SHOTGUN WEDDING

The destination wedding genre shows no signs of stopping, with Jason Moores Shotgun Wedding. Over the last few years we’ve been treated to some, such as 2020’s Plan Springs manage to breathe new life into the genre, doing something clever and imaginative, and others such as 2018’s Destination Wedding… do not.

And while Shotgun Wedding doesn’t flip the genre on its head it is an enjoyable watch, well worth a couple of hours of anyones time.

Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) gather their friends and family in Thailand for their destination wedding (a sub-genre which is having it’s own mini-resurgence at the moment), when pirates invade and demand money from Darcy’s businessman father (Cheech Marin) to let everyone go safely.

It is not the most original premise, and audiences will likely see its various twists and turns coming a mile off, but I was genuinely surprised to find myself enjoying it more and more as it went on, mainly down to the fact that it is genuinely funny

Jennifer Coolidge is excellent value, chewing the scenery and making the most of every line that passes her lips. She has, throughout her entire career, made a name for herself for her ability to wring every ounce of comic potential out of a line that would flounder in the hands of others. While most of her screen time is spent on the sidelines she manages to pull focus from those at the centre of the scene.

And, to a person, the rest of the supporting cast follow suit. Each, in turn, manage to grab their moment, while never letting it feel like they are jockeying for position. The laughs are allowed room to breath

While the action is, for the most part, very well shot, there are smatterings of less than stellar green screen can pull you out of the moment. It isn’t a huge issue, but when the rest of the film has been so solidly made, it is a shame that these occasional moments let it down.

While Shotgun Wedding doesn’t reinvent the wheel for rom-coms or action films, it is a surprisingly fun way to spend a couple of hours. While Jennifer Lopez’s name will adorn the billboard, it’s a hilarious supporting performance from Jennifer Coolidge that really makes it work.