The Wedding Ringer

I'm now writing this review back to back with another (similar?) comedy Unfinished Business (2015) with Vince Vaughn (who actually was supposed to be the star of the wedding ringer along with Owen Wilson).

I'm disappointed from most of the recent comedies, so I had low expectations with this one too. Well...the verdict is...it's better than expected! Not a masterpiece or anything but it works.

The premise? You've seen it before in many variations. A socially unpopular guy is engaged to be married with a "hot" woman, above his looks and status. His problem? He doesn't have any friends, so he hires a professional "best man" and his team, so he can offer to his woman the wedding she dreamed of.

Josh Gad and Kevin Hart are not first class comedians. They have some chemistry though, so the inevitable bromance works.

There are some funny moments. A dance. Some crude humor but not too much. It looks like Wedding Crashers "Lite".

Overall: Watch it if you had the time. Not great but overall is satisfying enough.

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A comedy starring Kevin Hart, The Wedding Ringer is a tale of a Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart) who has a business that help grooms survive the wedding process. In this case Doug Harris (Josh Gad) has found the woman of his dreams. He just has to give her the fairy tale ending she deserves. In comes Bic (Kevin Hart) to save the day (for a small fee) and allow the couple to live happily ever after. A silly funny film that makes for a good laugh and realize the silliness of putting needless pressures on a big day in a man and woman's life. A perfect movie for those days you want to have a big laugh. I enjoyed it and can't wait for my wedding day.

Doug is a nerdy introvert who is about to get married to a beautiful girl Gretchen. However, with two weeks to go before their grand wedding, Doug still could not come up with a Best Men and six groomsmen. Enter the smooth-talking hustler Jimmy who runs a Best Man for rent business to provide what Doug so desperately needed: a best friend. The spoofy title comes from the traditional Best Man duty of bringing the wedding rings during the ceremony.

Many wedding comedies would be about the bride, like "My Best Friend's Wedding" or "Bride Wars." There have been movies about the parents, like "Father of the Bride" or "Mother of the Bride". There have been been movies about the "The Wedding Planner" or "The Wedding Singer' or even "Wedding Crashers.' More recently, there had films about members of the entourage of either gender, "The Hangover" and "Bridesmaids." As a point of distinction, "The Wedding Ringer" is an uncommon wedding comedy made from the point of view of the groom.

Josh Gad is well-cast as the shy and socially-inept groom-to-be Doug. With his chubby frame, smiling face and polite demeanor, it is not hard to rally behind him and root him on. It is not really hard to conceive how a significant number of men could face the problems as Doug, not having male friends close enough to call a best man or groomsmen. He is easy for the audience to identify with.

Kevin Hart is a natural to play the boisterous and gregarious Jimmy, who had to fit in all the tall tales that Doug told Gretchen about his imaginary "best friend" dubiously named Bic. Despite his character's filthy mouth prone to profanity, Hart still manages to be funny and engaging in a potentially annoying role.

The other actors portraying the "groomsmen" were a rowdy random bunch of the strangest types of men. They were hit and miss in their jokes, many times coming off as too cringe-worthy. Easily recognizable among them is hefty, long-haired Jorge Garcia. The very final scene is even a well- placed reference to Garcia's most famous role on the hit TV thriller series "Lost."

As the bride Gretchen, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting basically reprises her breakthrough role as a sexy but flaky girl in an unlikely relationship with a nerd on hit TV comedy series "Big Bang Theory". More positively impressive is Olivia Thirlby as Gretchen's younger sister Alison. Ms. Thirlby is very pretty and smart, making a mark despite her limited screen time.

Overall, "The Wedding Ringer," with all its derivative, shallow and raunchy humor, still manages to come across with some insightful ideas about male friendships and its intricacies. The lead pair of Josh Gad and Kevin Hart share a vibrant bromantic comic chemistry together that is a lot of fun to watch. Looking forward to watching more film projects starring these two upcoming young comedians. 6/10.

I did not think it would be as funny as it was.

I knew Kevin Hart would be hilarious cause that is what Hart does no matter what the quality of the actual film is, but the entire movie and it's cast turned out to be humorous as well.

It was one of the strangest guy movies I've ever seen with a strange cast of guys in it. Add to the strangeness is the fact that it centers around a wedding. Guy movies usually don't do that.

The movie could have been done with more depth, but like most Kevin Hart vehicles, the only true purpose is to showcase his own comedy, so its not gonna win any awards, but its a goes time at the movies.

I really wanted to like this movie, mainly because I think Kevin Hart has had a rough few years. Not financially of course; the guy has been starring in more than a few comedies the past couple years, but critically, none of them (Ride Along, Get Hard, About Last Night) can be called a genuinely great movie. The Wedding Ringer is the best of the bunch, though. This is Kevin Hart in his element - his most dynamic performance and playing a Hitch-style role where he gets hired to be people's best mans for guys who don't have any friends. Josh Gad plays the loser character, and he and Hart have great chemistry and some very funny back and forth moments. I was actually surprised at how much I was enjoying this movie for the first half, but then the problems became too glaring to ignore.

The premise feels fresh and fun in the beginning. It felt like a cross between Wedding Crashers and I Love You, Man without directly copying either of them. The problem is, those movies had more character depth beyond their two leads. Here, every character besides Hart and Gad are cardboard cutouts. The biggest offender is Paige, played by Kaley Cuoco. She is the most shallow caricature of a woman I've seen in comedy in a long long time. It's a shame because Kaley does what she can, but her character is so one-dimensional you can't even connect with her on any level. The random groomsman have their moments, but they're still only caricatures. There's the buff guy, the fresh out of prison rapist, the guy who likes pulling out his penis, the socially awkward guy, etc. They may have defining traits, but not one of them feels like a fleshed out character.

Structure is another problem in this movie because after an excellent setup, it starts going down the list of the same tropes and beats as every other zany wedding comedy. Competitive family football scene? Check. Guy finding out girl is actually a bitch? Check. Guy and employer who have a strictly business relationship actually become friends in the end? Check. It's a shame because when Kevin Hart is given a chance to shine, he shines. But those moments become less and less often as the movie tries to tie itself neatly with a bow in the third act.

The Wedding Ringer is good for a few laughs, but in the end it's just another Kevin Hart comedy that had potential but didn't explore it. The man has proved himself to be a comedic force to be reckoned with. Now it's just a waiting game until he finds a script that fully plays to his strengths. Until then, The Wedding Ringer seems to be the one to beat, and as far as raunchy comedies go, you could do a lot worse.