Betsy's Wedding (1990)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Overrated and overhyped

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This movie was surprisingly funny and timeless. Alan Alda, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwold, Joe Pesci and the late Madeline Kahn star in this funny wedding movie. Everyone knows Alda as a funny man who has been turning in some more serious performances lately but who knew Joe Pesci could be funny? Naturally, there is trouble over putting Eddie Hopper's (Alda) daughter's (Ringwold) wedding together. Straightforward plot with interest created by great characters and the actors who play them. This is a fun movie about family. Alan Alda outdoes himself in this 80's comedy. It's like we have a part of his hawk-eye personality back from MASH in this comedy.The plot is very simple. Hopper's family is comfortable but not rich but the other family is rolling in dough and wants to take over the wedding. Oscar Henner (Pesci) is in construction but has ties to organized crime. Oscar is having an affair with his secretary but his wife (Catherine O'Hara) knows all about it. Hopper's other daughter (Sheedy) falls for the nephew (Anthony LaPaglia as Stevie Dee) of Oscar's not so honest associate (Burt Young). She's a cop and he's connected to the mob. Eddie borrows money from Oscar to pay for the wedding but Oscar charges him interest. Oscar involves Eddie in a deal with his associate but to get out of the deal might get him killed. Oscar offers to find a tent for the wedding but cuts a deal with someone and gets the wrong kind of tent. By the way, Oscar rents an apartment to the newlyweds in one of his tenament slum buildings! By the way, look for Samuel Jackson (unknown then) in a very small bit part in the taxi depot scene. It's lots of fun. No nudity, sex, violence.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Rated only a "7" because of the annoying use of the "F" word throughout the film. A funny but uneven film. Alan Alda is the father of the bride just like Spencer Tracy and borrows a tiny bit from that movie. A lot of comic stereotypes. Betsy's mother (Madeline Kahn) is Jewish but it mostly pokes fun at the Italian Mafia. Joe Pesci plays the sneaky, unfaithful, dishonest Brother-In-Law. Anthony LaPaglia is hilarious playing his "Marlon Brando" impression to the hilt. (Think "Sky Masterson" from Guys and Dolls). Some character actors are wasted; Catherine O'Hara (the Home Alone mom) has very little to do and Burt Young can't act. But Joey Bishop steals the show as the dead father. Both Betsy (Molly Ringwald) and her sister seem too old for their roles. Ally Sheedy looks overweight. Best scenes: the Italian dinner, complete with drive-by shooting. The tent-wedding with a "cheesy" band and torrents of rain destroying the rented tent. The wedding ceremony with the Rabbi sneaking in "God" at the last moment. Alan Alda remembering the bride as his 10-year-old daughter. The movie is short, which is a good thing, as it runs out of ideas at the end. Alan Alda's better movies are "Sweet Liberty" and "The Four Seasons."

We thoroughly enjoyed this movie, especially the performance by "Without a Trace" Anthony LaPaglia. It really shows his range as an actor. I would have never thought he could play comedic roles, but his lines and delivery were hilarious!Great cast with Madeline Kahn of Blazing Saddles (she sure looked different).Catherine O'Hara has a great way to deal with a cheating husband Joe Pesci - again he too looks very different with a mustache and different hair. Burt Young of "Rocky" is excellent as the Italian mobster. I'm not a big Ally Sheedy or Molly Ringwall fan, but the other cast more than make up for their lack of charisma.

This is a significant failure for interesting reasons.Situations can be funny. Worlds can be funny. People can be too, but not all at the same time.Alda comes from a tradition where people are funny. Situations are there, and worlds too, but only so that funny people can be so.This is his script, and the whole idea is to fill the screen with people that he thinks are amusing. His style is soft caricatures so that's what we have here: soft Jewish mother, soft gangster, soft, soft, soft. Something like this formula works for MASH because the brand in such TeeVee shows is the accrued recognition without the edges. But this is long form film, not a skit. Edges are required. Even the gangster shootout is padded with charm. In such a situation, we seek out the most interesting character. Since there are none as characters, the game is to find the actor playing a character that we find appealing. Fortunately that is easy, since each actor is apparent as an actor.The one that is the focus for me this time and when I saw it as new, is Anthony LaPaglia as the genteel second generation gangster. He falls for Ally Sheedy, here in red hair. The expected center was to have been Betsy, played by Molly Ringwald. Her character is given one trait only, but that's all any is allowed. She is a wacky dress designer. The dresses aren't amusing, and most of them not that odd. This film, I think, is the turning point in her career, where we saw that she wasn't charming in the way we had seen earlier. I'm sure that is what she wanted, but there's nothing to substitute for how she was presented earlier.Its all the more striking because her sister is played by Ally Sheedy.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.