Review of The Wedding Ringer (2015) by Jess F — 22 Nov 2015

This is lazy cinema at it's worst. The Wedding Ringer is a rehash of other well liked film and not so well liked films. In essence it takes the plots of Hitch, I Love You, Man and Good Luck Chuck and rehashes it into something which isn't half as witty as the aforementioned films.

Kevin Hart does his loud mouth thing to usual effect and really only gets some solid laughs. Josh Gad channels his inner Kevin James. Ever since he became the breakout star of Frozen, Hollywood has been trying to make him the next big thing. Unfortunately his choices have been pretty pedestrian with Pixels and this farce. Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting (Penny from the Big Bang Theory) just looks glad to be in a movie. The supporting cast while do have comedic moments aren't fully realised.

I particularly felt bad for Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost) who does his best with a character who is given no particular quirk or trait. While Olivia Thirlby from Dredd turns up in a very underwritten role. Though Ryan O'Neal does provide some solid comic moments and zest.

In fact the one genuinely amusing scene in the entire film was an American Football match between the groomsmen and the father-in law to be's friends as the groomsmen get rolled over before hitting back.

On the whole the film has cringeworthy laugh out loud moments and offers nothing new to the romcom genre.

It even ends up with same old nonsense of realising the person you think you love is actually for wrong for you.

That guys who look like Jorge Garcia and Josh Gad can get girls who look like super models but aren't superficial. That the Ringer himself learns life lessons just like in the above films and The Ringer, while there were some amusing moments I just felt embarrassed for some of the actors in this film and this was a missed opportunity for all involved.

Overall, while this film did not annoy me like other films have, I sat watched with my brain on neutral and just rolled wit.h it. One for die hard fans of the actors otherwise ignore it even when it comes on late night telly.