Rating 18
Length 1h40
Release 27.01.2023
Director Jason Moore
About Darcy and Tom gather their families for a destination wedding, but the ceremony gets put on hold when gunmen take everyone hostage. Now, they must do everything they can to save their loved ones — if they don’t wind up killing each other first.
Moon: no moon sighting
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime
Trailer:
The Good
- J-Lo is not winning any Oscars here, but I’m okay with that. She gives a solid comedic performance that one would expect. She does carry a lot of the film so it’s good that she’s really the worthwhile selling point.
The character of Darcy is likeable enough that you’re with her and want her to succeed. It’s just a shame the same cannot be said about the relationship she’s in. - Jennifer Coolidge! I love her! Not only do I love her, I finally appreciate what she brings to the table that no one else can. Honestly, if you’d had her as the focus of this film instead of J-Lo I would have watched the fuck out of that.
Would her comedic style translate to a protagonist without it’s novelty wearing off?! Maybe not, but I know I’d at least give it a go.
In the same sense as J-Lo, she ain’t winning any awards for the gimmicky Mother of the Groom but she will crack everyone watching up. - The story is fine enough. It’s Die Hard at a wedding. Only there is the refreshing change that there’s no one there who has a John McClain wrong place, wrong time but having that unique set of skills brings to an action movie. Yes, the movie makes use of Duhamel’s Tom being a baseball player and pretty much everyone gets to grips with handling a gun pretty quickly, but that’s easily overlooked.
The Bad
- Josh Duhamel was not right for the part of Tom. He was not believable as the insecure bloke, he had no chemistry with J-Lo and I just didn’t want him there.
In his defence, once you find out the role once belonged to Ryan Reynolds, it’s an uphill battle to be won over by Duhamel. However…. I only found that out because I looked it up because I’d already lost interest in him as a character.
In fact, most of my notes were comprised of actors who would have been better for the role and I settled on Joel McHale. This character is meant to have that insecurity while also having that element of awesomeness that McHale honed during his time on Community. - The relationship of Tom and Darcey doesn’t work. Again, at best it feels force, at worst he’s just an accessory to J-Lo’s Darcey. The biggest problem is that for this to work as a Wedding movie and a hate to love story, you have to start with the couple questioning getting married. Unfortunately, it worked so well that I didn’t feel satisfied with the resolution.
It almost would have worked better if they were the divorced parent’s of the bride who return to love because of the pirate entrance and hijinks.
The Ugly
- The opening 20 minutes are painful and what’s worse is that they’re unnecessary. Yes, it’s a way to get to know everyone, but it feels forced and could have been added to the scene of the actual wedding day. It all felt so flat and really made me question Tom and Darcey as a couple.
Like, even at the end I didn’t think they belonged together and that is down to the opinion I formed in those first 20 minutes that the rest of the film could not overcome.
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t require thought and it will be an ideal Saturday night movie for most. Just no sparks when it comes to romance.
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