The word skeptical comes to my mind when I think of Kevin Hart movies. When and actor in this day and age is averaging four films a year, you can't really expect quality. Josh Gad on the other hand is a truly untested leading actor, known by most as either Olaf from Frozen or as Elder Cunningham from the original cast of broadway comedy The Book of Mormon. With neither actor giving much reason to go and see Jeremy Garelick's The Wedding Ringer, how does this apparent comedy actually fare.
The Wedding Ringer follows Doug Harris (Gad) as he is about to marry the girl of his dreams (played by Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting). The main issues Doug has is that he has no best man, nor any groomsmen with which to carry out the proceedings. Enter Jimmy Callahan (Hart), a man employed by grooms to be their best man and learn everything in order to not only make a great experience for his clients, but to deliver the perfect best man speech. When Jimmy realises that he has to provide all seven groomsmen in just two weeks, he understands the challenge ahead of him and brings in an unlikely group of misfits to dil the roles…
As always I will start with a primary positive for the film. The pairing of Kevin Hart and Josh Gad is actually really fun to watch. It comes across very naturally and they clearly had fun in doing a lot of these scenes. The moments where Jimmy is learning about Doug's past are among the highlights. They also use Gad's broadway experience throughout the film through dancing, singing (though silly) and timing and all round star quality in multiple scenes. As I say, his comedic timing is great though some notes will be taken later. Another positive is that this film never thinks of itself as anything more than what it is, which is a light laughs comedy for late-teen boys looking for an easy laugh for an hour or two. The story does give some surprisingly tender moments, all through the great chemistry between Gad and Hart. Kevin Hart actually has some great monologue material throughout this film, especially when relating to why he does his job. All in all the chemistry is fun, light and very believable…
Right so that's the positive! Now on to the rest:
The main problem I have with Kevin Hart is the exact same problem I have with him in every other film he's in. He is just Kevin Hart being Kevin Hart. In fairness to him, there has been some very good acting from him, including in this film, but there's never any real character. He just plays the same old same old every time. Don't get me wrong though, there are times he is very funny here but this film's script, like every other Hart film, is tailor made for him without giving him anything different to try. More lightly race related gags, more super high pitched, fast paced talking and just more Kevin Hart being Kevin Hart. Another problem with this film is Josh Gad's mannerisms: While his comedic timing is great and he is frequently funny, his facial expressions, vocal phrasing and timing just comes across as a wannabe Jonah Hill. While Hill rarely puts a foot wrong with his timing, it's also his own quirky thing. Gad clearly tries to match up with that style of nerdy awkwardness mixed with what seems like over-confidence. Hill does this well and I'll admit Gad does too, but it just would have been nicer to see him burst on the leading role scene with his own flavour and style. Disappointing.
Comedy itself is a real mixed bag. Where some scenes are outright hilarious (both a reverse-speaking party trick and a groomsmen audition scene comes to mind) but there are many scenes that stick to what I call the 'frat-boy-formula'. You see it in Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler films:
'Let's set an old woman on fire! Let's make casually racist remarks, have old guys beat up young guys by doing things that young guys are stereotyped for as well as crude jokes about dogs licking balls!'...
Why you ask? Because it's worked before… for some reason. So many films have this crude humour with using violence to get that awkward laugh from people. The bachelor party scene literally looks, feels and plays out exactly like every other bachelor party scene in every other comedy movie from the last 10 years. Lots of booze, lots of stripper gags and penis jokes. I will say that one plot turn regarding the main stripper at this party is actually quite funny and original but to be honest, when everything else in that scene is tasteless guff, it's a lot easier to spot slightly different ideas. This film does too much and does it too similarly to too many other films.
Overall The Wedding Ringer is a serious mixed bag of good and bad comedy. Where some scenes actually hit the mark exactly how they should and to hilarious effect, there are an equal if not larger number of crude frat boy humour scenes with sex and violence used to awkwardly force a laugh. Overall this film is ok with a great leading pair, though they don't go beyond anything that we've seen already. A surprisingly good, though samey performance from Hart is enough to have me recommend this for fans of his style of comedy, but nothing else really sells it for me.
Jimmy Callahan may be the best best man, but this is an average average film.
The Wedding Ringer follows Doug Harris (Gad) as he is about to marry the girl of his dreams (played by Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting). The main issues Doug has is that he has no best man, nor any groomsmen with which to carry out the proceedings. Enter Jimmy Callahan (Hart), a man employed by grooms to be their best man and learn everything in order to not only make a great experience for his clients, but to deliver the perfect best man speech. When Jimmy realises that he has to provide all seven groomsmen in just two weeks, he understands the challenge ahead of him and brings in an unlikely group of misfits to dil the roles…
As always I will start with a primary positive for the film. The pairing of Kevin Hart and Josh Gad is actually really fun to watch. It comes across very naturally and they clearly had fun in doing a lot of these scenes. The moments where Jimmy is learning about Doug's past are among the highlights. They also use Gad's broadway experience throughout the film through dancing, singing (though silly) and timing and all round star quality in multiple scenes. As I say, his comedic timing is great though some notes will be taken later. Another positive is that this film never thinks of itself as anything more than what it is, which is a light laughs comedy for late-teen boys looking for an easy laugh for an hour or two. The story does give some surprisingly tender moments, all through the great chemistry between Gad and Hart. Kevin Hart actually has some great monologue material throughout this film, especially when relating to why he does his job. All in all the chemistry is fun, light and very believable…
Right so that's the positive! Now on to the rest:
The main problem I have with Kevin Hart is the exact same problem I have with him in every other film he's in. He is just Kevin Hart being Kevin Hart. In fairness to him, there has been some very good acting from him, including in this film, but there's never any real character. He just plays the same old same old every time. Don't get me wrong though, there are times he is very funny here but this film's script, like every other Hart film, is tailor made for him without giving him anything different to try. More lightly race related gags, more super high pitched, fast paced talking and just more Kevin Hart being Kevin Hart. Another problem with this film is Josh Gad's mannerisms: While his comedic timing is great and he is frequently funny, his facial expressions, vocal phrasing and timing just comes across as a wannabe Jonah Hill. While Hill rarely puts a foot wrong with his timing, it's also his own quirky thing. Gad clearly tries to match up with that style of nerdy awkwardness mixed with what seems like over-confidence. Hill does this well and I'll admit Gad does too, but it just would have been nicer to see him burst on the leading role scene with his own flavour and style. Disappointing.
Comedy itself is a real mixed bag. Where some scenes are outright hilarious (both a reverse-speaking party trick and a groomsmen audition scene comes to mind) but there are many scenes that stick to what I call the 'frat-boy-formula'. You see it in Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler films:
'Let's set an old woman on fire! Let's make casually racist remarks, have old guys beat up young guys by doing things that young guys are stereotyped for as well as crude jokes about dogs licking balls!'...
Why you ask? Because it's worked before… for some reason. So many films have this crude humour with using violence to get that awkward laugh from people. The bachelor party scene literally looks, feels and plays out exactly like every other bachelor party scene in every other comedy movie from the last 10 years. Lots of booze, lots of stripper gags and penis jokes. I will say that one plot turn regarding the main stripper at this party is actually quite funny and original but to be honest, when everything else in that scene is tasteless guff, it's a lot easier to spot slightly different ideas. This film does too much and does it too similarly to too many other films.
Overall The Wedding Ringer is a serious mixed bag of good and bad comedy. Where some scenes actually hit the mark exactly how they should and to hilarious effect, there are an equal if not larger number of crude frat boy humour scenes with sex and violence used to awkwardly force a laugh. Overall this film is ok with a great leading pair, though they don't go beyond anything that we've seen already. A surprisingly good, though samey performance from Hart is enough to have me recommend this for fans of his style of comedy, but nothing else really sells it for me.
Jimmy Callahan may be the best best man, but this is an average average film.