The Wedding Ringer
Dustin Chase
Kevin Hart has become the go to guy for movies opening up when people just need something to do. The hard hitting Oscar films are all out, it’s a New Year, and here comes Kevin Hart with his “brand” again, continuing to prove he is the new franchise comedy master. Hart seems to understand the short cycle of comedians who are hot one minute and then forced to take a look at the future of their career (i.e. Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler). Hart is churning out as many films where he plays Kevin Hart as he can, and The Wedding Ringer is just the latest in the popular raunchy buddy comedy series. It’s entirely aimed at the Bridesmaids / Hangover following where there is nothing these guys won’t do for a laugh; cue the penis jokes.
Jimmy Callahan (Hart) has created a truly successful and unique business where he comes to the need of engaged men who have no close male friends. He becomes their best man for a price. He has different packages, including the Golden Tux, where a best man and a choir of best men are needed to make the family, friends, and bride think the potential groom is socially normal. Doug Harris (Gad) is one of those guys: wealthy, smart and somehow landed the girl beyond his dreams. He has lied about his best man named Bic Mitchum, but with 10 days until the church and the bells, Jimmy and his rag tag crew have a lot of impersonating to do.
It’s entirely aimed at the Bridesmaids / Hangover following where there is nothing these guys won’t do for a laugh; cue the penis jokes.
I will just say that the scene where future grandmother-in-law Cloris Leachman goes up in flames is truly disturbing. Other scenes involving a dog and genitals might make you cringe, but most of the “stupid humor” you have already seen somewhere else in another similar movie. It’s part Meet the Parents, as the bride’s side of the family suspects something is not right with these new best friends, then there is an entire Bachelor party sequence that rivals the antics of the Hangover shenanigans. Perhaps the film’s most enjoyably ruckus scene is a dance duo between Hart and Gad where they really deliver a variety of moves.
Before you buy a ticket to The Wedding Ringer, what you think of it before you watch it will determine how you feel about it. If you want to laugh, you will. If these types of gross, vulgar and obscene comedies fail to make you laugh, then you will dislike it as much as I did. The Wedding Ringer attempts to have a moral in the story of two men finding friendship through ironic circumstances, which of course is reminiscent of the revived Jump Street films. Kevin Hart is doing what he does best, and if you like all the stuff he has done before, you will love this too.
Final Thought
Same raunchy buddy comedy antics we have seen before.