Monday, 23 February 2015

Film Review - The Wedding Ringer

To be honest, I didn't really expect much from this one. 

It looked very much like a standard formula, with all the best bits in the trailer. And after the last few months of being fed Oscar candidates week after week, then a few huge budget nonsense efforts that have been pretty predictable, I really expected for this to be a virtual week off with a lazy formula comedy that I could write all the jokes myself.

Josh Gad doesn't do anything particularly special, but at the same time he doesn't interfere with the virtuoso performance from Kevin Hart. 

Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting wasn't great but maybe that was my fault because I so associate her with Penny from Big Bang Theory that I couldn't really see her as a different character. Olivia Thirlby on the other hand was great. And her variety of performances, following this on from Dredd and the Darkest Hour shows she has a great range that I can see this complete change of pace paying off for her in future. 


Kevin Hart though is an absolute gem throughout. It isn't that he steals every scene, because he doesn't. That would imply somehow that he gets in the way of the other performances, which certainly isn't a fair description. He lets everyone else do what they can and then he fills in the spaces around them just the right amount to round everything out. 

On the very minor downsides, some of the language is unnecessary, and some of the cheaper, ruder gags are unworthy of the general quality of the film. 

This is right at the top of the 7/10 range. If I wasn't such a cheapskate with the 8 and 9 scores this would probably have earned the 8.

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