Movie Review: The Wedding Ringer – tries way too hard to be outrageous and comes off stupid.

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When I checked out the Wedding Ringer, I was hoping for a movie like “I Love You Man.” It kind of has the same plot. A guy short a friend has to find a best man for his wedding day. Then, unfortunately it all goes terribly, terribly wrong.

Doug Harris (Josh Gad) is that socially awkward everyman with a problem. It’s two weeks to his wedding day and he doesn’t have a best man. Lucky Doug gets a referral to Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart), owner and CEO of Best Man, Inc. This company has one goal. Giving the perfect best man to guys just like Doug. Of course, what starts as a con becomes a budding bromance between Doug and his fake best man Jimmy.

A movie has to be really bad, to have Kevin Hart in it and still make me hate it. Hell, I sat though Soul Plane…and loved it. But this one fell flat.

Here’s the deal. If you’re going to make rape jokes, if your going to make child molestation jokes, if you’re going to have a ‘service dog’ lick peanut butter off of someone’s privates or light Granny on fire, it better damn well be funny. Not light chuckle funny. I’m talking Hangover, ‘guys stealing Mike Tyson’s tiger’ funny.

This was just awkward. The entire theater was filled with uncomfortable silence for a good hour and 41 minutes. Despite Kevin Hart’s usual energetic, motor mouth delivery, the movie just wasn’t redeemable. The moments where Jimmy and Doug bonded are too heavy handed and too on the nose. The movie goes from slapstick, to a ‘Hallmark Presents’ movie about two dudes falling in love.

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The comedy goes over the top, in an attempt to be something like Hangover, but they did it wrong. For the most part, we weren’t forced to watch the really raunchy, gross stuff on Hangover. Instead, they’d do the cut-away and leave it up to our imagination, making it even more funny.

This movie didn’t pull it off. It fact, much like its main character, it tried way too hard to be outrageous and just came off as stupid.

The sad thing is, Hart and Gad had some serious on screen chemistry. These two could easily have done a great movie together. They both have excellent lines and great delivery. The problems arose with the plot. I think half of it was lifted from clips of Hitch and Wedding Crashers. The other half was probably written while in a rush, after a night of binge drinking. Implausible plot turns and ridiculous shenanigans abound.

Of course, all the weird looking men in the movie find beautiful hotties at the end. Another implausible plot turn. When has anyone seen that reversed? Where a really ugly chick gets the hottest guy? Pretty much never. That’s because it doesn’t happen.

Kevin Hart was really the only thing that made this movie even palatable. Other than that, it was kind of a mess. I really wish that they’d written a script worthy of him. Hell, at this point, I would have been happy with Soul Plane 2.

WE GAVE IT : 3 STARS!  Watch the Official Trailer and See the Official Movie Poster below

stars

 

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