Shotgun Wedding Review: Jennifer Lopez's New Movie Has A Novel Setup, With Mediocre Execution

The new film "Shotgun Wedding" highlights the danger of having a reasonably interesting concept without similar follow-through. When the trailer was released a couple of months back, there were a number of folks on Twitter who seemed delightedly mystified at how a seemingly innocuous romantic comedy about a bride and groom getting set for their wedding in the Philippines turned into an action movie when said wedding is beset upon by vicious pirates. And the setup is indeed kind of a welcome and dark twist on the friendly, low-key, and low-stakes comedies that star Jennifer Lopez has made throughout her career. But the execution of the setup is desperately wanting, in part because the film and too many (though not all) of its players don't have the right comic notes or even know which ones to hit. 

Considering some other recent big-screen romantic comedies, it's hard not to watch "Shotgun Wedding" and avoid thinking of the film as feeling like a diluted combination of "Ticket to Paradise" and "The Lost City." Here, Lopez plays Darcy, who's frantic the night before her wedding to Tom (Josh Duhamel, who replaced Armie Hammer in this role for ... y'know, reasons). She's trying to make things perfect for him, and he's trying to do the same for her, but things are hard enough: Darcy's mother (Sonia Braga) has dagger eyes for her ex (Cheech Marin), who's brought his new and younger girlfriend (D'Arcy Carden) to the ceremony. Plus, Tom's mother (Jennifer Coolidge) is loud and obnoxious, and even worse, Tom is dismayed to see that Darcy's ex-fiance (Lenny Kravitz) has arrived and immediately charms everyone. And that's before pirates raid the party just as it's about to kick off, and a still-tense Tom and Darcy are forced to fend off the pirates together.

The few comic beats that work within "Shotgun Wedding" are those provided by people best known for their sharp comic work. No doubt the film is hoping — at least in part — to ride the recent wave of Coolidge's award-winning turn on "The White Lotus." (If nothing else, "Shotgun Wedding" offers up the admittedly very funny image of Coolidge gleefully wielding a shotgun and firing aimlessly towards the ocean.) And it's unsurprising that Carden is funny in a relatively small role as the inane yoga-teacher girlfriend of Darcy's father. But too much of this film — written by Mark Hammer — offers in place of effective banter or comic byplay lots and lots of shouting. Darcy and Tom snipe at each other (their union was tenuous at best before the pirates showed up, due to Tom's behavior as a so-called Groomzilla), and that's about as far as the comedy escalates: just lots of shouting.

It's equally surprising that "Shotgun Wedding," unlike the aforementioned "Ticket to Paradise" and "The Lost City," doesn't lean heavier in that old cinematic saw of turning the location into a character. (The Dominican Republic took the role of the Philippines for filming purposes.) Where those films, especially "Ticket to Paradise," worked very hard to feel like travelogues as much as romantic comedies, director Jason Moore doesn't do nearly enough to make the setting of "Shotgun Wedding" look as tantalizing to us as it's meant to look to the characters onscreen. The leads themselves try their able best to bring the material to life, though some of the twists are a little hard to believe. (The first example we get of Tom acting like a Groomzilla is when he initially turns down an amorous Darcy in favor of finalizing some of the wedding decor, and considering that Darcy is played by Jennifer Lopez, it is not terribly surprising that Tom only puts up so much of a fight before succumbing to the obvious.)

Lopez and Duhamel have a decent if baseline amount of chemistry. (Again, in terms of recent romantic comedies, there's a good deal more chemistry in "Marry Me" between Lopez and her co-star Owen Wilson, the latter of whom is also a good deal better at bringing moribund material to life.) But the script of "Shotgun Wedding" is rote enough beyond the twist on the standard concept that the cast has to do a lot of heavy lifting. Outside of the larger-than-life casting of Kravitz as Darcy's ex — his character arrives by helicopter and might as well be playing Lenny Kravitz himself considering the reaction of the female wedding guests — there aren't a ton of pleasant little twists. That is, aside from most of Coolidge's dialogue (which feels as much like it's how she delivers the lines as the lines themselves).

"Shotgun Wedding" is yet another reminder that romantic comedies can continue to be made on a moderately large budget, even though their heyday may be far in the rearview mirror. It's a good thing that movies like this exist — though unlike "The Lost City" and "Ticket to Paradise", this one's headed straight to streaming on Amazon Prime Video. But just because it's good that they exist doesn't mean that they can just get a pass. "Shotgun Wedding" could've worked, even with the script as is, if the cast was a little sharper, a little less prone to yelling half of their dialogue, and a little more willing to get weirder and more unexpected. But only one of the ensemble got that memo.

/Film Rating: 4.5 out of 10