Movie Review

Film Review: SHOTGUN WEDDING (2022): Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel Lack Chemistry in an Offbeat Action/Comedy

Jennifer Lopez Josh Duhamel Shotgun Wedding

Shotgun Wedding Review

Shotgun Wedding (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Jason Moore, written by Mark Hammer and starring Jennifer Lopez, Josh Duhamel, Lenny Kravitz, Jennifer Coolidge, Cheech Marin, Sonia Braga, Steve Coulter, D’Arcy Carden, Callie Hernandez, Desmin Borges, Selena Tan, Alberto Isaac, Melissa Hunter, Pancho Cardena, Alex Mallari Jr. and Zachary Wood.

Jennifer Lopez is a great comic actress but she’s not the right fit for her role in director Jason Moore’s Shotgun Wedding. Either that or her leading male co-star, Josh Duhamel, isn’t the right fit for his role in the picture. The pair seem mismatched in one of the least believable romantic pairings of recent years. Even Lopez’s pairing with Owen Wilson in Marry Me was more interesting than the chemistry we get between the stars here. In any event, Moore’s movie is essentially a sort of Romancing the Stone wannabe– without the appeal of that classic movie. Set on an island by the Philippines, Lopez’s Darcy and Duhamel’s Tom are planning to get married and all hell soon breaks loose when a group of pirates take over the island and hold the couple’s wedding guests hostage.

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The film opens as Darcy and Tom start to bicker and argue a bit. They love each other but have their qualms about the wedding. They will soon learn that there’s nothing like having your family held hostage by pirates to bring a couple closer together! We meet Tom’s mom, Carol (Jennifer Coolidge, underused), who gives the couple a dirty knife which supposedly has some sentimental value (it’s something borrowed). Sonia Braga serves as Darcy’s mom, Renata, who puts up a tough exterior but has secretly lived a hard life and is a mush inside. Braga actually turns in the best performance in the film which has a lot of the actress’s signature charisma in it. Cheech Marin is criminally under-utilized as Darcy’s possibly wealthy dad, Robert, who left Renata which kinda makes Darcy a bit sad.

There is some action in Shotgun Wedding that is well orchestrated. Particularly effective is a scene where Darcy gets her hand on a grenade that she can’t let go of until the right time and when she finally does, she blows up two of the vicious pirates who are after her and Tom. While moments like those will please action fans, the scenes between Lopez and Duhamel feel improvised. It’s good improvisation, at times, if it is actually improv, but the movie never feels fully thought-out. A lot of the interaction between the two leads lack imagination in terms of their performances and the film suffers a bit as a result.

Lenny Kravitz serves as Darcy’s ex-boyfriend, Sean, and he has a very specific role in the picture that occasionally works successfully but a few good moments of Kravitz’s charm can’t save an otherwise formulaic story line that runs out of steam after about forty-five minutes. How long can we watch Darcy and Tom run around the island in a plot that is conveniently complicated by the lack of cell phone service on the island? Not very long without getting bored.

Jennifer Lopez is an incredibly gifted actress. She’s sexy on-screen here but her personality is lacking the energy that was seen in the recent romantic comedy, Marry Me. Josh Duhamel’s scenes with Lopez have a certain level of professionalism to them which is somewhat admirable. Lopez and Duhamel play off each other like they were acting in a much more dramatic film. Of course, pirates with guns are not to be taken lightly, but the movie would have played better if it was taken a lot less seriously. Lopez’s history in comedy would make one think that Shotgun Wedding would have been funnier than it is. Instead, we get Jennifer Lopez’s Darcy acting like there’s a real chance that she won’t get to marry Tom by the film’s end. Audiences know better.

Shotgun Wedding has a late scene with the two stars of the picture getting down on one knee to profess their love for another. It’s a cute exchange but the main flaw with the new film is that it’s just not very funny. Supporting players occasionally act nastily towards each other sometimes too throughout the movie, making us wonder if we are supposed to enjoy spending time with these people. Shotgun Wedding will only appeal to die-hard fans of either Lopez or Duhamel. This film needed more laughs and less gunfire.

Rating: 5/10

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Thomas Duffy

Thomas Duffy is a graduate of the Pace University New York City campus and has been an avid movie fan all of his life. In college, he interviewed film stars such as Minnie Driver and Richard Dreyfuss as well as directors such as Tom DiCillo and Mark Waters. He is the author of nine works of fiction available on Amazon. He's been reviewing movies since his childhood and posts his opinions on social media. You can follow him on Twitter. His user handle is @auctionguy28.
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