Competition between the maid of honor and a bridesmaid, over who is the bride's best friend, threatens to upend the life of an out-of-work pastry chef.
Mild mannered businessman Sandy Patterson travels from Denver to Florida to confront the deceptively harmless looking woman who has been living it up after stealing Sandy's identity.
A titan of industry is sent to prison after she's caught insider trading. When she emerges ready to rebrand herself as America's latest sweetheart, not everyone she screwed over is so quick to forgive and forget.
Director:
Ben Falcone
Stars:
Melissa McCarthy,
Kristen Bell,
Peter Dinklage
Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.
When three overworked and under-appreciated moms are pushed beyond their limits, they ditch their conventional responsibilities for a jolt of long overdue freedom, fun and comedic self-indulgence.
Pete and Debbie are both about to turn 40, their kids hate each other, both of their businesses are failing, they're on the verge of losing their house, and their relationship is threatening to fall apart.
Annie (Kristen Wiig), is a maid of honor whose life unravels as she leads her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), and a group of colorful bridesmaids (Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper) on a wild ride down the road to matrimony. Annie's life is a mess. But when she finds out her lifetime best friend is engaged, she simply must serve as Lillian's maid of honor. Though lovelorn and broke, Annie bluffs her way through the expensive and bizarre rituals. With one chance to get it perfect, she'll show Lillian and her bridesmaids just how far you'll go for someone you love.Written by
Anonymous
Co-writer Annie Mumolo was on set throughout the entire production in case of rewrites, despite being eight months pregnant. See more »
Goofs
In the Brazilian restaurant scene, Megan's blue napkin that she is wearing goes from tucked in to missing and then between tucked and not tucked for the rest of the scene. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Annie:
[having sex]
I'm glad you called.
Ted:
I'm so glad you were free.
Annie:
I love your eyes.
Ted:
Cup my balls.
See more »
Alternate Versions
The 131-minute unrated version contains several additional scenes as follows:
The conversation between Annie (Kristen Wiig) and Mother (Jill Clayburgh) is slightly longer with Mother telling her about Father's "chicken coop" sex act, and it also reveals that Annie's father grew up in a farm.
Becca (Ellie Kemper) mocks Annie for being single and offers to arrange a date for her.
The car ride with Lillian (Maya Rudolph) and Annie after the bridal store fiasco is longer and different than the theatrical version. In the new cut, after Lilian admits crapping her wedding dress, Annie starts to feel uncomfortable, gets out of the car and throws up.
When Annie is at the bathroom, Gil (Matt Lucas) and his sister were in the bathtub together. He asks Annie to hand her the disposable shaver and shaves his sister's armpits.
There's a new 5-minute scene where Annie has a date with a guy called Pete. While waiting at the living room for Pete to get ready, she has a very uncomfortable conversation with his son Taylor (he's talking about "fear of dying", asking about Annie replacing his mother, etc..). After Annie goes upstairs, she overhears Pete talking on the phone telling his wife how he missed her and describes Annie as unattractive. Shocked by that, she went back downstairs and saw Taylor taking some contraceptive pills before leaving the house hastily.
The home video of Megan (Melissa McCarthy) and Jon (Ben Falcone) is slightly longer. She sticks a slice of ham on his chest and eats them. However, Jon's reaction doesn't tell whether he likes it or not.
Shakin' All Over
Written by Johnny Kidd
Performed by Wanda Jackson
Courtesy of Third Man Records/Nonesuch Records
By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing See more »
My friends invited me to a preview screening of Bridesmaids last night, and I accepted the invitation with a sense of cautious optimism. The trailer for the film admittedly didn't do much for me, but I was intrigued by the concept of a female-driven Apatow film. Ultimately, I went into the theater with modest expectations, hoping to get a few good laughs out of it.
By the time we came out of the theater, my three friends and I had smiles plastered across our faces, and we couldn't stop talking about the film for the next couple hours. We all loved it. I think it easily ranks with the best of the Apatow productions, and it might even be my personal favorite. Like all of Apatow's productions, there are admittedly scenes that arguably go a little too far or a little too long, but that's a small criticism when the film successfully fires on so many other cylinders.
To start with, the film is hilarious, and I think the comedy far exceeds the standalone bits shown in the trailer. Scene after scene is filled with humorous and often sidesplitting moments, and they had the theater in an uproar during the screening. I can't say enough about Kristen Wiig. Prior to this, I've always liked her to some extent but never really loved her. I think she's good at what she does, but I wasn't sure her shtick could sustain an entire film. Would her passive aggressive wit get old? Is it the only note she can play? Can she handle anything more dramatic? Ultimately, she blew me away in this film. Not only is she consistently and uniquely funny, but her character is surprisingly well-developed, and Wiig brings the character to vibrant and dynamic life on-screen.
And this brings me to my next point about Bridesmaids: the film has a surprising amount of depth that completely caught me off guard. Bridesmaids isn't a quickie 80-minute gag fest by any stretch of the imagination; it's actually a leisurely paced 2-hour character-driven comedy that takes time to develop its characters and establish the various relationships and resultant conflicts between them. Ultimately, the film ends up being quite heartfelt and even rather sad in places. Despite the over-the-top antics shown in the trailer, the themes that the film explores are actually quite grounded. Kristen Wiig's character is someone who is feeling completely let down by life, which is a place we've all been, and the personal journey of her character resonated strongly for me. While her character is easily the most well-developed of the bunch, even the other bridesmaids ultimately show some three-dimensionality as well, despite the fact that they are sometimes initially introduced as two-dimensional caricatures.
Ultimately, Bridesmaids was one of the most enjoyable comedies I've seen in a long time. It's certainly not perfect: it could probably do with some editing, there might be a few too many subplots (some of which are left unexplored), and it arguably goes too over-the-top at times, but everything else about the film works so well that these complaints are little more than nitpicks. While I applaud everyone involved in the production, it is Kristen Wiig who deserves the most accolades. As co-writer and lead actress, she plays a huge part in the film's success, and I sincerely hope this film puts her on the Hollywood map, as I would love to see more from her in the future. Whatever the case may be, Bridesmaids certainly makes for a successful maiden voyage for her into the world of feature-film comedies.
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My friends invited me to a preview screening of Bridesmaids last night, and I accepted the invitation with a sense of cautious optimism. The trailer for the film admittedly didn't do much for me, but I was intrigued by the concept of a female-driven Apatow film. Ultimately, I went into the theater with modest expectations, hoping to get a few good laughs out of it.
By the time we came out of the theater, my three friends and I had smiles plastered across our faces, and we couldn't stop talking about the film for the next couple hours. We all loved it. I think it easily ranks with the best of the Apatow productions, and it might even be my personal favorite. Like all of Apatow's productions, there are admittedly scenes that arguably go a little too far or a little too long, but that's a small criticism when the film successfully fires on so many other cylinders.
To start with, the film is hilarious, and I think the comedy far exceeds the standalone bits shown in the trailer. Scene after scene is filled with humorous and often sidesplitting moments, and they had the theater in an uproar during the screening. I can't say enough about Kristen Wiig. Prior to this, I've always liked her to some extent but never really loved her. I think she's good at what she does, but I wasn't sure her shtick could sustain an entire film. Would her passive aggressive wit get old? Is it the only note she can play? Can she handle anything more dramatic? Ultimately, she blew me away in this film. Not only is she consistently and uniquely funny, but her character is surprisingly well-developed, and Wiig brings the character to vibrant and dynamic life on-screen.
And this brings me to my next point about Bridesmaids: the film has a surprising amount of depth that completely caught me off guard. Bridesmaids isn't a quickie 80-minute gag fest by any stretch of the imagination; it's actually a leisurely paced 2-hour character-driven comedy that takes time to develop its characters and establish the various relationships and resultant conflicts between them. Ultimately, the film ends up being quite heartfelt and even rather sad in places. Despite the over-the-top antics shown in the trailer, the themes that the film explores are actually quite grounded. Kristen Wiig's character is someone who is feeling completely let down by life, which is a place we've all been, and the personal journey of her character resonated strongly for me. While her character is easily the most well-developed of the bunch, even the other bridesmaids ultimately show some three-dimensionality as well, despite the fact that they are sometimes initially introduced as two-dimensional caricatures.
Ultimately, Bridesmaids was one of the most enjoyable comedies I've seen in a long time. It's certainly not perfect: it could probably do with some editing, there might be a few too many subplots (some of which are left unexplored), and it arguably goes too over-the-top at times, but everything else about the film works so well that these complaints are little more than nitpicks. While I applaud everyone involved in the production, it is Kristen Wiig who deserves the most accolades. As co-writer and lead actress, she plays a huge part in the film's success, and I sincerely hope this film puts her on the Hollywood map, as I would love to see more from her in the future. Whatever the case may be, Bridesmaids certainly makes for a successful maiden voyage for her into the world of feature-film comedies.