Jennifer Lopez’s New Film Has A Novel Setup, With Mediocre Execution

It is equally stunning that “Shotgun Wedding ceremony,” not like the aforementioned “Ticket to Paradise” and “The Misplaced Metropolis,” does not lean heavier in that outdated cinematic noticed of turning the situation into a personality. (The Dominican Republic took the position of the Philippines for filming functions.) The place these movies, particularly “Ticket to Paradise,” labored very laborious to really feel like travelogues as a lot as romantic comedies, director Jason Moore does not do almost sufficient to make the setting of “Shotgun Wedding ceremony” look as tantalizing to us because it’s meant to look to the characters onscreen. The leads themselves strive their in a position greatest to deliver the fabric to life, although a few of the twists are a bit laborious to imagine. (The primary instance we get of Tom performing like a Groomzilla is when he initially turns down an amorous Darcy in favor of finalizing a few of the marriage ceremony decor, and contemplating that Darcy is performed by Jennifer Lopez, it’s not terribly stunning that Tom solely places up a lot of a combat earlier than succumbing to the plain.)

Lopez and Duhamel have a good if baseline quantity of chemistry. (Once more, by way of latest romantic comedies, there is a whole lot extra chemistry in “Marry Me” between Lopez and her co-star Owen Wilson, the latter of whom can be a superb deal higher at bringing moribund materials to life.) However the script of “Shotgun Wedding ceremony” is rote sufficient past the twist on the usual idea that the solid has to do a number of heavy lifting. Exterior of the larger-than-life casting of Kravitz as Darcy’s ex — his character arrives by helicopter and may as effectively be enjoying Lenny Kravitz himself contemplating the response of the feminine marriage ceremony visitors — there aren’t a ton of nice little twists. That’s, apart from most of Coolidge’s dialogue (which feels as very like it is how she delivers the traces because the traces themselves).

“Shotgun Wedding ceremony” is yet one more reminder that romantic comedies can proceed to be made on a reasonably giant price range, regardless that their heyday could also be far within the rearview mirror. It is a good factor that motion pictures like this exist — although not like “The Misplaced Metropolis” and “Ticket to Paradise”, this one’s headed straight to streaming on Amazon Prime Video. However simply because it is good that they exist doesn’t suggest that they will simply get a cross. “Shotgun Wedding ceremony” might’ve labored, even with the script as is, if the solid was a bit sharper, rather less vulnerable to yelling half of their dialogue, and a bit extra prepared to get weirder and extra surprising. However solely one of many ensemble received that memo.

/Movie Score: 4.5 out of 10