Newly engaged, Ben and Sadie can't wait to start their life together and live happily ever after. However Sadie's family church's Reverend Frank won't bless their union until they pass his patented, "foolproof" marriage prep course consisting of outrageous classes, outlandish homework assignments and some outright invasion of privacy.
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The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
1/7/18. Maybe 2 1/2 stars. An ok chick flick in which a couple gets tested by a minister for marriage readiness. It's cute and Krasinski and Moore have the chemistry that makes this work. Williams was good, but a bit stiff as the minister. The movie does cover the basics about what makes a relationship work, so that's your object lesson for the day.
Licence to Wed is billed as a romantic comedy. It follows the usual formula. There are difficulties that threaten the relationship which are finally overcome for a happy ending. The catch is the female lead played by Mandy Moore as Sadie Jones is the bride from hell. She is shallow, bitchy, obsessed by trivia, controlling, critical, immature, vain and half a dozen unprintable words. I hated her from the get go, and hoped the groom would escape her clutches, or she would have some sort of personality transformation. Neither happens. In the end, he marries this dreadful woman and everyone pretends it is a good idea.The groom, Ben Murphy, played John Krasinki is athletic, goofy looking, with the personality of a puppy. He is no great catch but he does not deserve her. He seems utterly unable to notice his bride's faults.Robin Williams, as Reverend Frank, coasts through the movie as if he were on 2 grams of lithium a day. He has a weird child sidekick who wears a suit and tie, who looks like a miniature Jay Leno. However, the movie does nothing funny with this character. I kept waiting for the scene that justified his existence in the movie. It never came.Other than the groom, none of the other characters have any emotional appeal. It is hard to care about what happens to people you don't like.The big joke is the movie is Reverend Frank gets Sadie to drive a car blindfolded while Ben guides her while they narrowly avoid accident after accident. The idea that anyone would consent to such a dangerous and silly experiment made me reject the scene outright. It was just too implausible. I saw the scene as a series of staged stunts rather actual events.Grace Zabriski (Big Love) plays a minor role, but she always fun to watch.
Sadie Jones (Mandy Moore) and Ben Murphy (John Krasinski) are getting married. She wants her Reverend Frank (Robin Williams) to preside but the reverend wants them to go through a marriage course.Mandy Moore and John Krasinski make a perfectly vanilla plain cute couple. With a simple story, they have a fighting chance for a simple rom-com. However, Robin Williams is really annoying. He's manipulative, passive aggressive, and yet everybody loves him. The problem is that his schtick isn't cute anymore. As the movie keeps going, it only gets worse and anti-funny. Mandy Moore gets weirdly clueless, and John Krasinski gets more angry. It would probably be better to set up their characters better. In fact, we don't get much of Ben's family.There are other minor problems. DeRay Davis is too weak as his best friend. The role needs somebody more funny. Eric Christian Olsen would be a better fit. Anything to get Robin Williams off the screen would be a good idea.Then there's the ring inscription. If it's going to be a big joke, then we need to see the writing. The whole time I'm waiting to see the note. It's the absolute weakest of movie making.The only fun part of the movie are the outtakes at the end. At least it looks like everybody had fun and laughing while filming this movie. It's great to see the gang of 'The Office' have second jobs. But this movie is more annoying than anything.
I love Robin Williams. He always let's loose when he's got a good role behind him but put him in a priest collar and his references become Biblical. Actors John Krasinski and the incredibly attractive Mandy Moore play a couple about to get married, but their family signs them up for pre-marital counseling with Reverend Frank, played by Williams, joined by a mini-me, a junior priest who's half-Oompah-Loompah and half-bobble head. Even with Reverend Frank putting the pressure on them, John and Mandy are simultaneously being sabotaged by his idiot best friend DeRay Davis with the bad advice and her sister, Christine Taylor from "The Brady Bunch" and "Night Of the Demons," reeling from shellshock from her failed marriage. Wanda Sykes also has a cameo as an oddball maternity nurse. Along the way, there are animatronic babies getting assaulted, hidden microphones, a cartoon in the margin of a book, a dog in a collar, two brats with a price gun and a punched-out priest. The plot has a lot more in common with the screwball comedies of the Seventies. It's not a laugh-out loud funny movie. It bogs down in the scenes without Robin Williams, but there are several good lines and the love story does get resolved at the last minute. If you watch this, don't miss the outtakes during the credits.