Despite the best efforts of its two likeable leading men, Kevin Hart and Josh Gad, The Wedding Ringer disappoints by failing to deliver any genuine laugh-out-loud moments.
Director and co-writer Jeremy Garelick has brought us a fairly predictable bromance about two chalk-and-cheese guys who are brought together under extreme circumstances and are forced to pull off the stunt of a lifetime.
Gad plays Doug Harris, an affable but somehow utterly friendless tax attorney who's preparing for his upcoming nuptials to his ultra-demanding fiancée Gretchen Palmer (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting). As their wedding date looms, Doug rings around his old college and school buddies to try and rope in one of his old acquaintances to be his best man.
There are no takers.
Driven to desperation, he enlists the help of smooth-talking professional con artist Jimmy Callahan (Hart), whose company specialises in pulling off best man hoaxes.
Of course, there's a catch, and Doug doesn't need just a best man, but a total of seven groomsmen to take part in the ceremony, a feat that is referred to as a "Golden Tux" and has never been attempted before.
Cue the formation of a rag-tag group of oddballs, including a beefcake with a stutter, a mullet-haired redneck ex-con and a man who can dislocate his shoulder. They have mere days to study up on their groom so they can successfully complete their mission.
Naturally, this leads to a series of escalating high-jinks, from Gretchen's granny catching fire at a family dinner, to a high-speed car chase at Doug's stag in Las Vegas, to a particularly gross-out moment involving a dog and a jar of peanut butter.
There are moments that are mildly amusing - the best of which is an extended dance sequence involving Doug and Jimmy - but, overall, the jokes fall flat and leave the film feeling utterly stale.
Kevin Hart and Josh Gad do their best with the weak material, and are the film's saving grace, but even they can't save it from being more than barely watchable. Best avoided.
Sarah McIntyre
The Wedding Ringer opens on February 20 with previews on February 14.
