Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Eddie Hopper (Alan Alda) owns a small construction business. The latest project falls through and he decides to go into debt to finish the house. At a family gathering for grandpa (Joey Bishop)'s birthday, his daughter Betsy (Molly Ringwald) announces her engagement to boyfriend Jake Lovell (Dylan Walsh). They want a small intimate wedding. To his wife Lola (Madeline Kahn)'s dismay, he gets into a competition with Jake's rich corporate raider father and ends up paying for an extravagant wedding. He asks Lola's sister Gloria (Catherine O'Hara)'s sleazy cheating developer husband Oscar Henner (Joe Pesci) for help. Oscar introduces him to mobster-like Georgie (Burt Young) who in exchange for a loan installs his nephew Stevie Dee (Anthony LaPaglia) to manage the home construction. Stevie Dee is taken with the house and Eddie's elder daughter cop Connie (Ally Sheedy). Then there is the wedding with fashion student Betsy's unconventional style and conflicting non-religious sensibility. The shootout doesn't help either.Alan Alda wrote, directed, and starred in this movie. It's not that funny and overloaded with story from every other character. The saving grace is that I like everybody starting with Alda. He has an easy charm and the family has a loving chemistry. The wedding dysfunction works some of the time but it is simply not funny enough. As for the Razzie nominations of Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, I don't get it. Ringwald's character can be a little annoying but that's about it. Sheedy and newcomer LaPaglia are actually endearing together and I love their budding relationship. Somebody at the Razzies must have had it in for this movie.

OK..OK..this may not be the best movie ever made but it is charming, sweet, funny, warm hearted and just makes you feel good to be a part of Betsy's wedding. The cast is wonderful. Alan Alda as usual is terrific as Eddie Hopper (Betsy's Dad), Joe Pesci and Catherine O'Hara are wonderful as a sparring couple, Madeline Kahn adds real warmth to her character as Lola (Betsy's Mum), Molly Ringwald is OK as Betsy (her outfits are pretty dismal and she seems to have that perpetual pout that can be annoying), Ally Sheedy also does an OK job as Connie (Betsy's cop sister) but her New York accent(I think that's what it was)was laid on a bit thick. For me Anthony LaPaglia's love sick gangster Stevie Dee was the highlight of the film. La Paglia is hilarious and he steals every scene that he's in...the chemistry between him and Ally Sheedy's Connie is great and the scenes they share are real gems. The final scenes of the wedding with the torn marquee,rain soaked guests and drenched bride and groom are very sweet.All in all a good "chick flick" to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

One of the lamer wedding movies you'll see. Smacks too too much of its time period so it was out of date before it hit the theaters. The ethnic stereotypes are like a Henny Youngman joke, except they just aint in the least bit funny here. Molly Ringwald, well what else needs to be said. Give you a clue to the silliness, she destroys a $10,000 wedding dress, because "It just won't be me" makes it into this rag, with straps and puts on a top hat, and everyone smiles cutely at her moxy, rather than ringwalding her neck. Its a helluva a cast too, check out how heavy Ally Sheedy is. Wheeeew!

I have to admire Alan Alda for writing a film that contains characters we can actually relate to. Characters who seem like normal, everyday people and not farcical Hollywood creations. The problem? The film hardly goes anywhere. And I only got a few laughs. I'm not asking for "The Naked Gun." I'm not asking for a new gag every two minutes. But this film just didn't have enough humor to classify itself as a comedy. It needed an extra dose of energy, and I feel Alda should've stayed in front of the camera. Because his direction is flat, and the whole movie just seems like one big home video. Though the movie is only a little over ninety minutes, I felt some scenes belonged on the cutting room floor. The cast is superb and first-rate, and they could've shined with a funnier script. Joe Pesci is the best of a lot, in a role quite different from his usual wise-cracking, tough-guy-from-Brooklyn act. Other talents are Catherine O'Hara, Anthony LaPaglia, the late Madeline Kahn and Molly Ringwald. My Dad used to say, whenever he would watch a bad comedy, "I guess they call it a comedy, since there's no tragedy in it." That's how I can classify "Betsy's Wedding." No tragedy, but the laughs are scarce. P.S.: Look fast for Samuel L. Jackson as a taxi dispatcher. My score: 5 (out of 10)