My first review of the year and it’s a Kevin Hart movie. I
know how that sounds, like man Julian is starting the hate MAD early. See I
like Kevin Hart, I laugh at Kevin Hart and I see most of his output even, that
Real Husbands of Hollywood show on BET. I just find it interesting that we
might be in a thing where mid-January is his time to shine in the theaters and
get money. One more year after Ride Along last year and this movie The Wedding
Ringer and proof will be in the pudding. The Wedding Ringer is another starring
vehicle for Hart this timed teamed with Josh Gad aka Olaf the new GOAT snowman.
Also in this movie is Kaley Cuoco and a personal fav of mine Olivia
Thirlby.
The Wedding Ringer is about Jimmy, played by Hart, a man that
sells his services as a Best Man to people who don’t have one for their
weddings. Josh Gad plays Doug, a man with no friends at all and is marrying his
dream girl but has been lying about a made up best friend by the name of Bic
Mitchum to her since they got engaged. Doug ends up being referred to Jimmy to
help him in his problem and he hires Jimmy to be Bic and also get him groomsman
and an entire history of friendship in two weeks before he weds Cuoco’s
Gretchen. That’s essentially what you learn in the trailer and to be honest I wasn’t
totally impressed with the idea in itself. Luckily I was surprised
with The Wedding Ringer, not only was there a lot more to the movie than I thought, they also
didn’t spoil all the great laughs in the trailer. I wanted to give someone a high
five for that alone.
Hart and Gad really play off of each other well. The script
and the performances play the dynamic of cool loner guy and lonely uncool guy
really well. The plot of the movie is very easy to guess in what happens to all
the characters. Friendships are made, backs are had, and muddy football games
are played. For the most part the film is pretty down to earth in what happens
with the comedy but for some reason once they get to the Bachelor Party things
get a little too wild, a little too, I might say, Adam Sandler-esque then
thankfully it goes back to a nice sense of normal. Another weird thing that
stood out to me is that Olivia Thirlby is shot almost entirely in soft focus
like it’s in the 60s. I don’t understand totally why they made that choice for
a movie in 2015 but hey whatever man. It’s not that distracting for 99.9% of
the audience.
