[Review] The Wedding Ringer

It seems like the previews for The Wedding Ringer have been playing for ages, but that partially could be because you didn't realize it was a different movie from The Five-Year Engagement and Best Man Holiday. 

Things get off to a rough start when the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" rings in during the opening credits (although the musical cues are later redeemed during a montage when the underrated buddy anthem, "Fall Back Down" by Rancid plays). Anyway, Doug (Josh Gad) is getting married to Gretchen (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting), and he can't find anyone that wants to be his Best Man, because he doesn't have one friend to his name. This is where Jimmy (Kevin Hart) comes in. He heads his own business--a "Best Man for hire" gig, and he's an expert at running through the motions and all the necessary tactics to pull off something like this. His main rule guarantees no emotional attachments with his clients, but we all know these two are going to bro it out eventually.

A glaring problem from the get-go is that there's no chemistry between Doug and Gretchen. Their relationship is just never very believable, which, ya know, is usually pretty important if people are getting married (even on the big screen... especially on the big screen). And Gretchen must be incredibly oblivious if she hasn't been able to catch onto Doug's constant lies about having friends.

Kevin Hart is a charismatic screen presence, but the script here is heavily lacking and just really isn't funny. A lot of the dialogue is the equivalent of an amateur comedian failing on stage. The asinine jokes mostly entail rudimentary stereotypes and bottom-of-the-barrel gags. Even the blatant attempts at "heartfelt" moments fall flat, for the most part. Any other amount of satisfaction will depend on how much you enjoy watching people make wedding plans. Ain't nobody got time for that.

4/10