Share This Article:
by 
Return to Silver Screen Central Home page
Kevin Hart plays a real person for a change in The Wedding Ringer
B-In the new comedy, The Wedding Ringer, Kevin Hart actually gets to play a real person instead of playing, well, Kevin Hart, and the result is easily his best performance. Mind you, that’s not on the level of, say, Marlon Brando‘s best performance, but for a man who nearly got strangled by Ice Cube last year at this time, it’s a definite improvement. And, much to my surprise, Wedding Ringer itself was a sometimes touching, often hilarious comedy.
The film starts out squarely in stereotypical Kevin Hart territory. He plays Jimmy Callahan, a hustler whose shtick is posing as the best man for well off but socially challenged grooms-to-be. His latest client is schlumpy but sweet Doug Harris (Josh Gad). But what starts out as just another assignment for Jimmy turns into a budding bromance when he starts genuinely liking Doug and wondering about his own future. Hart, too, lets his comic guard down here, toning down his typical mile-a-minute banter and letting his co-stars pull much of the comic weight of the film. This gives Gad plenty of opportunity to shine in what should be his breakout film role.
The big set pieces in The Wedding Ringer, including a ridiculously overblown bachelor party that plays more like a cross between a toga party and a night at Chuck E. Cheese’s, are jarringly bad. However, a lot of the other jokes are hilarious, many of which couldn’t be shown in the trailer because the dialogue is often profanity laced. More than that, the movie is often surprisingly sweet, as Hart and Gad have a great chemistry together, and the script tweaks the usual genre formula just enough to keep audiences interested. Judged by typical comedy standards, The Wedding Ringer is mildly entertaining, but by Kevin Hart and January release standards, it’s a winner.
You can read the full review of The Wedding Ringer on Silver Screen CInema. Here’s one of the funniest sequences in the movie, featuring Hart and Gad cutting a rug on the dance floor:
Photo credit: “Kevin Hart_5927” by Western Connecticut State University Peggy Stewart / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0
Follow Us:
by
