Review of The Wedding Ringer (2015) by Thequietgamer — 01 Jun 2015

Co-writer and director Jeremy Garelick uses the movies premise to deliver a series of random gags and a tale of friendship. The problem is that even with all of the crazy scenarios that take place there's not much humor to be found. There are some clever one-liners and some amusing physical humor, but overall it's not a funny film. A big shock considering it has Kevin Hart as one of it's two leads. Even as a huge fan of his I found myself wanting so much more.

The plot and it's moments of self-discovery and budding friendship all feel way too familiar. You can even predict how the whole romantic relationship that leads the wedding in the first place is going to turn out. None of this would be that bad of a problem had things actually been regularly funny. Instead what we get are a few good jokes thrown in amongst a bunch of absurd and random moments that fail to hit any comedic notes. Some of the stuff here is just offensive and cruel and not in the right way. Despite having talent like Hart and Gad at the helm of the film, the funny people here are actually the supporting cast that make up the groomsmen and they are barely in the film at all. The rest of the cast is just there to use unnecessary profanity.

Every now and then a funny moment will pop up, but they are so few in a film that is filled with so much wasted potential and talent. There are some funny people here who either aren't used or aren't used well. The chiefest example of this is Hart. He's a man who has proved that he is hilarious time and time again, and here he's just not. "The Wedding Ringer" had a lot of great things going for it, but unfortunately fails to capitalize on just about all of it. What we are left with is a comedy that is for the majority of it's runtime unfunny. This is a pretty big disappointment, especially for us Kevin Hart fans.

I give this movie a 4.5/10.