 Hello, and welcome to Release Date Rewind. My name is Marc J. Parker, and I am a film lover, filmmaker, film celebrator. And normally this is an audio podcast, wherever you get your podcasts on your favorite apps. But thanks to Portland Media Center, you are about to watch the video component of this show where I celebrate movie anniversaries with my friends. Each month I usually talk about two different movies that I love with different friends, and we talk about the making of the movies, trivia, any fun memories associated with them. So I hope you enjoy, because now it's time to rewind. I know you saw this in the theater. Did you remember, did you go opening weekend? I don't remember if I went opening weekend. Do you remember who you went with? I think I went with my brother. Nice. Because he's the one who got me, you know, I'm a youngest child, and my brother got me into Adam Sandler. He got me into so many of the comedians that I was into, and we turned out to both like romantic comedies. And again, I think this helped get us there, but part of what was funny about seeing this movie in the context of the 90s is that in making fun of the 80s, it felt like to go back to the subject of basic cable. You know, I feel like in those days, if you turned on VH1 or even MTV, there was so much programming that was just designed to be about, hey, remember how weird the 80s were? Like the degree to which, even if you did not remember the 80s, even at all, which I mean, I don't really, you still had to know about the flock of seagulls haircut. We were closing in on Y2K, and we were still making fun of the flock of seagulls haircut. It was on Friends. They were talking about it on VH1 all the time. We had to know about Kajigugu and all these, but at the same time, you know, you talk about the music and how good the music is in this, and I feel like between the music and everything else, the movie has some of the energy of a really good karaoke night or a really good costume party where we're making fun of all this stuff, but also we sure do enjoy it. Yes. Adam Sandler. Hey, Psycho. Get out of my van, hail and T-shirt before you jinx the band and they break up. And Drew Barrymore. You're the wedding singer. How you doing? I'm Ravi. I'm Julia. In a story about finding love where you least expect it. Uh oh. What? You like her. No, I don't. And speaking of costumes, Mona May, the great Mona May who had done Clueless and Romy Michelle, and she was on this show. I interviewed her last year around the time Romy Michelle turned 25. I mean, she did these costumes and they're perfect in a way where they're not too cost to me. Like at times, Robbie Hart, Adam Sandler looks just like a normal guy with bad hair, nothing really that flashy or fancy, right? But then when they're going out and his friend Sammy's got that red Michael Jackson code or Holly played by the great Christine Taylor is like a Madonna wannabe, right? Like there's so many great little details and, you know, so funny. It's ugly kind of stuff from the 80s, lovingly sending it up, you know, and it has that karaoke vibe that you mentioned totally. There's a boy George impersonator in the band who, I don't know if you came across this too, but apparently boy George, like the real boy George loved it, loved the wedding singer, loved the representation. Oh, I love that because you never know, especially with someone like board George, you know, yeah, you never know if he's going to. Maybe he takes himself too seriously, not, you know, but I love. Alexis Arquette is so much fun in this movie. And, you know, it's sad because, well, obviously she had passed away a few years ago. But, you know, one thing I don't love about the movie and I, I know it was still the 1998 and of course it's set in the 80s. So neither were good times to be friendly to queer people. But I do wish that Tim Hurley or Frank Caracci or Sandler, anyone, I do wish they were a little bit nicer to people like George because to me, what was what was funny was George was just a weirdo, like taking themselves too seriously, right? And like loving boy George to the point where, you know, he looks just like him and it's hard rewatching it and seeing, you know, the wedding patrons, you know, being like, scary, freaky, gross, you know, the film's slightly a little homophobic, queerphobic, I think, you know, but like I said, so was a lot of things were in 1998. So you can't really, and especially in the 80s. So you can't really get around it. I just kind of wish in a perfect world, they sort of just embraced George more, which apparently I haven't seen the musical version of this film, but we know this this spawned the the wedding singer, the stage musical, which is still going on all over the world, you know, different community theaters and everything. And I think George has more of a role in that. I think George gets to sing some songs and be a bit more of like a sidekick, which feels right to me, you know, I think that's. Yeah, although I will also say, I think that. In addition to making fun of the 80s, it's an important detail to this movie that it is also taking on what is generally considered to be fair game, which is New Jersey. And so now I should take a moment here to point out that I am marrying a New Jersey native who is as we have this conversation in New Jersey, I have no bad feelings toward New Jersey. Thank you. I'm from New Jersey, so I appreciate it. OK, not all Jersey is bad. Where is she from in Jersey? Do you know the town? Lambertville can walk over the river right into New Hope. Oh, I love. Oh, my God. She's from Hundred and County. I love that area. New Hope is amazing. I'm not all that far from there where I grew up in Morristown near Cherry Hill. So OK, good. She's like a central South Jersey girl. Oh, I'm a fan. This is this could be a great marriage. But I'm glad you're not, you know, hating on us too much. But yes, this movie because I wasn't sure at first rewatching it. I can't remember where it takes place. And then, you know, Glenn, Glenn Guglia, our villain. I hate him. He works in Wall Street. You know, they talk about going into the city. So I couldn't remember if this was Connecticut, Jersey, maybe just elsewhere in New York. But yes, you're right. It's it's good old New Jersey. This is my fiance, Glenn. I don't even know your last name. It's Guglia. Julia's last name is going to be Guglia. Julia Guglia. That's funny. Why is that funny? I don't know. I just. And so I feel like when it comes to George not getting the warmest reception from audiences, I feel like we're never supposed to feel totally aligned with the audiences at these events. I feel like there's a lot of fun being poked at the people who aren't receptive as well. And I certainly do, which the movie was warmer toward George. And the movie could also be a little nicer to fat people in general. Yes, fat people. And, you know, I have to say. Julia is such a great sport. But can we let's talk about some scenes here? Because one of them, which is super cute, it's very nice. He's working the bar mitzvah. This is after he's been dumped by awful Linda. She's left him at the altar and and he can't handle, you know, working weddings right now. So he's going to at least do bar mitzvahs at the sort of hall where they work. And, you know, there's the there's the boy who is a loner. He's feeling kind of like out of his league. And so Robbie, you know, brings up Julia. But like the movies, you know, treats women a little badly as well. Because then Julia's got to deal with this. First of all, earlier, when we first meet her, an old guy slaps her butt and then is making kissing faces at her. And she's like, eh. And then she's now going to deal with this boy touching her butt as they're dancing. And yes, it's cute. But she's visibly shocked and uncomfortable, but she just puts up with it. And I'm just like, wow, you're a really good sport. You didn't have to do that, you know, like a little cringe. But I guess it's all showing that she has a good heart. Oh, and the moment, the moment even of having her choose one of the boys, it's it's just it's an odd moment. And all of the but grabbing, yes, especially, you know, between children and adults. Yes, because you're I'm glad you bring that up, Amos, because then even Robbie joins in on the fun, because I believe this is when George has the mic and is doing their solo. Then Robbie's dancing with a girl and puts the girl's hands on his butt. And I was like, wow, OK, that I don't know about that. I don't know about that one. But yeah, lots of but grabbing. I think I think the spirit of the moment is to make things equitable, like Julia is being felt up. So so is Robbie. Now there are much, much better ways to make things equitable. And some would say they involve no intergenerational but grabbing. I think that moment got away from them a little bit, not the moments of the movie I would hold up as the best. Yeah, like I could picture back then in 98, you know, the crowd laughing. But I could picture a few people being like, really? Well, OK, now the girl of his dreams is about to marry Mr. Wrong, that's great, a top choice me. And even the way, of course, Glenn talks about Julia, but he we know he's a dick, you know, but lots of lots of either as grabbing as watching or talking about, you know, great, a meet, you know, top tier as like a lot of a lot of that kind of stuff throughout. Which, like I said, at least with Glenn's case, we need to hear that to know, like, oh, yeah, right off the bat, we know this guy is bad, bad, bad. And that's and that's another thing that I don't think is bad in this case. But it's not. It's not a sex positive movie, which I don't mean to say that like that's a bad thing about it. I think there's a real sweetness to how this movie is not about sex. But it is kind of funny how Glenn is this awful guy who is focused on sex and he's cheating and he's and he's just this kind of superficial creep. And then when I'm drawing a blank on Christine Taylor's character's name, I think her name is Holly. That's Julie's cousin, right? Yeah. But when Holly tells Robbie when when they double date when she says, if you come up, if you come inside with me, you're going to get laid. And this is Marcia Brady. I know a bunch movie. This is I mean, this is this is quite an offer and no thanks. I'm I'm in love with the innocent. Yes. Yeah. You bring up a great point there. Yeah. The people who are focused on sex are not. They make it very obvious that we not that we don't agree with them, but they are sort of they're up to no good on the sidelines. We're focused on the innocent, pure, very nice, gentle two people. And yeah, that's a good point, because even Sammy or they're unhappy or they're unhappy. Absolutely. Because like as we learned with Sammy, his good friend, the limo driver, right? He later on at the bar is like, I just want someone to hold me and to tell me everything's going to be all right. And then that's when the old kind of bum does that for him. But yeah, you're right. They're they're also possibly unhappy, miserable in their lives. So yeah, the movie does show you that sex is not everything, you know, when he's even like, yeah, because I think Sammy's the one in the very beginning who talks about Julia saying, oh, yeah, I'm going to show her like, you should never date people at work, you know, that kind of thing. Like I'm going to get that. So and those are the people that are not having any luck with romance. So yeah, you're right. It's a very pure family friendly love story for the most part. Unless he can pull off the performance of a lifetime. She and Glanches jumped a plane to Vegas. Oh, yeah. All right, all right. OK, well, you brought up Sammy and one of my favorite line readings of all time. And my brother and I have been saying to this to each other ever since we saw it when they're giving Sammy a limo driver try out and he's shoving the mannequins into the car and they're timing him and having a laugh together because of course he's already going to be the limo driver for the wedding, but he's really stressing. And then he finishes and they say, you did this, you hit the cones. He says, they were cones. And the way he says they were cones is seared into my memory. Oh, I love her. Love it. Yeah, I almost wrote that down. I had a feeling we were going to talk about it. But yeah, because it's just, yeah, the line read is just perfect. He's so deflated and yeah, they were cones. They're like, of course, later on, you know, he says to Rob, he says, so did I get the job? He's like, of course you got the job. He's like, so it's next week from today, August 5th. And I'm like, wait a minute, I know this is 1985, but you just now are booking your limo driver a week before the wedding. Come on now, I'm sure, Amos, you guys have four weeks to go for your wedding. I bet most of all of your things and people are all booked up, ready to go. They've known that date for a long time, but I know times have changed. Most, the word most is doing a lot of work. OK, OK, we have a couple of eyes to dot and tease across. You'll get there this week. This will be the big week. But yeah, I just thought that was funny showing how, you know, things were much more loose. I think they only have really three months to plan this thing. And it's now time moves quickly in this movie that I forgot about because we meet them and I'm pretty sure. Yeah, they're talking about the Julia and Glenn's wedding date. You know, it's it's a few weeks, a few months away. And then all of a sudden it's it's the weekend, you know, of the wedding. It's like, whoa, OK, things are moving fast. But I kind of like it. We keep it moving fast. The only thing is I do feel like the ending and maybe you agree. The ending does feel slightly rushed, like, you know, we go from them not being together, lots of great obstacles and lots of misunderstandings to a very speedy resolution and a very speedy happy ending. And OK, it's done, you know, I would love maybe a little bit more. But that's just me maybe, you know, being a glutton for the rom-com. I don't know. But I also love the rushed ending so much, you know. And and also it's delivering rom-com things. It's it happened one night racing to break up a wedding because she shouldn't marry that rich guy. Yeah. And it's a grand reconciliation and kiss in front of a surrogate audience. It's all of these things. It's the music swelling. It it's him declaring his love with an original song, which is a thing that she had encouraged. And and it has to do with not him getting it wrong and deciding he has to be a banker and a Wall Street guy in order to win her over. But in fact, what he needs is a little more self respect about what he actually is and. Yes. Beautiful. I got a little teared up of these rom-com goodies. I got a little teared up on my latest rewatch. I I don't know what's going on with me, but I don't know when he came from beyond that first class curtain, which I love the whole first class bit. And of course, Billy Idol. Oh my God. I remember having a lot of fun seeing that for the first time. But yeah, when he's coming out and singing that beautiful song. And you know, also this movie reminds you that at least back then, Adam Sandler had a pretty good singing voice, a very nice, softer singing voice that, you know, really moves you. But she's got tears in her eyes. And it's like, oh, my God, it's it's such a cute ending. I guess I guess I just because what's funny is, do you think it's sort of unclear? But I assume I know this is correct. So they decide that day like I'm she, you know, he says, I'm in love with you. And she says, I am so in love with you. And Billy Idol is there. And they're like, can we like kiss? They kiss. And then we just jump right to their wedding day, which do you think, Amos, that that is that was actually Julia and Glenn's wedding day. It's like the next day they just they just took over because that's what I kind of get. And I'm like, wow. So Robbie and Julia have only been like dating, seeing each other, hanging out for like maybe a couple months. Whoa, fast. But whatever. I don't I don't believe that. OK, I think they needed a little time to put their wedding together. Yeah. Oh, also, they have Steve Buscemi there. That's true. Yeah, I think they need a little time to put things together. OK, good. Yeah. Not so crazy, because I'm like, wow, we are just going right for it. And her mom, because her mom is the one that says earlier in the iconic, one of my all time favorite 90s movie scenes, rom-com scenes, when Drew perfectly says to the mirror, nice to meet you. I'm Julia Gullia. Oh, my God. But her mom before that moment says, you really want to leave Glenn, who, as they talk about, provides security, has money, is a good looking guy, you know, status, all that. You really want to leave Glenn for the wedding singer. Like everyone puts down this wedding singer, even though everyone knows he's good at his job and throws a great party. So I'm like, man. But yeah, I was wondering, like, did she really just OK this in less than 24 hours? And because she's there celebrating with them in that last shot, you know, as they walk back down the aisle. OK, so I'm glad. I'm glad you're proving me wrong. OK, yeah, it must have been a little later. Give it a little bit of breathing room. I think I just would have liked for there maybe to be, I don't know. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but maybe just give me a montage of like now showing them, you know, doing all the stuff and him proposing and just like a little montage to some cute 80s song just to show me like, OK, one year later on this same day or whatever, they get married. But I guess I can't, you know, I can't beg for too much. I got a good movie thinking of leaving Glenn for the wedding singer. I love that plane whole bit and it is funny. One benefit of rushing it is I remembered very well. I thought it was very funny. The scenes are so fast on the plane and then we constantly are cutting to the plane flying in the air to like this very 80s transition music. That's fun and keeps it like super lively and stressful and all that bit. But I just love it's just so perfectly unrealistic, but so perfectly cute that like, oh, my God, they're on the same plane. And I love that that is not established until that moment. Like there's just some really good story things here that even if they're kind of silly, it's perfect. I'm glad we because another filmmaker or another film would have the camera would have gone from Glenn and Julia and then it would have shown us ahead of time and we would have known. Oh, my God, they're on the same plane. And that's a cool way to do it. But I do appreciate the way we found out when Robbie found out. Like I can picture the audience gasping like, oh, she's right there. They're on the same plane. Anyway, that's me nerding out over that. Oh, and it's easy for me to even forget about that because I've seen it so many times. So, of course, they're on the same plane. I know what happens. Yeah, I even, you know, I rewatch this movie and, you know, the score of the movie is always previewing his song from the end, I want to grow old with you. And you can only really know that on rewatch. But because I've seen this movie so many times, I smile every time it comes up because it's reminding me. I know the happy ending this movie is going to have. Yes, you know where we're going. How many times do you think you've seen this, Amos? Oh, God, it's got to be at least half a dozen. But probably probably more digits. Yeah. Oh, my gosh, I love it. I don't know if you saw this, but there was a bit of trivia out there that the role of Glenn was originally written with Jim Carrey in mind. You know, I did see that. I'm glad you brought it up. I can't picture that at all. I like I like this actor as Glenn. I'm blanking on his name right now. But he is Matthew Glaive, I believe it is Matthew Glaive. Yeah. OK, he's a perfect Glenn. Like he looks he looks like that kind of, you know, he was you can tell he was like an athlete and in school. He's he's just totally different from Sandler, who is, you know, as a lovingly more shrub, shrubby. And this guy's just this brawny kind of like polo wearing guy. I think he's great. I can't imagine Jim Carrey in that role. It would have been very different, huh? Yeah. And to me, there are a couple of weird things about the casting choices they didn't make, because apparently they considered all of these much more famous people. And I feel like it's great that they did not cast someone who we've rooted for as a lead in anything else with Jim Carrey. We're maybe not in the cable guy, but we're used to rooting for him. Same with anyone else who who's been a lead in a comedy of their own. But also, I think that, you know, it makes it simpler. This guy's just bad. He's he's he's a creep. He's he objectifies women. He's actively mean to old people. Adam Sandler teaching an old lady to sing on the barter system. Oh, my God. Glenn and his boys will punch an old man. Yeah. And beyond that. And so it makes it like an easier confection, this whole movie. Obviously, Julia shouldn't be with this guy. Robbie is creative. He's creative, even in how he deals with people. He's creative in the sense that he's a songwriter. He's generous. And then you've got Glenn. And it's not just that he's a Flandering Wall Street guy, which is a very easy kind of guy to root against. But what does he spend that money on? He spends that money on the most of the moment things possible. Dressing like he's in Miami Vice, a DeLorean, which by the way, between his whole personality and the DeLorean, you can't imply cocaine much more without putting it in a movie. Yeah, you're so right. Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like if you were to put someone like Jim Carrey in that role, it immediately makes him a hundred times more creative. Yeah. Because Jim Carrey, everything he does is going to be imbued with a little more pizzazz, a creativity. And Glenn has no pizzazz. All of his pizzazz is bought. Yeah, you're right. Absolutely. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. I think Jim Carrey would have been distracting in many ways. And like you said, we would root for him even if he's, and I think he would be a fun villain, a villain where you could still only want to watch him. Whereas Glenn is just a villain, right? Like he's, we just, you know from the get go, he and Linda, Robbie's ex, great casting, because I think her name's Angela Featherstone. I know she had done a good amount of stuff as well back then. Just great casting because you know right off the bat, there's not. And maybe it goes back to Drew's, like you were saying, her whole angelic vibe. And these two don't have that. And you're just like, they're a little like shady. Yeah. He's, he's a really good bad guy. And he, I love how later on the plane, he, much like Linda, I forgot about this. Robbie had told Julia, you know, it's the little things that I should have taken seriously. But I just ignored. And Julia says, yeah, those little things matter. When they went to the Grand Canyon, Robbie and Linda, he talks about this trip and he says, she had been there before and I hadn't. And she wouldn't let me sit in the window seat. And that's a bummer. And then here, the same thing is now happening with her on the plane going to Vegas. And she doesn't want to get married in Vegas. He just wants to party in Vegas, right? We know that. But she, she says, oh, well, you know, I, I hate that seat. The bar card always hits my elbow. I'm going to stay here. And how about this? I will let you lean over me to look out the window. It's like, oh my God, this guy, I just feel so bad because she doesn't like him. Brady, in that moment, she's like, oh God, okay. You know, and then she gets her elbow hit by the bar card. So good casting with those villains. Because I agree. I think anyone more famous or has led movies, you know, big popular movies previously, it would be, it would complicate things. And you want these people to, you want the audience to know that these people are not good enough right off the bat. On that note, let me, let me ask you something. Have you ever had an Alabama slammer? No, I don't think I ever have. Do you know what's in an Alabama slammer? I don't think I do. Tell me. Because I, I didn't know what's in an Alabama slammer. And, you know, Glenn talks about, I think the night of his bachelor party talks about getting some Alabama slammers. So I looked it up and are you ready? Because this sounds. Tell me. Okay, it's got Slogan, Amaretto, Orange Juice, and Southern Comfort. Oh, that sounds like, like literally my stomach just like moved a bit. That sounds like a couple of things competing there. I can't picture drinking that without vomiting. I just, I cannot. Amaretto and Orange Juice, you had me at those two. Yeah, it's a no. It's a no from me. Huh, yuck. I would say no to that. Oh, and another thing I just thought of, you talking about the alcohol, both Robbie and Julia don't really drink. They both pass on, although she does drink, but she gets really sick at the club when they're on their double date. But they both kind of say, even from the get go, like, oh no, I'm good. So that's another thing. This movie really is showing us, you gotta not care about sex or alcohol. And you're going to live a happy life with your significant other. He's more than a lover. You think of the jacket? I don't know, man. I would lose that glove. You look nuts. He's more than a legend. One of my big takeaways from this movie is that the way it's peppered with small characters is probably the best of the Sandler movies because, you know, after this, this might be a little harsh, but I feel like Sandler movies go downhill after this because Rob Schneider starts appearing in them. Oh, that's so interesting. I forgot the Schneider of it all. Yeah, I guess he wasn't. Yeah, right. He's not in this or his earlier ones. That's really interesting. Nope. The first one is The Waterboy later this year or later that same year. And from then on, it's like, like Fifth First Dates, there's a good movie in there, but there's so much crap stapled to it. Yeah. It is a sweet movie with two good leads. But then that Sean Aston character makes the movie grind to a halt. Rob Schneider is just cringe worthy in that movie. And so I think if you put me in an editing room with Fifth First Dates, I could give you a very, very good hour long movie. Yeah. The Schneider of it all. Thanks so much for watching. Next time, there's going to be a new movie that we'll talk about. So stay tuned and please follow Release Date Rewind on Instagram for updates. Bye.