Hey stop pushing ‘suddenly tall people at the back’.
In Bachelor Party Tom Hanks plays a Sandler-esque bus driver named Rick, soon to be wed to a high society nice girl type – and I know that Tom Hanks had a career Adam Sandler would kill for before he even was on SNL but I’m trying to paint a picture for the young folks here!
In any case with two weeks to go until the wedding Rick’s suitably rough around the edges buds are determined to organize a suitably car-azy bachelor party, with promises of “Chicks, guns, firetrucks, drugs, booze, hookers… all the things that make life worth living!”
And indeed most of those can be ticked off in the ensuing 90 minutes that might have proved groundbreaking at the time, but is now just another film where the doofus marries the chick that’s too good for him – much to everyone’s apparent consternation.
Those especially ‘consternatious’ here include the parents and family of the bride, a rival suitor jock complete with a brand new Porche and indeed the friends of Rick who wonder if he is really doing the right thing.
Rick is indeed a young bonehead, but not at a similar level to the American Pie kids or your assorted Road Trip etc clones, he is largely respectful to those who warrant such treatment (at least compared to others) and is generally well behaved aside from some minor hijinks. In fact he seems quite likeable, but then after all he is Tom Hanks, the guy that has been
practically impossible to detest for almost 4 decades.
The party itself starts small but builds steadily throughout the film, enveloping many other passers by and the curious as it gains momentum, however in the main it is only mildly uproarious and generally decidedly lacking in hedonist acts. I’ve said before that it is always strange to look back at what passed for outrageous or edgy in the past – last year’s
Led Zeppelin is next year’s easy listening – but aside from one brief, albeit notable and gravity defying scene involving nudity this Bachelor Party isn’t especially anti-establishment at all, until the donkey shows up…
Final Rating – 6 /10. There’s a distinct chance that people in their early 40s caught this at a pivotal moment in their lives and recall this as a turning point. I look at it as a dated and slightly staid snapshot of the mid 80s. If Tom Hanks wasn’t in it, you probably wouldn’t have heard of it.
