Practically a year to the day after the Ice Cube/Kevin Hart action comedy “Ride Along” opened (becoming 2014’s first box office hit), Hart is back with the romantic comedy “The Wedding Ringer”. He plays Jimmy, the owner of a Best Man service business in which he participates in the weddings of total strangers who don’t have a real close friend to be their Best Man.
Doug (Josh Gad) is one of those guys. He’s gone through his Rolodex and can’t find anyone to be the Best Man at his upcoming wedding to demanding fiancee Gretchen (“The Big Bang Theory” star Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting). So he hires Jimmy, who also needs to recruit seven other guys to be Doug’s groomsmen. Of course, this all has to be kept secret from Gretchen, her family, and all the wedding guests. For his fake identity this time, Jimmy is a priest from North Dakota who also serves in the military named Bic Mitchum. As the story goes, he and Doug have been best friends since college.
Of course, in reality, Jimmy and Doug know nothing about each other. But that will change over the next 10 days.
“The Wedding Ringer” is a lot funnier than I expected. Hart and Gad deliver many smarter than average, laugh-out-loud lines that poke fun at relationships, their characters, and completely random material. The humor is often raunchy, but mostly positive, current and on target. The duo make for an entertaining on-screen pair well beyond the five-minute dance sequence teased in the trailer.
While the concept of the “The Wedding Ringer” is unique, the execution is predictable, though never dull. The middle act is the weakest due to extended periods of time spent at Doug’s bachelor party, the ridiculous rest of the evening, and a touch football game featuring NFL Hall of Famers which was added simply to fill time.
And, unfortunately, the story gets overly sentimental at times. You expect it at the end, but too often throughout the film, Hart, Gad and Jennifer Lewis (who plays Jimmy’s assistant) have scenes involving heart to heart conversations that kill the mood of what wants to be and should be simply an outrageous comedy. These auditions for dramatic roles in future films were unnecessary.
However, a refreshing effort with a satisfying number of laughs is a not a bad way to kick-off the genre in 2015, and it’s a welcome alternative to all the serious Awards Season options currently in theaters. Plus, if you’re a Cloris Leachman fan and thought she was ready to retire from acting, you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “The Wedding Ringer” gets a B-.
Running Time: 101 min.