SHOTGUN WEDDING: Review
Shotgun Wedding genuinely had a chance of being something pleasant. I mean after all, all the ingredients to do so we're there- it had two likable charming good looking leads, a beautiful location, and a ridiculous plot that could've served up a fun rom com adventure. Unfortunately the only part of that, that this one managed to live upto- was the easy lay up, beautiful location.
Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) gather their families for a destination wedding, but the ceremony gets put on hold when gunmen take everyone hostage. Now, they must do everything they can to save their loved ones -- if they don't wind up killing each other first.
Right from the jump we're given the most cliche backgrounds for our characters. Both extremely successful and goodlooking, yet her family loves her ex (Lenny Kravitz) and looks down upon her fiancé. Which might've worked if the character they were scoffing at, wasn't the insanely likable Duhamel- playing a minor league baseball player, because getting paid to play a sport even at that level is laughable apparently. From there we get the classic, his family is kooky to go along with his supposed failures in her families eyes. Once we get into the pirate action, it has a chance to carve out its own niche in the genre- but it never really gets there.
When it tries to be funny, it's too late at telling the punchline. Or they've spoonfed us where the joke was going minutes earlier, so it's not funny anymore. Along with that, it takes itself far too seriously for the ridiculous plot point it's serving up. It gives itself a twist that admittedly does work, but doesn't really feel necessary when telling the story that it originally seemed like it was trying to tell. It ends up taking itself so seriously, that this becomes more of a bad action with sprinkles of comedy- than a romantic comedy of any sorts. Plagued with bad jokes, an over serious plot point, and uninteresting characters- it became a watch where it could've been easy to be distracted by other more interesting things going on elsewhere otherwise.
The cast is fine, Duhamel and Lopez give sturdy performances as expected. The chemistry is alright, it's nothing too strong but it's pleasant enough to follow along with. Jennifer Coolidge as always steals the show, and I just genuinely wish there was more of her within it- because she brought the rare laughs whenever she was on screen. Really nice seeing D'Arcy Carden with some more work, and she does a good job bouncing alongside the actors- but again it's an uninteresting predictable character arch.
Shotgun Wedding is on the lower end of the forgettable scale, it's one that I won't think about much- but if someone mentions it, it'll bring me back to just how much I actively detested this holiday wedding themed film.
37%