Alan Alda Movie:

Editorial Review:
Alan Alda wrote, directed, and starred in this lightweight comedy about a wedding and the havoc it causes in one family. Dad (Alda) wants it big and splashy; Betsy (Molly Ringwald), the one who's actually getting married, wants something small and personal (and is even considering eloping). As the momentum shifts back and forth between lavish and intimate, other comic tussles are played out in the background--such as how Dad is going to pay for all this. The best moments belong to the odd couple of Ally Sheedy and Anthony LaPaglia: She's a cop and the bride's sister and he's a Mafia underling who discovers he has a thing for a woman in uniform. Even if it doesn't add up to much, it's painlessly entertaining nonetheless. --Marshall Fine

Betsy's Wedding [Region 2] Reviews:
HAT'S OFF FOR BETSY'S WEDDING
2008-09-25 - I SIMPLY LOVE THIS MOVIE. ANYTIME I FEEL LOW AND NEED A BOOST , THIS IS THE FEEL GOOD FILM I REACH FOR. IT IS ALSO FUNNY SEEING SAMUEL L JACKSON, BEFORE HE BECAME "BIG" AS A GUY IN THE GARAGE SCENE ( PRICELESS )THERE ISN'T ONE THING I DON'T LOVE ABOUT THIS FILM. I HAVE ATLEAST, FOUR COPIES OF THIS FILM, I'M NOT EVER GOING TOO BE WITHOUT "BETSY'S WEDDING "

UNDERRATED COMEDY
2006-06-04 - Loved it, and have for a long time. For some reason most people either haven't watched it, or didn't get it. Obviously from the reviews here you can see I am not alone in my rating. Joe Pesci is HILARIOUS, and the movie is filled with other great characters and funny moments. Just keeps you interested with witty dialogue and universal life experiences. Like 29TH STREET this is another underrated movie, which should after watching it cacth your attention if you like romantic comedies, like WHEN HARRY MET SALLY etc. Enjoy...

What a find!
2005-03-12 - I did not expect much from this movie, perhaps because I had just finished watching 20 Dates, one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Betsy's Wedding was a delight, very sweet, and incredibly funny. I have seen movies about wedding disasters before, but this one had me laughing until it hurt. Alan Alda and Madeline Kahn were outstanding as Betsy's parents.

Light hearted and funny!
2004-11-24 - 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 latley but who knew Joe Pesci could be funny? Naturally, there is trouble over putting Eddie Hopper's (Alda) daughter's (Ringwold) wedding together.

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!

The wedding turns out to be a disaster of course. The tent leaks and then a hole is opened in the roof of the tent and the rain pours in. The food gets ruined and Eddie has to send out for pizza and everyone has to take their shoes off because the tent gets flooded.

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. There is some foul language. I suggest a viewing of of at least 13.

One of 1990's most popular films
2003-12-31 - In Alan Alda's "Betsy's Wedding",he is Eddie Hopper,a construction foreman and architect. His daughter Betsy(Molly Ringwald) and her boyfriend Jake Lovell(Dylan Walsh) announce their engagement at a family gathering. Betsy's sister Connie(Ally Sheedy) is happy herself but jealously upset because she can't find herself a man. The late Madeline Kahn is Lola,Eddie's wife. At the gathering Lola's sister Gloria Henner(Catherine O'Hara) tells her she plans to get even with her husband Oscar(Oscar winner Joe Pesci) for all his inept schemes. Gloria says "Someday,when I have my nice little nestegg,I can take a walk and he can go f--- himself." Anthony LaPaglia is Stevie Dee,a guy who would later in the film become Connie's boyfriend. Stevie Dee's uncle Georgie(Burt Young) is a business associate of Oscar's. There's once scene where when Betsy and Jake meet with the man performing their wedding ceremony,the Dixie Cups' CHAPEL OF LOVE is played. They want to be pronounced "husband and wife" instead of "man and wife" and they have "obey" omitted from "love,honor and obey". The late Julie Bovasso plays Rose,Eddie's mother and Joey Bishop is Eddie's deceased father. The father,as a ghost,is seen and heard only by Eddie. The wedding was somewhat disasterous. It took place in a rented tent on a rainy evening. The tent was made of cheap,not-too-strong materials so a hole in the roof where the rain fell into increased to the point where it caved in. After a heated argument between Gloria and Oscar at the reception also in the tent,Gloria pulls a loose thread causing the growing hole and the dowse of fallen rain. So Connie and Stevie Dee can be together more often,Stevie Dee applies to the police academy,since Connie's a cop. Unbelievably,the wedding dinner was pizza! By the way,Oscar planned to divorce Gloria and become romantically involved with his secretary,who also attended Betsy's and Jake's wedding. That was one of the things that led to the argument. The wedding ceremony was performed in the Jewish style. Jake stepped on a wine glass wrapped in a cloth napkin. This film was Alan Alda's most successful and not a minor hit like "A New Life",another one of his personally scripted films.