The worst idea for a studio comedy since last year's equally dreadful Failure to Launch.
License To Wed (2007)
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Reviews Counted:121
Fresh:9
Rotten:112
Average Rating:3.1/10
Consensus: Featuring one of Robin Williams' most shtick-heavy performances, the broad and formulaic License to Wed wrings little out of its slightly creepy, unappealing premise.
Theatrical Release:Jul 4, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $43,745,954
Synopsis: An all-star cast inhabits this romantic comedy about a couple who must endure a humiliating obstacle course of a marriage-training program in order to gain permission to wed from their church's... An all-star cast inhabits this romantic comedy about a couple who must endure a humiliating obstacle course of a marriage-training program in order to gain permission to wed from their church's over-the-top reverend (Robin Williams). Hilarity follows as the lovebirds (Mandy Moore and THE OFFICE'S John Krasinksi) put their devotion to the test. From the moment they met in a Starbucks line, the couple was prone to cute mishaps and clumsiness, but they also displayed amazing chemistry. Then Reverend Frank and his creepy child assistant intervene, putting Sadie and Ben through a torturous process which involves couples counseling, bedroom surveillance, and a very funny sequence in which the couple must take care of two robotic fake babies while shopping for their registry at Macy's. While Krasinski's average-guy expressions are fun to watch, his persona on the big screen isn't too much of a stretch from his role in the television sitcom. And Moore's typical likability becomes irritatingly upbeat in several scenes. Packed with OFFICE cameos, LICENSE TO WED promises laughs up until the end, where it veers towards the trappings of an archetypal romantic comedy. [More]
Starring: John Krasinski, Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, Christine Taylor
Starring: John Krasinski, Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, Christine Taylor, De Ray Davis, Eric Christian Olsen
Director: Ken Kwapis
Director: Ken Kwapis
Screenwriter: Kim Barker, Tim Rasmussen, Vince DiMeglio
Producer: Arnold Messer, Mike Medavoy
Composer: Christophe Beck
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for License To Wed
The movie is a pastiche of tortured slapstick, groan-inducing dialogue and a lethal dose of treacle, apparently awaiting one of Williams' trademark sprees of riffing and vamping to save the day. That moment never comes.
It is only the latest attempt by a Hollywood studio to pander to prurience and piety in a single gesture, and to avoid giving offense by treating all possible factions of the public equally, which is to say like idiots.
Will Robin Williams ever divorce himself from the unholy union of silliness and sentimentality?
A pleasant enough diversion for anyone who likes their comedies as light and fluffy as their popcorn.
Just another mediocre addition -- worse than the best sitcoms, better than the worst -- to the expanding list of movies that make Netflix a far more appealing option than going to a theater.
Robin Williams plays a reverend running the Marquis de Sade School of Marriage Counseling in this desperately unfunny movie.
Krasinski affirms that he can carry more than a desk job on The Office, and Moore plays straight gal in a film that improves, at least, on her last role in the ugh-inducing Because I Said So. License to Wed doesn't fail her this time.
The creepy-faced robot twin babies are funny (for a while); the rest of the film is not. It's like Meet the Parents with Dr. Phil as the officiant from hell.
It's supposedly a romantic comedy, so imagine a couple of hilarious physical jokes -- you know, a guy takes a baseball to the face, ha-ha -- and channel in a few moments of Robin Williams doing his improv shtick around some key words.
Anyone who has been through the process of church-mandated marriage preparation counseling should get a chuckle out of License to Wed, that is if the comedy weren't so badly handled.
You'd never know from License to Wed that Krasinski is a big asset to The Office. Here, playing an unappealing male lead, he merely smugs his way through the assignment.
For all the Hollywood obviousness of the reassuring ending, [director] Kwapis and his writers put over the subversive message that marriage can be maddening.
Anyone who wanders into License to Wed expecting a sweet-natured romantic comedy is likely to feel like the sensitive surface of that metaphorical tongue: ripped off.
This is the sort of lobotomized, condescendingly lazy movie that leaves you resentful of Hollywood.
It's exactly what it looks like from the commercials -- a one-joke movie, and that one joke isn't even funny to begin with.
All poor Krasinski can do is sigh, look to the camera, and beg for deliverance.
The chief reason why nothing works here is that the actors, talented performers all, just don't seem to be in the same movie.
Reverend Frank offers rib-ticklers such as: 'On the honeymoon, pretend to be surprised.' In the theater, pretend to be entertained.
Do they have what it takes to keep it cool and stay together long enough to get hitched? Trust me, you won't care.
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