You know that feeling you get watching a movie you swear you've seen before? A better movie that's clearly been robbed and retitled? You get 20 minutes in and then say to yourself or those around you, "Oh, I know what this is...", thereby spoiling the evening for everyone else before the inferior substitute on screen even has a chance to.

I had a different sensation watching Made of Honor. I got the feeling that I was watching I movie I had purposely avoided for years. I'm told by some that the movie I had successfully dodged for a decade is actually OK, but I wasn't convinced then and am certainly not convinced now. Still, I would've much rather seen My Best Friend's Wedding anyway, if not for the fact that I'd managed this long without it.

Wedding movies are, on average, incredibly cheesy affairs. If you're gullible enough to think this one "looks cute," let me break it down for you: She never marries the guy at the altar.

Made of Honor takes the following approach: Womanizing guy (Patrick Dempsey) has been best friend for years with fiercely loyal and coltish girl (Michelle Monaghan). When she gets engaged to someone else, the best friend realizes he's loved her all along. The hurdle is that the bridegroom-in-waiting is perfect and that the best friend is now the maid of honor.

To its credit, Made of Honor tries very hard to be funnier than its setup. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it's not. But I like that it at least tried some different jokes. Of course, it also tried some really obvious jokes but since it's still a movie made for people who think they'll actually get a different ending in this wedding movie as opposed to the dozens they've seen in the past, it's hard to blame the filmmakers for using some really obvious humor, too.

The trouble is, if the ending wasn't the ending the genre forces the ending to be and if Made of Honor really wanted to be a decent movie, it could've been, I suspect.

It's not really a decent movie, and that isn't surprising, but Dempsey and Monaghan play well off each other, well enough that I'd like to see them do something else that has a little more teeth to it.

But something with more teeth defeats the purpose of an also-ran like Made of Honor. They aimed for average and got average back, same as the audience. I guess that's not the ultimate disappointment, now is it?

Made of Honor

Starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan

Directed by Paul Weiland

Rated PG-13

Review by Colin Boyd

May 2, 2008