Shotgun Wedding Movie Review: Jennifer Lopez, Josh Duhamel’s Destination Wedding Gone Wrong is Wrapped Up in a Dull Action Affair (LatestLY Exclusive)

Shotgun Wedding Movie Review: A destination wedding set in the beautiful backdrop of Philippines. Pirates dressed up like The Road Warrior-rejects show up to ruin the matrimony. Jason Moore’s Shotgun Wedding sounds like a great concept on paper with the bride and groom banding together to save the day. Sadly, what we end up getting is a dull affair that lacks any chemistry and features a bunch of action scenes that can’t evoke any excitement. Puss in Boots - The Last Wish Movie Review: Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek’s Shrek Spinoff is a Vibrant Extravaganza With Some Stellar Animation and Storytelling (LatestLY Exclusive).

Baseball player Tom (Josh Duhamel) is set to marry the love of his life Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) in a huge ceremony, but this glorious day ends up taking a turn for the worse when pirates show out of nowhere and start messing stuff up. With the guests being taken hostages while the bride and groom get cold feet right before their marriage, they must band together and save their families before anything bad happens to them.

What Shotgun Wedding feels most like is The White Lotus mixed in with last year’s The Lost City, the only caveat here being that it doesn’t maintain any of the excitement or thrills of those two outings. On one hand, you have Jennifer Lopez who has great charisma here and genuinely feels like she is having fun and on the other hand, you have Josh Duhamel who just can’t keep up with that energy. The Lost City Movie Review: Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum’s Movie is a Fun Throwback to ‘90s Adventure Films! (LatestLY Exclusive).

It is not particularly the actor’s fault because Duhamel shows the chops for being a leading man. It’s unfortunately the writing that doesn’t make him be anything else than a groomzilla. The main dynamic between Tom and Darcy is filled with insecurities when her ex-fiance Sean (portrayed in a smokingly hot fashion by Lenny Kravitz) arrives at the scene.

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Breaking up with him right before their marriage due to Sean’s over-bearing presence, Tom starts feeling that maybe Darcy might pull the same thing with him, This becomes the defining character trait for him as more of their issues with each other comes to light, which never really grabbed a hold of me. Thankfully Lopez is able to clutch in that dynamic somehow which does not make the coule entirely intolerable.

The set-pieces in Shotgun Wedding also feel as bland as they come. Topped off with weird green screens that pull you right out of the moment with there being no urgency to the plot in any way, there just isn’t enough to keep you captivated. Not to mention, the villains of the films themselves are just random no-named grunts pulled right out of the Humungus’ army from Mad Max 2. There is no personality to them other than being gun toting henchmen and Shotgun Wedding never escapes that shallowness and makes for a plot that doesn’t really have anything to offer. That ‘90s Show Review: Netflix's That ‘70s Show Sequel Fails to Recreate the Charm of the Original Series (LatestLY Exclusive).

Talking about The White Lotus, you have Jennifer Coolidge here, who is criminally underused, but still somehow manages to be the highlight of the film. Playing Carol, who is the mother of Tom, Coolidge naturally taps into that oblivious nature of her character (again, reminiscent of her The White Lotus role) while just blurting out whatever comes to her mind. The side characters here actually made Shotgun Wedding memorable in parts at least. From the opinionated parents of the bride and groom to Kravitz being a smokeshow as Sean or the best man and the best women having a fling of their own – it was in these moments where Shotgun Wedding was the strongest.

Yay!

Jennifer Lopez

Side Characters

Nay!

The Chemistry Between the Leads Doesn’t Work

Uninteresting Action Scenes

Final Thoughts

Shotgun Wedding is a bland action affair that features an intangible chemistry between its two leads. While some of the jokes here will entertain you and the side-cast does make for memorable moments, this is wedding package that could have used some more time in the aisle. Shotgun Wedding is releasing and streaming on January 27 on Lionsgate Play.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 26, 2023 08:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).