Before the internet, Before cell phones, Before roller-blades, There was a time... 1985. Don't pretend you don't remember.

I was dreading The Wedding Singer. I have never quite recovered from the appalling experience that is Muriels Wedding (which is without doubt the most steaming bucket of Australian crapulosity I have ever been subjected to). Since then, anything with Wedding in the title has filled me with dread.

I am pleased to report that The Wedding Singer is nothing to be afraid of. Even my own unpleasant (but refreshingly brief) experience with matrimony failed to make this particular movie anything but a delight. This may have something to do with the fact that there is nobody in the movie who looks like my ex-wife – not true of Muriel’s Wedding (or for that matter, The Silence of the Lambs).

Adam Sandler confidently plays Robby a cabaret singer, whose main source of income appears to be singing at weddings. This is the fundamental thing that makes this movie different from almost other romantic comedies. He is not a butcher, baker or candlestick maker but a nice man who sings at weddings. Once you grasp this minor complication the plot pretty much defaults to what you would expect.

Boy (Robby) meets girl (Julia).

Julia is played by Drew Barrymore who looks pretty for the first, and possibly last time, since E.T

You know from the moment that they meet that they are destined to be together. All they need to do is get rid of the complications in the way:

Boy unfortunately is engaged to be married to a different girl. (Linda – Angela Featherstone)

Girl unfortunately is about to get married to a different boy. (Glenn – Matthew Grave)

So: Robbie gets dumped at the altar by Linda and drops into a deep depression. He is lower than an armadillos underpants. Julia decides to cheer him up by getting him to help with the arrangements for her wedding, which is still all going nicely. Julia is clearly an insensitive cow. Meanwhile Julia’s fiancé appears to be screwing for his country, except we assume Julia, who is far to nice for all of that. All we need to do now is get Julia to dump Glenn and shack up with Robby. Unfortunately Robby and Julia are totally blind to the feelings that they have for each other. Robbie is too miserable and Julia too wrapped up in the horrible Glenn. The plot continues – Julia finally gets interested in Robby but thinks he is back with his old girlfriend - the one who has just dumped him. Her life ruined, she rushes back into Glenn’s arms. (And who says men are fickle). Robbie, realising that Julia fancied him after all sets out to get her back. Will he? Can he? Does he? Such is the suspense of all such romantic comedies.

That about sums the story up. It’s predictable, it’s cliché, its lovely. However, on its own it would be as wet as a British holiday weekend and sweet enough to put into your tea. What makes the film is the music which is a lively romp through your favourite (or most hated) 80’s hits including Billy Idol’s ‘White Wedding’, ‘Hold Me Now’ (Thomspson Twins) ‘Do you Really Want To Hurt Me’ (Cultute Club) and a novel pensioners version of ‘Rappers Delight’ by The Surgarhill Gang(1). This is not incidental music but full frontal performances. Coupled with some lovely, if predictable comedic touches this is one girlie film that plenty of boys will enjoy as well. Billy Idol appears briefly as himself and who proves to be an able and amusing cameo performer. If you like the music then the film is great. If you don’t I imagine it would be a bit of a torture.

As a DVD The Wedding Singer is excellent. So voluminous would be my praise for it I would have to carry it in a wheelbarrow. There is tons of added value here. As well as both the widescreen and pan and scan versions of the film you also get a number of other added features. These really makes the disc good value and other manufactures should take note. The disc is run from rather intriguing animated menu that has various bits of drawing and scenes from the film glued together. It looks a little clumsy at the moment but I can see this kind of immersive menu taking off in a big way. It’s more like a computer game menu than what you are used to seeing on early DVD releases. Top of the feature list has to be the karaoke lounge, a separate bit of the disc where you can singalong to the best of the hits from the film, with or without the original vocal tracks. The words appear on screen for you to follow and although the moving stripe that indicates what word you should ‘singing’ is slightly ahead of where it should be it is close enough. I hate karaoke in all its forms (nobody except the plastic frog in my bath should ever have to listen to me singing) but have to concede that this is really quite fun.

On top of the karaoke you also get an 80’s music trivia quiz and the usual collection of lists and credits.

Picture and sound are exactly what you would expect from a DVD. It is the added value features that make this a must for you collection. After this happy ending, maybe I’ll even consider getting married again.