Shotgun Wedding Review

Streaming review

Weddings are a common setting for movies and television because of all of the gatherings that happen, they can evoke the largest sense of unreality. People who may or may not get along are all forced into the same space to celebrate a relationship of which they may or may not approve. There are often big expectations from those footing the potentially large bill. It is the perfect setting for movie shenanigans. With all of that in mind, I was looking forward to seeing how Jason Moore’s film “Shotgun Wedding,” currently streaming on Amazon Prime, would play out.

Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) are in the Philippines to celebrate their wedding. While Tom is trying to create a picture-perfect day, Darcy is placating her future in-laws (Jennifer Coolidge and Steve Coulter) and trying to keep her parents (Sonia Braga and Cheech Marin) separated from her father’s new girlfriend Harriet (D’Arcy Carden). Meanwhile, her ex-fiancée Sean (Lenny Kravitz) just arrived, tossing another wrench into an already fraught situation.

The arrival of Sean, and reminder of Darcy’s breakup with him, has Tom concerned that he will also be left at the altar. While they are arguing about what comes next, who should show up but pirates, taking the entire wedding party hostage and causing even more havoc? Will Tom and Darcy even survive until their wedding? 

There is some good comedy in this, for sure. Every time Coolidge was on screen, I was laughing. She does this active listening kind of thing with the pirates that just kills. But most of the other performances felt kind of phoned in on this one. Lopez is a rom-com legend and I was excited to see her in an “action” rom-com since that hasn’t been her thing, but she didn’t pull it off for me. 

I think a lot of my issue with the movie was that it didn’t have a consistent tone. Because it was wishy-washy in how violent it was going to be with the pirates, there were a couple of moments of missed opportunities for humor. But there were also scenes where the violence was dialed way up, so the script felt like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to embrace the R rating or not. It’s not that I think violence is inherently funny, but there is an over-the-top style that can work if you go all in (think “Deadpool” or any Tarantino film). This movie played it safe most of the time, and I think that decision ultimately hurt the movie.

Honestly, this movie is kind of a mess. It more or less follows the rom-com adventure formula, but it can’t decide if it wants to be a fun rom-com with some adventure or a hardcore action movie with some romance, and as a result, I’m not entirely sure who the target audience is. Ultimately, it certainly wasn’t me.

This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on February 4, 2023.