DVD Review: Bridesmaids

Director: Paul Feig
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy
Certificate: 15
Plot: Life isn't going so well for Annie (Maya); single, business gone down the toilet, rubbish job and ultimately feeling quite lonely. So, when childhood best friend Lillian (Rudolph) asks her to be her Maid of Honour, Annie can't help feeling that things are slowly on-the-up. Annie, however, had not bargained on Lillian's new BFF Helen (Bryne) from stepping on her toes, and things start to turn ugly!
Initial Thoughts: Bridesmaids is one of those films, that for one reason or another, I completely missed first time around. Initially it had held no real interest, however, I started reading and hearing a great deal of positivity surrounding it, the writing, and especially Melissa McCarthy, who I am a huge fan of anyway (Gilmore Girls!). And hearing the flick described, so many times, as "The Hangover for Women" was definitely enough to make me really want to see this film, because I really loved The Hangover.
However, as comes with the majority of over-hyping, also comes the great, big and fat disappointment.
Reasons why I just couldn't like this film:
I had big expectations for this film, and I'm probably not going to be very popular for this review, but when a film opens with the most weird and awkward sex scene, probably ever recorded in Cinematic History, that leaves you thinking "what the hell are they doing, and what is the point to this scene?", you have a pretty good idea of how the rest of the film is going to pan-out. Unfortunately, so many scenes in Bridesmaids are exactly like this.
Almost every scene is unnecessarily long, and I couldn't understand where most of the scenes were actually going. Indeed, so many scenes didn't really go anywhere at all. Hence, what we were left with appeared to be a mish-mash of random over-long scenes full of under-developed ideas that didn't really connect with each other. As a result, the film appeared to plod along so slowly, that the Tortoise passed us by....twice!
After far too much scene setting and character introducing, we were forced to endure an extra-long sequence, on board the flight to Las Vegas, in which Annie made a fool of herself, hence, the bridesmaids were kicked off and the hen do was cancelled. Say what now?
Annie brought most of her pain (and ours) on herself, as she was just full of self-importance and irritating self-pitying.
Melissa McCarthy was one of the few awesome things to come out of this film, but to be completely honest, I felt that she was under-used and her talent completely wasted. And the other "supporting" bridesmaids should have been light relief, in my opinion, but all they seemed to do was moan and bitch about their lives in a completely non-funny kind of manner. And then, these two bridesmaids just appeared to completely disappear into oblivion, only popping up briefly right at the end, which like McCarthy seemed a waste of characters, questioning what their purpose in the film really was.
I grew up with gross-out films, so it's fair to say that I'm not really offended by them. I've experienced (with huge laughs) Stifler drinking a guys semen and showering in someone else's urine. I've witnessed the embarrassing sex scenes, with premature ejaculation. I saw Mary use bodily "products" as hair gel. So, yes, I'm really not offended. But, the thing that all those films had that Bridesmaids didn't: they were funny. They were funny in a light, childish kind of way, whilst Bridesmaids was just WTF kind of awkward. With American Pie and Something about Mary, for example, the viewer could sit there and cringe because you could imagine it really happening to someone, however, with Bridesmaids, it was more over-the-top ridiculousness! America Pie also had the bonus of compassion, in that we sort of fell in love with these characters, because they were relatable. Annie, on the other hand, was the kinda person who drains the life out of you, and to be honest, I'd have kicked her out of my wedding party too!
Redeeming Features:
There really are only two redeeming features to Bridesmaids, the first of course being Melissa McCarthy, who during her little screen presence, was absolute comic genius. Inevitably, I'd wanted a lot more from her, but I appreciate every ounce that I was given.
The second redeeming feature came in the form of our very own Chris O'Dowd, who was wonderful as Annie's potential love interest and unlike her "fuck buddy", the chemistry between these two was brilliant, and I wished that there had been more of this, than some of the lengthy, pointless scenes that we had to endure. Although, the scene near the end where she was trying to get his attention was yet another scene that left us slowly losing the will to live. Surely this wasted time should have been spent searching for the missing bride?
Overall: As a fan of The Hangover, Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, I honestly wanted to love this film, but I couldn't even muster up a little bit of likeness towards it. It might sound crazy, but even the lack of a proper soundtrack drove me nuts!
Score: 2 out of 10
It had potential, but that was most definitely wasted on pointless scenes, unconnected thoughts and undeveloped ideas.