Bridesmaids

Earlier this year, Bridesmaids was tagged as the female version of The Hangover. Many gullible viewers were once again duped by the tagline "From the Producer of SuperBad and Knocked Up" and were expecting another Judd Apatow "masterpiece." Although Bridesmaids has some inappropriate humour to please those expecting raunchiness, such as a hilariously awkward sex scene in the opening credits and the ladies spewing puke and diarrhoea in a fancy bridal store after getting food poisoning, the film is just a typical rom-com in disguise. Co-writer/actor Kristen Wiig plays 30-something Annie, a woman who's just hit rock bottom in all aspects of her life. She hates her job, has badly burned hair, is financially unstable and is being used as a booty call by a man (played entertainingly by Jon Hamm), who treats her like an unpaid prostitute. When best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) asks Annie to be her maid of honour for her upcoming wedding, Annie tries to balance her duties as maid of honour and as Lillian's best friend, failing miserably at both, as her goofy hi-jinx affect the other bridesmaids and the wedding. What makes Bridesmaids likable initially is that Annie is someone any woman can relate to. Unfortunately, the third act is light on laughs and heavy on groans, taking away from its originally creative concept. Bridesmaids is a fairly competent film featuring some great comedic performances by Wiig and recent Emmy winner Melissa McCarthy, despite the fact that it is just another run-of-the-mill mainstream comedy. The DVD features are quite impressive, with tons of hilarious outtakes, extended scenes and a funny deleted scene with Paul Rudd that should have been left in. The commentary track features director Paul Feig and the female stars of the film. Although most of the track sounds like chickens clucking in a hen house, Melissa McCarthy will makes listeners laugh when she re-tells the story of her real-life husband proposing to her while she was playing Tetris and watching an autopsy on television.