The Wedding Ringer

Looking for a good comedy to watch this weekend?  Go check out The Wedding Ringer, a silly comedy flick, starring Kevin Hart and Josh Gad.  I have seen a couple of Kevin Hart's other movies and became a fan of his big screen comedies.  Kevin Hart made himself famous through his successful stand up comedy performances.  However, his recent movies show that he is a multi-talented entertainer.

In The Wedding Ringer Hart plays the character of Jimmy Callahan- a smooth talking entrepreneur with a best man wedding service business.  Callahan is the best at his job because his business is one of a kind and, in the movie, there is a demand for a best man in the United States.  I thought this was a clever route to take because of the avenues that it offers for a comedy flick.  Josh Gad plays the character of Doug, an introvert who is about to get married to a beautiful woman named Gretchen and, with two weeks until their grand wedding Doug could not come up with a best man and six groomsman.  This is where Jimmy enters.

I have to say that it is nice to see a comedy that incorporates the groom's point of view throughout the majority of the movie.  Many recent wedding comedies are about the bride, like "My Best-friends Wedding" or "Bride Wars".  There have been movies about the parents, like "Father of the Bride" or "Mother of the Bride", and there have also been movies about the entourage of either gender, such as, "The Hangover" or "Bridesmaid".  What makes The Wedding Ringer unique is that it is told from the perspective of the groom.

Hart and Gad have a great connection on screen which help create hilarious scenes throughout the movie.  Hart's character, Jimmy, has to remember all the tall tales that Doug told Gretchen about his imaginary best friend Bic.  This is where I spent the majority of the time laughing.  Doug tells Gretchen that Bic (Hart) was a priest who was in the military, which is the only thing that Gretchen believes because she has never been introduced to her fiance's best friend.

The other groomsman Doug hires are a rowdy random bunch of strange men.  They have their times when their jokes hit and miss.  Easily recognizable among them was Jorge Garcia, from the ABC tv series "Lost".  The last scene of the movie was probably the best because it references Garcia's famous role in "Lost".  Another character that was easily recognizable was Aveon Crocket, a former comedian on the MTV show "Wild n Out".  I was expecting more from Crocket, but then again in this movie he was just a supporting actor.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie.  Kevin Hart is continuing his success on the big screen by making another movie with raunchy, shallow humor.  Somehow it still manages to come across with some insightful ideas on male friendship.  Hart and Gad shine in their first ever movie together.  Go watch!

3 1/2 out of 5 stars