Singer is a cancelled film originally set to release in 1998. The film was cancelled until Little Nicky in 2000.

Plot

Robbie Hart is a singer

Cast

Other notable appearances include future-Queens of the Stone Age musician Michael Shuman as The Bar Mitzvah boy, screenwriter Steven Brill as Glenn's buddy, the film's own writer Timothy P. Herlihy as Rudy, a Bartender, model Shanna Moakler as a flight attendant, and Al Burke played the Large Billy Idol Fan. Also appearing uncredited were Steve Buscemi as David Veltri, Jon Lovitz as Jimmie Moore, and Brian Posehn as Man at Dining Table #9. and Chauntal Lewis as Stuck-Up girl at Bar Mitzvah.

Production

Adam Sandler had an idea for a comedy about a wedding singer who gets left at the altar, and suggested it to Tim Herlihy. Inspired by the radio show "Lost in the '80s" Herlihy decided to set the film in that decade. Herlihy had not set out to do anything different and thought the script was similar to his previous collaborations with Sandler. The changes came naturally, and he attributed the differences to his recently having gotten married, as well as the chemistry between Sandler and Barrymore. Herlihy was aware that Sandler's previous films had lacked a female perspective, and emphasized the importance of Barrymore. He explained that she was so great in her scenes that test audiences did not complain about Sandler not being in every scene as they had done for his previous films, and as a result more of her scenes survived and were included in the final film. Carrie Fisher, a frequent script doctor, was brought on to make the female part more balanced. Judd Apatow and Sandler also performed uncredited rewrites of the script.

Director Frank Coraci was friends with Sandler since they went to college at NYU and could hardly believe that he and his friends had the opportunity to make films together. Coraci had also gotten over his own experiences of romantic heartbreak a few years earlier and was able to look back on it differently and instead allow it to be funny. Coraci was a fan of director John Hughes and mentioned his films as an important influence.

Barrymore approached Sandler about working together on a film, saying they were "cinematic soulmates" before they had even worked together. Barrymore had a great relationship with Coraci, and praised him for balancing the broad comedy with the important moments of emotion and intimacy. Sandler would often make Barrymore laugh out of context, so that even after a long day, her laughs on camera would be real. In addition, she would not read or hear the songs until the first shoot so that her reactions would be more spontaneous.

Principal photography took place in California from February 3 to March 25, 1997.

Reception

Box office

The film had a budget of $18 million and made $123.3 million worldwide in ticket sales. It opened in second in the US with $18.8 million, behind holdover Titanic.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 72% based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "It's decidedly uneven -- and surprisingly sappy for an early Adam Sandler comedy -- but The Wedding Singer is also sweet, funny, and beguiling." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Leonard Klady of Variety wrote: "Director Frank Coraci and scripter Tim Herlihy work in concert to maintain a quality of farce rooted in human comedy." Roger Ebert gave the film a negative review and wrote: "The screenplay reads like a collaboration between Jekyll and Hyde."

Boy George responded to the film, saying that when he saw Alexis Arquette doing an impersonation of him and singing "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" he thought it was hilarious.

The film has frequently been ranked as one of Sandler's best comedies.

Soundtrack

Two soundtrack albums for the film, called The Wedding Singer and The Wedding Singer Volume 2, were released in 1998. While the film had the actors performing many of the songs, the soundtrack albums, for the most part, contained the original versions of the songs instead, as well as the songs that were in the background during the film and original songs and dialogue from it. Only for "Rapper's Delight" was its rendition (by Ellen Dow) used, in combination with the original recording.

The track listing of the first album is:

  1. "Video Killed the Radio Star" (originally performed by The Buggles), performed by The Presidents of the United States of America
  2. "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", performed by Culture Club
  3. "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", performed by The Police
  4. "How Soon Is Now?", performed by The Smiths
  5. "Love My Way", performed by The Psychedelic Furs
  6. "Hold Me Now", performed by Thompson Twins
  7. "Everyday I Write the Book", performed by Elvis Costello
  8. "White Wedding", performed by Billy Idol
  9. "China Girl", (Originally performed by Iggy Pop), performed by David Bowie
  10. "Blue Monday", performed by New Order
  11. "Pass the Dutchie", performed by Musical Youth
  12. "Have You Written Anything Lately?"
  13. "Somebody Kill Me", written by Adam Sandler and Tim Herlihy, performed by Adam Sandler
  14. "Rapper's Delight" (medley), performed by Sugarhill Gang and Ellen Dow

The track listing of the second album is:

  1. "Too Shy", performed by Kajagoogoo
  2. "It's All I Can Do", performed by The Cars
  3. "True", performed by Spandau Ballet
  4. "Space Age Love Song", performed by A Flock of Seagulls
  5. "Private Idaho", performed by The B-52's
  6. "Money (That's What I Want)", performed by Flying Lizards
  7. "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", performed by Dead or Alive
  8. "Just Can't Get Enough", performed by Depeche Mode
  9. "Love Stinks", performed by The J. Geils Band
  10. "You Make My Dreams", performed by Hall & Oates
  11. "Holiday", performed by Madonna
  12. "Grow Old With You", written by Adam Sandler and Tim Herlihy, performed by Adam Sandler

Songs and renditions that appeared in the movie, but were not included in the soundtrack albums, were:


Certifications for "The Wedding Singer" soundtracks
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA) 2× Platinum 140,000
Canada (Music Canada) Platinum 100,000
United Kingdom (BPI) Gold 100,000
United States (RIAA) 2× Platinum 2,000,000
Volume 2
Canada (Music Canada) Platinum 100,000
United States (RIAA) Gold 500,000

Sales figures based on certification alone.
Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Musical adaptation

Main article: The Wedding Singer (musical)

In 2006, a musical adaption of the same name was released on Broadway starring Stephen Lynch as Robbie and Laura Benanti as Julia. The show has had two national tours in 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 respectively. It was nominated for five Tony Awards and eight Drama Desk Awards and received generally good reviews. In this show, the airplane scene with Billy Idol was replaced with a scene in Las Vegas where Robbie meets a Billy Idol impersonator, and they and a group of other impersonators including Ronald Reagan, Cyndi Lauper and Imelda Marcos come to convince Julia to give up Glenn. In addition, Robbie's neighbor Rosie is changed to be his grandma with whom he lives and who asks him to write a song out of a poem she wrote for the 50th anniversary party. Also Robbie's friend, Sammy, was changed from being a limousine driver to being a part of Robbie's band. The show only ran on Broadway for 284 performances but has become a popular show among community theaters and high schools.

References

  1. ^ The Wedding Singer at Box Office Mojo
  2. Smith, Zack (March 26, 2008). "The Wedding Singer". Independent Weekly. Archived from the original on April 18, 2008.
  3. Patches, Matt (July 23, 2015). "Adam Sandler's Go-To Writer Says Their Movies Are One Big Accident". Esquire. Archived from the original on November 3, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  4. Barrymore, Drew (2015). Wildflower. New York: Dutton. p. 93. ISBN 9781101983799. OCLC 904421431.
  5. ^ Sciretta, Peter (December 29, 2016). "Carrie Fisher Script Doctor: From Hook To Wedding Singer". SlashFilm.com. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  6. Adams, Sam (2011). "Carrie Fisher". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2021. There were a lot of ones that I had fun on. The Wedding Singer.
  7. McCabe, Katie (July 14, 2011). "Director Frank Coraci: Confessions of a sentimentalist". www.thehollywoodnews.com. Archived from the original on April 15, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  8. ^ Jacobs, Matthew (May 22, 2014). "The Secret Of Drew Barrymore's Relationship With Adam Sandler". HuffPost. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  9. "Weekend Box Office Results for February 13-15, 1998". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on July 22, 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
  10. The Wedding Singer at Rotten Tomatoes
  11. "The Wedding Singer". Metacritic. Archived from the original on April 14, 2018. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  12. "WEDDING SINGER, THE (1998) A-". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
  13. Klady, Leonard (February 12, 1998). "The Wedding Singer". Variety. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  14. Ebert, Roger (February 13, 1998). "The Wedding Singer movie review (1998)". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on March 16, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  15. Boy George – Alexis Arquette Did Me A Solid In 'The Wedding Singer' (VIDEO). TMZ.
  16. PIRNIA, GARIN (March 18, 2021). "11 Fun Facts About The Wedding Singer". Mental Floss. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  17. "All Adam Sandler Movies Ranked". Archived from the original on June 7, 2021. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  18. Fox, Jesse David (October 8, 2020). "What Is the Best Adam Sandler Movie?". Vulture. Archived from the original on June 15, 2021. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  19. "Every Adam Sandler Movie Ranked Worst To Best". ScreenRant. December 6, 2020. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  20. Cook, Meghan. "The 10 best and 10 worst Adam Sandler movies of all time". Insider. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  21. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 1998 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  22. "Canadian album certifications – Various Artists – The Wedding Singer - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Music Canada. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  23. id MUST BE PROVIDED for UK CERTIFICATION.
  24. "American album certifications – Soundtrack – The Wedding Singer". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  25. "Canadian album certifications – Various Artists – The Wedding Singer Volume 2 - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Music Canada. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  26. "American album certifications – Soundtrack – The Wedding Singer, More Music". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved April 28, 2022.

External links

Films directed by Frank Coraci
Categories: