Randy's Review: 'The Wedding Ringer'

January 31, 2015

Author: Eve Knaggs

Laughs present among lonely guys story

Kevin Hart, one of the busiest guys in comedy -- a preview of a new film with Will Ferrell preceded the main feature -- is back as a businessman who has mastered "best man" skills to provide services to men in their time of need.

Hart is Jimmy Callahan who, for a price, will be your best man if you don't have any friends willing to step to the plate on your big day. If you buy the right package, he'll even include holiday cards and a eulogy should you die young.

Operating Best Man Inc. from the basement of a family fun park, Callahan has a long list of clientele and an assistant to help him facilitate his operation.

picture: lace wedding dresses

Successful tax attorney Doug Harris (Josh Gad), a lonely nerd, is engaged to marry the way of out of his league Gretchen (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting) in a matter of days and despite various attempts can't find anyone interested in standing at his side. He however has not shared his issue with his fiancee or her family who are lead to believe his best man is out of the country but will be back in time for the ceremony.

Panicked and desperate, Harris turns to Callahan on the advice of a wedding planner wise to his predicament. When Harris shares his needs for not only a best man but seven groomsmen -- for the small fee of $50,000 -- Callahan accepts the challenge of pulling off the first ever "Golden Tux."

Callahan transforms into Bic Mitchum, a priest and chaplain in the military and assembles a motley group in a rush and assigns them all roles in the scheme. Harris gives them all names of famous sports figures from Southern California and off they go.

The groups adventures include creating a slideshow of make believe events they've done together to share, participating in a wild bachelor party with disastrous results courtesy of a peanut butter loving dog, participate in a mud bowl game against Gretchen's dad (Ken Howard) and some of his old football buddies -- including Joe Namath, John Riggins and Ed "Too Tall" Jones -- will all prompt laughs. Especially enjoyable is the scene where Callahan and Harris crash a wedding and take over the dance floor to work on their moves. And throughout the course of the fun, as the two appear to grow closer, Callahan continues to remind Harris he bought a best man not a best friend. When the business deal is done and money exchanges hands, the relationship is over.

Harris realizes why he has no friends and offers a legitimate explanation during the film for his lack of close association; but it's when Callahan is challenged by his assistant about his own lack of true friends that some of the humor fades.

Of course things don't work as planned and when everything falls apart it really falls apart, but the path is littered with some funny moments. The strange assembly of perspective groomsmen -- and their odd party distractions -- also delivers some humor as they transform into Harris' close buddies.

Credit Hart and Gad for good chemistry and I'm sure the initial relationship between Gad and Cuoco-Sweeting's characters will puzzle you as much as it did me.