The Wedding Ringer (2015)

 

Director: Jeremy Garelick

Cast: Kevin Hart, Josh Gad, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting

Screenplay: Jeremy Garelick, Jay Lavender

101 mins. Rated R for crude and sexual content, language throughout, some drug use and brief graphic nudity.

 

When a comedy is released in January, it isn’t a great sign. When that comedy is a Kevin Hart (Ride Along, Get Hard) film, it isn’t even a good sign (I do happen to like Mr. Hart, but he picks some real shit to step it). When the film starts with “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas, it is a downright bad sign. Well, here we have it: The Wedding Ringer. Full of bad signs, but is it bad?

As Doug Harris (Josh Gad, TV’s 1600 Penn, Frozen) gets closer and closer to his upcoming wedding, he comes closer and closer to the painful truth: Doug has no friends. He has no Groomsmen. He has no Best Man. That is, until he hears about Jimmy Callahan (Hart) and his job as a freelance Best Man. Now, Doug has not only hired Jimmy, but wants a full group of Groomsmen. When Jimmy becomes Bic Mitchum, he must pull off the ultimate wedding with the ultimate heist, and convince bride-to-be Gretchen (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, TV’s The Big Bang Theory, Hop) that it is all for real.

I enjoyed much more of The Wedding Ringer than I thought. I’ve seen a lot of Kevin Hart films and I haven’t seen a lot of good ones. I think he is an absolutely hilarious comedian, but I think he’s a disappointing actor. He just can’t carry an entire film. In The Wedding Ringer, we see him carry a film almost well enough to work. It doesn’t all work. It really doesn’t, but the fact that it is the closest I have seen to a good Kevin Hart film.

The chemistry between Hart and Gad is great here and mostly makes the film, much more so than Cuoco-Sweeting’s completely horrendous performance, especially in her scenes with Gad.

The most fun in this film comes from the cadre of fake Groomsmen. I especially like Jorge Garcia and his subtle (albeit late-to-the-game) Lost reference. I also really loved the idea of the wedding being played like a heist. It isn’t mined very well, but it has enough likability to get you through the film.

Now, the film itself isn’t very good. It isn’t. It’s just a lot better than this film should’ve been. This time in 2016, the film won’t be a thought in the back of my mind whatsoever, but it was worth a view. Just one.

 

2.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

 

So what did you think of The Wedding Ringer? Have you seen it? Did you hear wedding bells or are you a runaway bride? Let me know!