SHOTGUN WEDDING (2023)

SHOTGUN WEDDING (2023)

Tagline: Nope

(Action, Comedy, Shotguns) [R]

At no time during our wedding did I imagine walking through the jungle holding a hand grenade!

In this one, Darcy and Tom are getting married on a remote island that has a few more secrets than Darcy would have preferred. On the day of the wedding, pirates land on the island and take everyone hostage. Darcy and Tom find themselves in a life-and-death adventure and must overcome their fears and their own personal insecurities and strife to save their families. 

Okay, I first half to say that I am not a huge fan of Jennifer Lopez, so unlike a lot of people, I have not followed her music or acting career at all. So this is one of the few movies I have seen her in and I thought both she and Josh Duhamel (who has really started to grow on me) did a great job in this. The comedic timing and Josh’s unassuming take on the character of Tom is actually endearing. I think that it’s never good in any relationship to not listen to the other person, but the fact that Tom puts so much effort into the wedding in this movie is touching. 

This is a rated [R] comedy with some f’ bombs and all that as well as some gore from people exploding etc., but nothing in this is all that crass and I enjoyed that about the movie. They are not trying to gross us out or be overly edgy shrinking the film's appeal. It’s all done in a fairly light THE LOST CITY style but is even less “crass” than that. Even though this is a comedy it also asks some interesting questions and gives a few very subtle messages. One is how deep is your love for the person you are with really? Would you try to save them? Would you run? The other concept is that marriage in general isn’t perfect and it’s also not something to be afraid of if you commit. That is all I will say to avoid giving any spoilers, but this thing only “feels” shallow because of how it’s presented. It’s not. 

Acting wise the cast is pretty solid and Lenny Kravitz (THE HUNGER GAMES) is fantastic as Sean Hawkins. His character ends up with quite a bit more screen time than I thought he would. Josh Duhamel (TRANSFORMERS) is awesome as Tom which I eluded to earlier. Jennifer Lopez (MONSTER-IN-LAW) is delightful as Darcy and I love some of the quirks they gave her character. We get Cheech Marin in this as Robert Rivera, Darcy’s father. He isn’t given a lot of screen time, but he was perfect for this character. Finally, as far as the cast I thought was interesting we get Melissa Hunter as Jeannie and she barely gets any lines, but this is one of the answers to what she has been doing since her famous “Adult Wednesday Addams” show was canceled due to the new “WEDNESDAY” show. She also wrote an episode of the disastrous SHE-HULK show, but with any luck, that show will be forgotten. 

My guess is other critics are going to pan this thing for [insert some nonsense complaint here], and people can say what they want, but I put this in the category of one of those movies you get the DVD or BLU-RAY for and keep it around to re-watch as a “comfort film”.  There are enough fun touching moments and the pacing is actually really solid after the first 15 minutes for me to want to watch this again. Is it going to blow anyone’s mind? Nope. It’s just a fun little movie with several likable characters in a serious situation handled in a fun whimsical way that makes this thing a joy to watch. If there was one thing I think that could have bumped this up a bit, it’s the soundtrack. There is some singing in this movie which is heartwarming, but having a better soundtrack would have helped. The score is just average at best. 

For me, this is a 5 out of 7, and as a whole is actually more fun than THE LOST CITY. 

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