if the 70’s nostalgia didn’t make you feel old , the 80’s nostalgia is bound to .
one of the latter set , ” the wedding singer , ” seems to be written by someone who did not experience the 1980’s directly but only read about them in an article in parade magazine .
the wacky fashions are here .
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and the music .
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and references aplenty to celebrities and signs of the times , but it all seems tediously-and too obviously-inserted for the didn’t-we-dress-funny-back-then chuckle .
the plot is standard romantic comedy with nothing original : robbie ( adam sandler ) is a wedding singer ; julia ( drew barrymore ) waits tables at weddings .
both are engaged ; however , robbie’s fiance ( angela featherstone ) dumps him at the altar , and julia’s fiance ( matthew glave ) is a skirt-chasing speculator in junk bonds .
robbie and julia go through the expected ups-and-downs as they realize they were meant to be together .
i’ll fess up-i’ve never found adam sandler funny .
whatever his appeal is , i’ve missed it .
( other comedians i don’t get include pauly shore and pee wee herman-make your own judgments ) .
the stupidity and artificiality of the whole project is summarized in a cameo by billy idol as himself .
idol looks like hell , and the ravages of his lifestyle are barely concealed by thick makeup .
he’s mocked by a photo of his younger self on a rolling stone cover in the same scene .
we’re not supposed to notice that , and we’re not supposed to notice how silly it is that billy idol suddenly appears to play fairy godmother to robbie .
other cameos , by steve buscemi and jon lovitz , provide the only real laughs in the movie .
lovitz is especially good , playing a rival wedding singer plotting with the mania of a bond villain to take advantage of robbie’s post-break-up depression .