Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel romantic-action comedy has the tantalizing flavours of a standard Hollywood light-hearted flick sautéed with banal humour, mushy one-liners, an over-the-top premise, lucid characters and some genuinely slick action sequences that adds some charm to the otherwise austere story.
Shotgun Wedding is the perfect kind of film tailor-made for you to sit and consume with yourself or with friends on an uneventful weekend night. Even though it lacks originality, Shotgun Wedding aptly pays homage to the zany sans iconic comedies of the early 2000s and the mid 2010s like Jerry Maguire, Mr and Mrs Smith, The Princess Bride and the likes of it.
The Jason Moore directorial follows a pretty straightforward storyline. Tom (played by Josh Duhamel) and Darcy (played by Jennifer Lopez) are one happy couple who are about to get married in the most extravagant of ways. While the eccentric families of both convene at a spectacular tropical island in the Philippines for a memorable destination wedding, the leading couple in some or the other way encounter a series of bizarre circumstances. For instance, they are joined by an unexpected guest, Darcy’s ex- lover Sean(played by Lenny Kravitz) who is there at the behest of Darcy’s rich father.
The evening goes well for the friends and family (with some comic hiccup of course) and the night rolls along. Only then we get to notice how unprepared the soon-to-be bride and groom are in the context of their forthcoming marriage. But the actual story unfurls the next day when Tom and Darcy get into a squabble over something petty and their guests waiting at the wedding venue get raided by some rogue pirates. The couple are then faced with the challenge of rescuing all the hostages while trying to negotiate their feelings for each other in the process. Will they end up together by the end of the film?
Shotgun Wedding adheres to the age-old formula of the classic rom-com tropes but with the added vagary of streamlined action thrown into the equation. It has everything that you would expect from a decent laid-back watch such as wafer-thin character sketches derived right from the overused repository of characters. For example, an unimpressed and condescending m other who downplays her daughter’s choice, a hot and foxy sister that resonates with JLo, a dumb but charming token male character just to balance the charts and some other characters we’ve probably seen before in countless other films. The lack of imagination becomes even more glaring when the ‘so-called’ plot twists don’t appeal to you because you had probably predicted them.
But in its defense, Shotgun Wedding feels like a tub of ice-cream that you want to dig in more and more since it colludes with your sub-conscious pursuits for guilty pleasures. Perhaps it’s the whimsical and illogical developments that fascinate us. Or the rush of dopamine and the feeling of familiarity when we see Josh and Darcy arguing in the midst of a life-threatening situation and yet selflessly asserting their love for one another. Their palpable chemistry is bound to leave you gushing with undying hope and expectations. With some hit and miss jokes scattered here and there, some dorky and some heartfelt moments of companionship shared between our protagonists and the dollops of cringe bleeding out of the screenplay, Shotgun Wedding is fairly entertaining and enjoyable given that you don’t scrutinize every small detail pertaining to the illogicality of the treatment. It’s an easy and unexacting film to keep pace with and it should be watched with that context in mind.
Baring the comedy and romantic parts, Shotgun Wedding surprisingly makes for a brilliant action film, if that was the standalone genre the film-maker had exclusively gone after. The film has an abundance of neatly choreographed stunts, the high-octane sequences majorly towards the climax involving a chopper hovering over the ocean and a paragliding mid-air tussle, the blazing gunfights and grenade hurling tricks and some scenes with hand-to-hand combat is certainly enthralling. Jennifer Lopez as Darcy is convincingly good for most of the parts except when she is trying too hard to act cutesy and adorable. That’s when her whole character turns annoying and unbelievable. It sort of wanes the consistency of her on-screen synthesis with Josh Duhamel. Meanwhile, Josh is pretty much likeable and has great comic timing.
Jennifer Coolidge is brilliant but lacks proper screen-time. Sonia Bragais is equally impressive. Lenny Kravitz was a pleasant surprise after nine long years and he still knows his craft. Some other good performances consisted of Cheech Marin, D’Arcy Carden, Selena Tan, Desmin Borges and Alex Mallari Jr. Pinar Toprak’s music is the cherry on the cake.
If you want to unwind this weekend and you want something light-hearted and funny to take you out from your weekday blues then Shotgun Wedding will be an apt film for you.
Shotgun Wedding is now streaming on Lionsgate Play.
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