THE WEDDING RINGER (2015)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Jeremy Garelick
Cast: Kevin Hart, Josh Gad, Kaley Cuoco, Olivia Thirlby, Mimi Rogers, Nicky Whelan, Ken Howard, Affion Crockett, Jorge Garcia, Dan Gill, Corey Holcomb, Colin Kane, Jenifer Lewis, Alan Ritchson, Ignacio Serricchio, Aaron Takahashi
RunTime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Some Coarse Language, Sexual References And Drug Use)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing International
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/WeddingRinger

Opening Day: 29 January 2015

Synopsis: Doug Harris (Josh Gad) is a loveable but socially awkward groom-to-be with a problem: he has no best man. With less than two weeks to go until he marries the girl of his dreams (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting), Doug is referred to Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart), owner and CEO of Best Man, Inc., a company that provides flattering best men for socially challenged guys in need. What ensues is a hilarious wedding charade as they try to pull off the big con, and an unexpected budding bromance between Doug and his fake best man Jimmy.

Movie Review:

‘The Wedding Ringer’ joins a long line of wedding-themed comedies from ‘Wedding Crashers’ to ‘The Hangover’ to ‘Bridesmaids’ that Hollywood screenwriters seem to have no shortage of imagination over, and at least in concept, the idea of a friendless schlub who rents a best man for his big day seems a pretty funny one in and of itself. The titular ringer refers to Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart), a professional best man-for-hire whom you may engage to give you a crazy bachelor’s party, fill out the rest of your groomsmen, and most importantly of all, deliver a best-man toast that will leave your guests misty-eyed.

One such person who desperately needs his services is Doug (Josh Gad), who is due to marry a girl way out of his league in ten days but hasn’t got a single friend whom he can call on to be his best man – let alone groomsmen – for the wedding. To make matters worth, he’s promised his bride seven groomsmen for the day and named each one of them by mixing and matching common household products – for instance, his best man is called Bic Mitchum, formed by combining the names of his razor and deodorant in the medicine cabinet.  Only because Doug is willing to pay the right price does Jimmy agree to perform what the latter names ‘The Golden Tux’, which involves hiring a ragtag bunch to fill up the roles which the former had come up with.

So besides Jimmy aka Bic, Doug will also be joined by an ex-con (Colin Kane), a hen-pecked husband (Jorge Garcia), a hunky and occasionally stuttering doofus (Alan Ritchson), and an Asian guy with three testicles (Aaron Takahashi). Is it any surprise that, despite Jimmy’s warning at the start not to treat their relationship as any more than a business transaction, that the group of loveable losers will eventually become good friends? Or is it any surprise that Jimmy will realise how lonely he really is feeling inside from always being the best man and never the groom? Or that Jimmy will realise that he has simply rushed into marrying his fiancé Gretchen (The Big Bang Theory’s Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting) because he is afraid he will never find someone as beautiful to fall in love with a pudgy nerd like him?

Indeed, the screenplay by Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender (who previously scripted the Vince Vaughn/ Jennifer Aniston rom-com ‘The Break-Up’) ticks all the boxes that you would expect it to, including for that matter the fact that Doug’s father-in-law Ed (Ken Howard) dislikes him elementally. But what it lacks in originality, Garelick, who also directs the movie, makes up for it in a variety of chuckle-worthy gags. There is a mismatched game of touch football between Doug’s wedding party and Ed’s old team (made up of a bunch of NFL veterans, including Joe Namath and John Riggins) that gets more serious with each round. There is a bachelor party gone wrong which leaves Doug being bitten by a canine on his genitals. And our favourite of all is a wedding party Doug and Jimmy attend where they take to the dance floor to show off some pretty mean couple moves, ranging from hip hop to disco to Charleston.

The reason why the movie remains endearing despite its clichés is the chemistry between Hart and Gad. Right from their first meeting where Jimmy discovers to his horror that he’ll have to pretend to be a man named Bic Mitchum, there is real zing to their yin-yang pairing. Even as they are later on joined by a stellar supporting ensemble, Hart and Gad’s budding bromance remain the centre of the entire film, and their comic repartee is truly a delight to watch. It is also as good an introduction to Hart as any for those who are not yet familiar with the up-and-coming comedian, his high-octane breakneck style making him a surefire contender for this generation’s Eddie Murphy. Thankfully, Gad doesn’t try to outdo Hart’s shtick, instead relying on a sweet dignified earnestness as a complement to his co-star’s frenzied routine.

Because Hart and Gad are such game presence to be around, you’ll forgive the rather low-denominator humour that Garelick seems to rely on more frequently than he should be to elicit some laughs from his audience. Hart’s monologue about being the very few black Ethiopian Jews is rib-tickling funny, but the ‘gay’ jokes – including a groan-inducing homosexual wedding planner – gets stale too quickly and recycled too often. It’s no secret that ‘The Wedding Ringer’ tries to gun for that sweet and irreverent spot that ‘The Hangover’ struck on the head, and thanks to its ceaselessly appealing duo, it comes quite close a lot of the time.                                                                                           

Movie Rating:

(Kevin Hart and Josh Gad make a delightful yin-yang comic couple in this otherwise generic exercise of a sweet yet irreverent wedding-themed buddy comedy)

Review by Gabriel Chong