Starring Adam Sandler, and Drew Barrymore Directed by Frank Coraci Rated PG-13, with moderate profanity and double entendres Running time 95 minutes Jack gives this film a rating of 4 out of 10

(Feb. 13, 1998) -- In his uneven new comedy, Adam Sandler learns to be satisfied with dancing to the beat of a different drummer, even if that drummer is playing for weddings and bar mitzvahs.

He's Robbie Hart, The Wedding Singer.

As the film opens, Robbie's doing a fine job, entertaining a big wedding party at the supper club that employs him. But Robbie's world falls apart a few days later when his fiancee leaves him standing at the altar on his own wedding day.

After being dumped, Robbie goes into a funk, and is thrown out of one wedding function when he rips into a roaring version of Love Stinks.

Ah, but love comes to the rescue once again; Robbie befriends Julia, a cute new waitress at the supper club. But Robbie must be cursed -- Julia is engaged to another guy. Rob's only hope is that the relationship will collapse and he'll get the girl.

If you think any other conclusion is possible in this movie, you need to get out more.

Of course, screenwriter Tim Herlihy and director Frank Coraci stack the deck by making Julia's fiance an egotistical, philandering jerk. If that's not enough, they also make Robbie's old girlfriend a tough-as-nails woman who looks like she moonlights as a stripper at truck stops.

Our hero and heroine have little choice but to fall in love with each other.

Herlihy's screenplay offers few laughs on its own; the film's most humorist moments come from Sandler's low-key, off-hand delivery. The funniest scenes are Sandler's performances of wacky songs, supposedly written by his character.

For no particular reason, The Wedding Singer is set in the mid-1980s. (I can't believe it's already time to get nostalgic for Miami Vice, Michael Jackson, and Boy George, but that's what the film tries to generate.)

Barrymore seems ill-at-ease with a role that's written too sweet and innocent to be believed.

The pouty Barrymore sports an unattractive haircut and baggy clothes. Her supposed romance with a handsome, fast-living Lothario seems as believable as Hugh Hefner going steady with Maria Osmond.

However, Sandler works so hard to be warm and appealing, he's difficult to resist. Robbie Hart will never play Carnegie Hall, but he seems right at home as The Wedding Singer. http://www.weddingsinger.com/