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License to Wed (2007) More at IMDbPro »

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100 comments in total

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87 out of 140 people found the following comment useful :-
Not so much, 4 July 2007

Author: recontramil from Glendale, California

This movie was a bit of a bore. I walked in rather neutral with my expectations, and after the first 10 minutes realized that this ball of cheese was not for me. I sat through it all, for the sake of the company I was with.

Mandy Moore and John Krasinski are cute, but very flat characters. There is little or no character development in this film. Robin Williams as Reverend Frank tries to save the show with his humorous antics, but was unfortunately cliché in his attempts. The little boy, Josh Flitter, does an excellent job as the annoyingly forthright "minister in training", as do the other children playing minor roles, but the overall attempt was bland.

The movie neither humorously avoids morals, nor does it end with moral enlightenment. The "lesson" in the end is weak and predictable.

If you're looking for something heartwarming, inspiring, or thought-provoking, turn elsewhere. If you'd like a few cheap laughs with a weak storyline, this could be your film.

I rate it a 2 out of 10.

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110 out of 186 people found the following comment useful :-
A disaster of a comedy. . .almost better as a horror film., 5 July 2007

Author: wingsandsword from Lexington, KY

This movie was terrible.

I was more than a little tempted to just get up and walk out early in the movie, when it just wasn't funny. I thought maybe it would pick up and really get going soon, it didn't. It tries to be a romantic comedy, and what little chemistry exists between the couple is ruined by Robin Williams trying to be funny while doing unfunny things. Instead he comes off as a creepy, sadistic voyeur with a phony veneer of humor (and a minister having a prepubescent boy sidekick with him at apparently all times day and night is more than a little creepy in it's own right).

There isn't a single funny joke in the film that's not in the trailer, not one. There are a lot of gags that fall flat though.

The whole thing made me miss the time when Robin Williams in a movie was a sign it was going to be a great film.

In retrospect, I should have gone with my hunch and just walked out early, and saved myself the time.

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54 out of 79 people found the following comment useful :-
Aww, it's all good fun, 17 July 2007

Author: Kristine (kristinedrama14@msn.com) from Chicago, Illinois

My friend and I were so excited to see this movie when we saw the trailer to License to Wed, it looked like a fun comedy. But when we heard all the bad reviews, we were a bit hesitant, but we figured that we still wanted to see it and why not? I don't get all the horrible reviews on IMDb, yeah, there were a few things wrong with the movie, but it seemed like nobody really wanted to enjoy this film. I'm not saying this to offend anyone, I just don't get how you could not laugh at least once in this film when it was just a cute romantic comedy that's better than most.

Sadie and Ben are one happy couple, after only six months they feel that they are ready to tie the knot and get married. But Sadie's wishes are to be married in the church her parents got married in and their family minister, Frank. Frank isn't going to give this couple an easy time though, he'll test them from Heaven to Hell to see if they are really ready for marriage and slowly the realize what might be wrong and different in their relationship.

Now, I admit that some of the situations were predictable and unbelievable, but I think if you let go and just have fun, you'll find yourself laughing. This movie was all in good fun; I loved the scene where they have to find out what having kids was like. Those little mechanical babies were so ugly and scary, but so funny! I expected a fun and cute movie and that's what I got with License to Wed, so don't trust the IMDb reviews, just go and have fun!

6/10

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47 out of 68 people found the following comment useful :-
Solid C Film, 6 July 2007

Author: George Lebowski from United States

License to Wed is exactly what I expected it to be when watching the previews. An overall average movie, nothing mind blowing, but also not impossible to watch.

The movie is a little cliché at points and most of it you have seen before in whatever romantic comedy you decide to think of, but there are a few additions to this movie that made it enjoyable for me.

As a huge fan of the TV show "The Office", I went to the theater the other night hoping that the movie would keep me as entertained as the small screen gem does. If this is what you are hoping for, sorry, its a bit of a let down. However, the simple appearance of a couple of "Office" stars is enjoyable.

The only real beef that I have with the movie overall is Robin Williams' sexed up priest character. I can understand what they were trying to do (humor from sex dialogue), but the conversations seemed uncomfortable to me. A priest becoming sexual isn't that far fetched in this day and age, but really, when your movie makes it look like a priest is hitting on a woman in his marriage counseling class in front of her soon to be husband, just rubs me the wrong way.

License to Wed is neither terrible nor wonderful. My recommendation would be to watch it if you really don't care what you watch and just need a popcorn movie to relax. No huge laughs but no huge let downs either.

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64 out of 103 people found the following comment useful :-
God-awful comedy, 6 July 2007

Author: Roland E. Zwick (magneteach@aol.com) from United States

"License to Wed" might as well have been called "Meet the Minister," since all the film does is to recycle the nightmare-before-marriage scenario from "Meet the Parents" - albeit with one crucial deviation. Needless to say, lightning rarely strikes twice when it comes to Hollywood happenings and "License to Wed" is no "Meet the Parents." Not by a long shot.

Ben Murphy and Sadie Jones are a young Chicago couple who agree to undergo an intense pre-marital "training course" conducted by an obnoxious local reverend in exchange for being allowed to hold their nuptials at the church Sadie's dearly departed grandfather helped to build. To pass the course, the couple must agree to be abstinent until the wedding night, take care of two fully operational and anatomically correct mechanical infants, and undergo various forms of trauma that even Sigmund Freud himself would have trouble undoing after years of reparative analysis.

As a "Meet the Parents" wannabe, "License to Wed" stumbles right out of the starting gate in that one can imagine suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous humiliation and abuse in order to win the favor of a prospective spouse's PARENTS, but to go through all that just to placate her MINISTER? I don't think so. In no time flat, the laughter turns to frustration as we find ourselves wondering why Ben doesn't just tell the dear old Reverend to go take a hike - or worse - and then seek out some religious establishment with less stringent requirements for walking down the aisle.

And let's face it, there's something more than a trifle off-putting and creepy about an unwed man-of-the-cloth running around with a young boy as his personal protégé and sidekick, planting listening devices in young couple's bedrooms. Even for an alleged comic fantasy such as this one, that may be just a bridge farther than most people will be willing to go in the queasiness department.

John Krasinski and Mandy Moore make an appealing enough couple, and it isn't really their fault that they've been handed a screenplay - written by no fewer than three writers, a sure sign of trouble - filled with cornball humor, heavy-handed slapstick and unappetizing secondary characters. In the role of Reverend Frank, Robin Williams, all cutesy mannerisms and third-rate mugging, hits a new low in teeth-grinding unctuousness, although one likes to believe that, if director Ken Kwapis could have gotten the actor to dial back his performance even a little, this might have been at least a tolerable movie. As it is, though, "License to Wed" is a painful experience that you will have no trouble leaving stranded at the altar.

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90 out of 157 people found the following comment useful :-
Beware Reverend Frank...and this movie, 4 July 2007

Author: keiichi73 from United States

I'm going to say something that no one in License to Wed has the guts (or the brains) to say - Reverend Frank belongs behind bars. Frank is supposed to be a goofy and likable guy who grows on us despite his unorthodox methods toward couples coaching. Unfortunately, the movie goes to such extremes that we are not so much charmed by Frank, rather we are terrified by him. The man is a menace, and the fact that nobody seems to realize it except for one character makes everyone in this movie come across as completely oblivious.

Young lovers Ben Murphy (John Krasinski) and Sadie Jones (Mandy Moore) have just made plans to take their relationship to the next level and get married. It's always been Sadie's dream to be married at the family church with Reverend Frank (Robin Williams) doing the ceremony. Before they can get married, however, Frank forces the young lovers into a bizarre program where they will have to pass a series of tests to see if they are right for each other. Frank, along with his young student (Josh Flitter), sets up a series of challenges and simulations that are supposed to represent the difficulties that the couple will face in the future together. While it sounds reasonable enough in theory, the Reverend goes so far as to invading their private lives, even bugging Ben and Sadie's apartment with concealed recording equipment, letting him hear everything that happens when he's not around. Ben's patience with Frank's extreme program starts to wear thin, and the young couple start to contemplate if things are as compatible between them as they initially thought.

There's nothing really wrong with License to Wed whenever Reverend Frank is not on the screen. During those times, it's a perfectly ordinary romantic comedy that plays by the rules. Unfortunately, Frank is a major character, and the movie devotes too much time to him. He's an evil, manipulative man, and we're supposed to laugh at him, because he's played by Robin Williams, and he's constantly shooting off zippy one-liners. If this character had been played straight, I have no doubt believing his Reverend Frank would be right up there with his "deranged" performances in Insomnia and One Hour Photo. At one point, he has a 10-year-old kid break into the couple's apartment while they're away at a session, and conceal a wire tap in their home. The character of Frank comes across as someone who enjoys tormenting young couples who just want to get married, and is not below employing children to do his dirty work so that he remains off the hook. If this sounds like a jovial, comical character to you, I highly suggest counseling.

My question is why does nobody else in this movie but Ben realize just how evil this guy is? And when Ben discovers the wire tap, why doesn't he make a bigger deal about it? More importantly, why doesn't Sadie? When Ben finally does tell her about the hidden recording equipment, Sadie doesn't even react to this revelation, nor does she even act offended. Are we to believe this woman doesn't even care that this man has been violating their privacy? If I seem to be putting too much stock in one character, I can't help it. He is what makes this entire movie go wrong. The character hangs over the movie like a black shadow, and causes everyone to become incredibly stupid, because no one can admit to themselves that this man is wrong. Even Ben, who distrusts him from the moment he lays eyes on Frank, winds up liking the guy before the movie's over.

It's hard to get behind a cast when they're forced to play clueless morons for the sake of the plot. Mandy Moore, once again finds herself playing a woman who refuses to even look at the obvious until the screenplay feels its convenient for her to do so. After Because I Said So and now this, I'm starting to wonder if she has some kind of bizarre fascination with women who make bad decisions for no reason other than to move the plot along. John Krasinski is passable, but not much more than that. He seems to kind of be playing a Ben Stiller-type character, only without Stiller's enthusiasm. The rest of the cast spend most of the time in the background, not contributing much of anything. That's because Reverend Frank keeps on hijacking the movie at every conceivable opportunity. It gets to the point we start wondering if we're watching a movie, or if we're watching one of Williams' lesser improv performances.

License to Wed is a movie that goes so extremely off course, and it's all because of one man. If he had just been written a different way, the film could have been salvaged. As it is, he drags the entire movie down with him. It's amazing how the wrong lead character can affect everyone and everything around them. When the movie came to its predetermined happy ending, I didn't feel joy. I felt sorry for this couple that this guy was still a part of their lives, and imagined what hell awaited them in the future. I'm sure we'll hear all about it if we're unfortunate enough to get a sequel.

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34 out of 49 people found the following comment useful :-
Another mediocre Robin Williams vehicle, 7 July 2007

Author: guyfromjerzee from United States

Robin Williams is certainly a very gifted comedian. It would be a sin to classify him as untalented. But somebody needs to send this guy some decent scripts. I think the problem is people feel that all you need to do is cast Robin as the lead, and viola! You've got yourself a hilarious comic romp! Weak writing is weak writing. End of story. The film is not without laughs. I certainly did laugh several times, but as you would expect, most of the good jokes are given away in the trailer. Altogether, "License to Wed" is a predictable romantic comedy filled with lots of sitcom-level humor. It's worth checking out on cable. Like I said, there are some laughs, and watching the gorgeous Mandy Moore certainly doesn't hurt either. But this is one of those comedies you'll probably forget soon after you've seen it.

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15 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Bad Robin Williams "comedy", in a sea of bad Robin Williams "comedies"., 20 January 2008

Author: Dawn_Of_The_Hippies

Disappointing to say the least. Where is the old Robin, I sure miss him, and I sure as hell am not the only one. Clichéd wedding movie with Robin as a crazy pastor who takes soon-to-be married couples through grueling challenges to see if they are worthy enough to be married in his church. Basically, an unfunny script is all the writers could muster, as the only funny bits are but two and both of them are shown in the trailers. John Krasinski is horrible in this movie, which is a shame (after seeing this movie, I almost immediately played The Office on my Tivo to forget his embarrassing and crappy performance). Mandy Moore is still Mandy Moore: Beautiful and talentless when working with lazy scripts. And Robin, poor Robin; stop appearing in these types of movies! We love you, but we hate it when you waste your talent on crap such as this. In the end, don't bother with this bland and unfunny movie, a 3/10, avoid!

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25 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
Disappointing, 3 July 2007

Author: Debra from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I really really wanted to like this movie, in theory, it has all the right elements for a strong comedy, but I was very disappointed.

I went to see this movie today at a 12:30 p.m. showing. The audience was a good mix of older couples, young marrieds, teenage girls, a few stray singles, a family or two--a well-rounded audience, let's say. That well-rounded audience spent an hour and a half with Robin Williams, god of comedy, with not a single good laugh. There were a handful of mild chuckles over things like poop jokes and a man getting smacked in the face with a baseball, but that was all we could muster.

Mandy Moore was luminous (but not given much to do, I wish she'd pick better roles, I really want to like her), her fiancé utterly and instantly forgettable in every way, the rest of the very talented cast (The best man was delightful, his relationship with his wife hilarious, and he was given all of 4 minutes of screen time) hopelessly misused, and Robin Williams as unfunny as the man can possibly get. The "plot", so to speak, consisted of Robin Williams as a minister conspiring to make the future marriage of Mandy Moore and the other one strong by torturing them at every turn and doing such charming things as bugging their apartment to ensure they were not having forbidden premarital sex. It was creepy and disturbing and predictable and boring, and, the worst sin of all for a supposed comedy, not funny.

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19 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
A Religious Film Out of Hell, 14 July 2007

Author: Topher-Liam Froehlich from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

License to Wed

For quite a long time now, I've begun to think that I've become an easy-going critic about the movies I watch. But now I realize simply that I have been watching good movies, and "License to Wed" is a healthy reminder to myself that I can still recognize the sight of horrid cinema when it veers before my eyes.

John Krasinksi as Ben Murphy, and Mandy Moore as Sadi, are an engaged couple, preparing for marriage. But unluckily for them, in their church community, they have to pass a "marriage course" before they can wed. And that course is run by priest-from-hell (if there ever was such a thing) Reverend Frank (Robin Williams). That's all you need to, or want to, know about this movie.

The most awful part of "License to Wed", as with many Robin Williams, it is not funny at all. I didn't laugh once through its entire run, nor even come close to cracking a smile. The jokes were either all ready used, just not funny, or so predictable they made me want to leave the theater. But the horrible writing continues; Reverend Frank is absolutely insane, not a likable quirky man at all. He is a psychopath, make no mistake; bugging peoples houses, training a poor kid to do anything he said, and turning loved ones into worst enemies. The many scenarios that the characters are put into, make no sense at all (I'm sure Ben would start insulting family members in a game for no reason; they could have left those fake babies at home) and neither do the Reverend's tests (what the hell does driving have to do with marriage?). And at the end, why exactly are Ben and Sadi thankful for what Frank did?

Mandy Moore stays in a perpetual state of perkiness, Robin Williams tries so hard to be quirky but he's really just scary, and John Krasinski gains my sympathy for having to put up with it all (not that he's any better).

The only good part in this movie for me was when the Reverend got punched out by Ben. I thanked God. 1/10 (but I'd like to give it a zero)

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