The Wedding Ringer proves hilarious,
absurd, and a wonderful surprise. It serves as not only a great date movie, but
also a great date test. If your date fails to find this movie funny, move
on to the next candidate.
Kevin Hart gives a
great performance as Jimmy Callahan, who, for a price, will attend your wedding
as your best man, pretend that you two experienced together a long history, and
tell lies to your new wife and her family to make you look good.
Josh Gad
demonstrates an equally lovable performance as Doug Harris, who, about to
marry without a single friend to name his best man, hires Jimmy.
Yes, filmmakers
put together similar movies in the past, but let me know when you
think you found a completely original plot, and I’ll point out as many of its obvious
influences as you possess time to hear.
This movie piles
on the laughs. Ten seconds rarely pass without something funny as hell to show
for it. The humor often proves ridiculous, so you’ll often require a wide suspension
of disbelief.
Two serious scenes
exist (I combine two back-to-back, short scenes here). They work beautifully,
give us exactly what we need to know to appreciate and empathize with the characters and
their situations.
These scenes last
as long as they need to and not a second longer. The writers and
director paced nearly everything with remarkable perfection.
I say “nearly”
because a football scene near the end (though funny) feels a bit forced and
creates a bit of a speed bump before Act Three opens.
I imagine that the
writers felt that the football scene would help lubricate the eventual bound between
Jimmy and Doug, as well as remind its audience members of the friends they
possibly made on the field.
The football scene
pays off to that extent, but not enough to justify its existence (call me a
minimalist). Still, I nitpick heavily with this criticism.
This movie works.
The actresses and actors appear to love every minute of it. The laughs might
cure cancer, given their potency.
Those two
aforementioned “serious” scenes work wonders to humanize and make believable
our two main characters.
The moral premise
proves vital to a healthy, happy life without a preachy moment.
I enjoyed The Wedding Ringer and hope that the
producers don’t make a terrible, direct-to-video (disc, whatever) sequel.
Thanks for reading.
You probably noticed that I went about a week without a blog
entry. I apologize for that. The creation of the prototype for my card game, Duelists of Darkwana (based on my novel
series, Diaries of Darkwana), managed
to eat up a lot of my time.
I also need to explain, on that note, where the heck the third
novel for that series went. It sits done and ready to publish on Kindle.
At the moment, my wonderful cover artist deals with a few
distractions. I promise that as soon as I get the completed cover art from her
(if not sooner), I shall publish the third novel in my series.
OH! Also, Daughters of
Darkwana received a sweet, succinct review, which you can read here, http://www.thebookeaters.co.uk/daughters-of-darkwana-by-martin-wolt-jr/
I
publish my blogs as follows:
Tuesdays:
A look at the politics of the entertainment world at EntertainmentMicroscope.blogspot.com.
Wednesdays:
An inside look at my novels (such as Daughters of Darkwana, which you can now find on Kindle) at Darkwana.blogspot.com
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