The Wedding Ringer (2015), R, ★★★

Hart and Gad are "turning down for What!"

It's January. It's one of the two months that I would consider the "kisses of death" for movies, the other being September in my humble opinion. Because in those two months, respectively, the Oscar season and summer season for movies are over and studios just want the movies to come out to play and be presented and not care on how it will do and how audiences will react to the movie. However, some surprises rarely come about once every two or three years. And, I think this movie falls into that category because I came into the movie with very low expectations.

Doug Harris (Josh Gad) is a lonely man who is calling his old classmates to search for a best man for his wedding. None of his classmates knew him well enough to call Doug a friend, therefore, he has no luck. Meanwhile, Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart) is giving a speech at a wedding reception. Being the best man, he gives a speech to the bride and groom with moving words. Afterwards, the groom talks to Jimmy in private to give him his paycheck as he was hired as the best man. However, Jimmy declines the groom's comment of whether or not "they hit it off".

Doug is with his fiancee, Gretchen (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting) and her parents (Ken Howard and Mimi Rogers) planning the wedding with finalizing all the details. It stresses Doug out so much as he does not have a best man or groomsmen to support him. The wedding planner helps him in going to an amusement park and leading into a basement where the secretary Doris Jenkins (Jennifer Lewis) meets Jimmy at Best Man, Inc. Doug explains the situation to Jimmy saying he needs seven groomsmen and a best man. Jimmy says it is impossible to pull off. However, anything is impossible in this comedy as they have to go through family gatherings, misfortunes and some bad luck like a fire in a dinner table.

I now pronounce you husband and wife.

This movie looked horrendous while glancing at the premise, casting and TV spots. It looked a little pretentious and stupid for a wedding comedy, and I've seen many. However, this movie caught me by surprise as to how much I like the two main male characters. They are proven to be likable people with situations of loneliness and therefore, we sympathize with them in a raunchy comedy. It is strange to type that comment because there should not be that much sympathy in a comedy like this. Am I getting this right, we have sympathy, raunch and crude humor all in one package? Okay.

Kevin Hart is a funny comedian but most of his movies do not have a great statistic although I did like him in an overrated movie called Think Like A Man, Top Five and About Last Night...and that's pretty much it. I think he has his own genre now and I think this may his best movie in his genre because he downplays it and has some depth in his character and does not shout as much. He and Josh Gad, who is also charming, has great chemistry. I would've loved to see more of Olivia Thirlby as Gretchen's sister, Allison. Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting kind of plays the standard supporting character to the two leads but she is fine in her role.

I laughed more than I expected in this film and therefore, it made me laugh enough to recommend the movie. And, there's a complex twist near the end of the movie that surprised me and thought it was different and sadly realistic. So, this comedy is not all that predictable. The main weakness is that the female characters are not given much to do and they are just aside for just players in the movie to connect with the two leads. There are also a few jokes that do not work and some slapstick and a joke which I would not give away involving a dog and Doug that is awkwardly hilarious but sort of unnecessary. Nevertheless, it is a fun movie just kicking back and watching Hart and Gad comically entertaining us. It is a marginal recommendation from me and I'm surprised to post it as the first good movie of 2015.

***