Hogan Webb
Staff Writer
Picking someone to be the best man at a wedding is a difficult decision, it makes it much harder when you don’t even have a single friend.
“The Wedding Ringer”, starring Kevin Hart, and directed by Jeremy Garelick, falls short of its high-set box office expectations of being one of the funniest films of the year. Kevin Harts jokes come off as very repetitive and the plot does not have much depth. Despite the negative, there are some extremely funny scenes, and the music choice and overall plot idea are very good.
Hart plays the lead role of Jimmy Callahan, who owns a business called Best Man Incorporated. His co-star Josh Gad plays Doug Harris, who is a friendless man that is about to get married to his dream girl, and hires Callahan to be his best man for the wedding.
Doug must learn everything about his new best friend and the seven groomsmen that he hires to also act as his lifelong friends. They must all seem like best friends on the wedding day so no one is suspicious that Doug hired them.
Kevin Hart has a very loud and interactive humor style, which is funny in small doses. The film has too many scenes where it is just Hart telling jokes. In the end of the movie when they are at the wedding, there is a scene where Hart dances in front of the audience. The dancing goes on way too long and becomes repetitive and not very funny.
Gads and Hart’s ‘bromance’ relationship is slightly immature to the point where it is not funny. Considering they are both grown adults, it feels like watching two 15 year olds interact.The scene at the wedding where they dance together is incredibly generic and has been used in multiple other movies.
One positive aspect of this film is the music, done by Jeremy Garelick. The song choice is very ironic and funny based on the situation such as when the groomsmen danced to the song ‘Teach Me How to Dougie.’ When the jokes were not on point, the music was there to save it and add some extra humor.
Although the plot could have been executed better it was a well-rounded and creative idea. Some people actually don’t have best men for weddings, and this movie offered a whole new humorous view on that. This plot has never been used before, and may even give some lonely men an idea of how to find a best man for their wedding.
The groomsmaids are possibly the funniest part of the movie. Jimmy rounds up a random group of guys so Doug has more friends at his wedding, and all of the them are uniquely weird and have hysterical backgrounds. For instance one of the groomsmen just escaped from federal prison, and another is a plumber who wants to escape his nagging wife.
Although “The Wedding Ringer” has a lot of positive and negative aspects, it is a very funny movie with a well rounded and creative plot idea. The music choice makes the movie even funnier and the character casting adds to the hilarious effect, and together they overcome the slightly immature and repetitive jokes.
“The Wedding Ringer” is rated R and is now playing in theaters nationwide.
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