The Wedding Ringer

This review may contain spoilers!

This is the kind of comedy that you walk into knowing that it's a B-list film, I mean it ends on a Lost reference. I would give The Wedding Ringer a 4.5/10.

This film really hits it high with the comedic plot, frankly the film really gives it's all to keep you amused. The pacing was great and the two lead actors had some fantastic chemistry which really aided that. I also have to give special mention to the music used within this film, the great use of music humour added to more than one scene in this film.

Josh Gad, who played Doug Harris, was remarkably charming and bumbling in his leading role; his chemistry with Hart was incredibly great to watch as well. Jorge Garcia, who played Lurch/Garvey, was quite fun to watch in this film; he came with some great references and a really heartwarming speech. Corey Holcomb, who played Otis/Alzado, was really a bit of a charming role. Alan Ritchson, who played Kip/Carew, gave a really nice performance; he certainly was one of the more bumbling characters that you really felt for. Aaron Takahashi, who played Endo/Rambis, was really one of the characters who gave a great performance during the speech scene; his comedic inserts throughout the film were really great especially the Titanic audition. Jenifer Lewis, who played Doris Jenkins, really stunned in her performance; there was even a scene in which she outshined Hart. Olivia Thirlby, who played Alison Palmer, was a fantastic counterpart to Hart and they shared some great chemistry.

But really this was a film owned by Kevin Hart, who played Jimmy Callahan/Bic. Hart showed that he had the skills to play a variety of characters and emotion within the entire film; he was constantly alert. His chemistry onscreen with Gad essentially made the entire film. But I really have to say that I have a lot of respect for Hart as a comedic actor, he understands how to balance plot with humour and doesn't make the mistake of defaulting to humour to carry the film forward.

Yet as a film The Wedding Ringer felt more like a B list comedy when all is said and done; the plot had some serious cheap jokes and scenes. The construction of an exact antagonist was hard to pin down and I don't think the film really took itself seriously enough. The cinematography and editing also created a fairly trashy vibe that did nothing to improve the film in my eyes.

Affion Crockett, who played Reggie/Drysdale, was such a background character that you never really felt his presence. Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, who played Gretchen Palmer, wasn't a very clear antagonist; I still have no idea how much of a bad person she really was in hindsight. Dan Gill, who played Bronstein/Dickerson, was another character who just faded into the background and lacked screen presence. Ken Howard, who played Ed Palmer, was just this stock stereotype performance that added nothing to the film. Colin Kane, who played Fitzgibbons/Plunkett, was a character with some awful character traits who was rewarded for never really getting redemption by the end of the film; an example of some of the poorly written character work. Ignaccio Serricchio, who played Edmundo/Dirty Eddy Sanchez, played two stereotypes which was quite disappointing to watch.