The Wedding Ringer: Hire Your Best Man Today!

The Wedding Ringer is a buddy romantic comedy film directed by Jeremey Garelick. The plot sees friendless Doug (Josh Gad), lie to his fiancé Gretchen (Kaley Cuoco) and say he has a best man arranged for the wedding, this leads him to seek the services of Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart), a best man for hire.

Once again I find myself finding Kevin Hart hilarious, he threw me off with those terrible Ride Along movies, but I am now fully back on the Hart train. He made me laugh several times during this film and he brought a hell of a lot of heart, pardon the pun, to the role. I think the film would be a lot worse without him in it.

The buddy relationship between Hart and Gad works well, both nail the emotional beats and make for a very convincing on-screen friendship. Despite being a romantic comedy film for the most part of the film I was rooting for their friendship over the central romance of the narrative.

In regard to said romance, I think this film sorely underused Cuoco’s proven comedic talents and instead relegates her to playing the gold-digging finance that the film goes out of its way to encourage you to hate, which feels like a huge waste. She is given no good moments of her own to shine.

Overall, a solid buddy film, not really a romantic comedy at all. Strong chemistry between Gad and Hart, but Cuoco gets snubbed at every turn. Mixed to positive.

Pros.

Hart

The buddy dynamic

It is quite funny

Cons.

It is not a romantic comedy

Cuoco is wasted

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

IRL: Modern Dating, Pandemic Adjacent

IRL is a romantic drama film directed by Ricardo Perez-Selsky. The plot serves as an observation on our modern online dating culture. Telling the story of one long distance couple who meet online and their struggle to stay together despite not having met.

Frankly, it is refreshing to see a romantic drama/ comedy film tell it like it is, with no fluff, no ignoring the hard parts, and crucially no over idealisation. This film feels real, and though that is an overused turn of phrase it is nevertheless true here. Most people will be able to find at least one moment that they will be able to relate to.

I applaud this film for not being afraid to get dark when it needs to. It shows how you never really know what is going to happen in life, the best laid plans often come awry. It adds to the realism which is crucial to this film.

The acting is strong and the romance between the two leads is likewise despite mainly happening over the phone. You want the two to be together desperately. However, my one critique of the film would be when Ian (Chase Hinton), very nearly (or does depending on your definition) cheats on his so far online girlfriend when he goes back home to visit his parents. Yes, I understand why structurally from a character point of view why he does this, but it then causes him as a character to become far less likeable and rootable; which maybe is the point?

Overall, this film will punch you in the face with real earned genuine emotional impact and you will thank it for it.

Pros.

The acting, especially Hinton

The romance

The real take on love and relationships

Relatability

Cons.

The cheating scene derails Ian as a character somewhat
4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Leaving Las Vegas: The Life Of A Hollywood Screen Writer

Leaving Las Vegas is a romantic drama film directed by Mike Figgis. The plot sees disgraced, alcoholic screen writer Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage), retire to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. While there he meets prostitute Sera (Elisabeth Shue), and the two form a doomed romance.

For those looking for a wild Nicolas Cage film you won’t be disappointed here. There is plenty of Cage’s trademark strange sensibilities, but in a more subdue way. Cage delivers quite a dramatic powerhouse performance here; he is utterly captivating to watch.

The same can be said for Shue. This might be by favourite performance from her so far, (that I’ve seen), I truly bought that her character loved Ben and was just desperate to find someone who cared about here and didn’t just want to use her. I thought the romance between Ben and Sera was the definition of bittersweet, it was touching and felt like a slap to the face but one that you were happy to receive.

My one note would be that though it is brilliantly done it is incredibly, unrelentingly bleak. This film is a tragedy through and through and is quite upsetting. A warning to you there. I would say it is the sort of film that you need to watch something happy afterwards for sure.

Overall a heart-breaking masterpiece that deserves to be experienced as it has so much to say about the human condition, even if it is depressing in the highest degree.

Pros.

Cage

Shue

The comments on the human condition

The romance

Cons.

It is hard to watch at times and it does not apologies for that

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Lobster: To Love Or To Transform?

The Lobster is an absurdist dystopian dark comedy film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. The plot follows David (Colin Farrell), a man who moves to a special singles hotel once he finds out that his wife is cheating on him. Said hotel gives singles a set amount of time to find ‘the one’ or face being killed and turned into an animal.

This is truly a bizarre sort of film and I mean that as a compliment. The dystopian ideas herein, I have never seen imagined before and as a result of that this film feels wholly fresh and original, praise that I can’t give to many films these days.

This film has a wonderfully off-kilter sense of tension and threat that seems to reveal itself at the most unexpected of times. It can be quite a mild breakfast scene, that yes is a little strange but is not that out of the ordinary, but then someone gets their hand burnt in a toaster for touching themselves, just out of nowhere.

Farrell is strong here his performance easily makes the film. His David is a character who is hard to form a mind on, sometimes he is the stereotypical protagonist, a rootable figure that you want to see do well, but then sometimes he seems to far darker and more loathsome than that.

My one complaint of this film would be that the second act, when David runs away, stretches out for a bit too much and feels poorly paced. This isn’t helped by the fact the second act of the film also stuffs in a lot of information that somewhat ruins the genius simple premise.

Overall, a must watch for the sheer originality alone.

Pros.

Colin Farrell

The premise

The originality

Olivia Coleman

Cons.

The second act has far too much going on and also far too much bloat.

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Juliet, Naked: Always Check Your Email Because A Famous Singer Might Have Emailed You

Juliet, Naked is a romantic comedy film directed by Jesse Peretez. The plot follows Annie (Rose Byrne), a woman who is in an unhappy marriage and who is bored with her life. Her husband Duncan (Chris O’ Dowd), spends every waking minute obsessing over a has been singer from decades prior.

One day after commenting on her husband’s blog, Annie receives an email from said has been singer Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), and he and Annie strike up and unlikely romance.

I have seen a lot of romantic comedy films in my time and I have to say that this was on the better end of that scale. It has no icky or troublesome moments; it had good wholesome themes and ideas and was underpinned by a sweet starting over again romance that you couldn’t help but cheer on at every turn.

Byrne had the right amount of Bridget Jones in her performance to make her be instantly rootable and loveable to the audience. I thought the narration of the emails was a nice touch as it allowed us more access into both Annie and Tucker’s headspaces, it was very You’ve Got Mail.

O’Dowd has the right amount of pompous annoyance as to pull off the obsessed fanboy well. Right from the off we know that he and Annie are poorly suited, to put it mildly, and it is plain to see he neglects her making him a very easy to hate antagonist. O’Dowd is really coming into his own playing petty jerk villains in British films.

Overall, a sweet wholesome romance film that is destined to become a classic of the genre.

Pros.

The romance

The wholesomeness

Rose Byrne

Ethan Hawke

Cons.

O’ Dowd is a bit too annoying

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Clueless: Austen Revisited

Clueless is a coming of age comedy film directed by Amy Heckerling, loosely based on the Jane Austin novel Emma. The plot sees teen socialite Cher (Alicia Silverstone), Queen of her high school, take the new girl Thai (Brittney Murphy), under her wing.

I have heard a lot of people talk about this film for a while, it has a real strong cult following, so I decided to check it out for myself. I was naturally comparing it to the other adaption of Emma, the more recent adaption from this very year.

I found this to be the better of the more recent American Emma adaptions, it had that lively spirit and wit that I feel the 2020 version was lacking. I always enjoy when they modernise classic tales and give them a newer twist, like the Leo Romeo and Juliet film from a while back.

I thought that all of the characters felt warm and had a good amount of rootability, though Cher did nasty thing it never reached a point where I didn’t like her as a character, she never felt cold or mean spirited.

The one thing I would flag up is the icky main romance. They changed a lot of things from the classic story for this film so why they kept this in is beyond me. In the film Josh (Paul Rudd), is Cher’s stepbrother, to add to that he is in college (University for non-Americans) and Cher is in high school she is 16 years old, both of these factors make for a deeply troubling romance, that honestly shouldn’t happen.

Overall, a quirky fresh take on an old classic. The characters felt warm and the humour landed even if the odd nearly incestuous age inappropriate relationship didn’t.

Pros.

A fresh take

The humour

Fun rootable characters

Cons.

A few things were lost in translation

The main central romance was deeply troubling

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

A United Kingdom: One Of Africa’s Greatest Romance’s

A United Kingdom is a British biographical romance drama film directed by Amma Asante. The plot follows the real-life story of Sir Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), and Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike) Khama, a king to be who defied the world and married a common English women. Their love was met with hate and strife at damn near every turn, but they kept fighting.

I think this film is a triumph, it was sweet, compelling, and also infuriating and a bit sickening at times. Film’s like this highlight how far as a society we have come, but also how much further we have to go.

I found the romance between Oyelowo and Pike to be entirely believable, they had a strong chemistry that carried throughout the film. Both actors gave incredibly good performance with Oyelowo’s maybe taking the cake. The part when he is speaking to his people and trying to convince them why he has brought an English woman to be there Queen and he has tears rolling down his face is nothing short of powerful.

My one complaint of the film would be that it has pacing issues, as is often the case with biographical film, I understand that it has a lot of history to tell as it doesn’t want to leave anything out, but it feels a lot longer than 111 minutes.

Overall, a strong film that you need to watch. The love on display is compelling and proves that if we are ever to overcome hate we must all embrace the love we have for each other.

Pros.

Believable chemistry

David Oyelowo

Rosamund Pike

Powerful and effecting

Cons.

It feels much longer than it actually is

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Broken Hearts Gallery: A Love Story For The Hoarders

The Broken Hearts Gallery is a romantic comedy film directed by Natalie Krinsky. The plot sees recently dumped Lucy (Geraldine Viswanathan), open up an art exhibit dedicated to all the items that people still have of their exes; post breakup. She hopes by doing this she can get some form of closure from her own breakup as well as help others find the same.

Forget Tenet, forget The New Mutants, this is the film cinemas need to get people to come back. There is something so communal about this film, it is something that we can all relate to, it is so personable that it is hard to not form some sort of attachment to it.

Yes, some of the lines are cringe (they name the film title in the dialogue multiples times), and they feel the need to throw in some hot topics here and there to prove that they’re trendy. However, in spite of these two things I found myself really getting into this film.

The comedy is strong, and it genuinely had me laughing quite a few times, I found Viswanathan to be a really likeable lead and easily the best thing about the film. The romantic chemistry between the leads is strong and believable and will drive you to finish the film to see how things end up.

Overall, this is just a warm feel good film, that is something I needed right now, and I am sure a lot of you reading this do too. It is not going to be the best film you’ll see all year, but it is a fun hour and a half and that is enough.

Pros.

The heart

The humour

Warm and wholesome

Very personable and relatable

Cons.

A few cringe lines throughout

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Love, Guaranteed: A Quest Of Thirst

Love, Guaranteed is a romantic comedy film directed by Mark Stephen Johnson. The plot follows Nick (Damon Wayans Jr), a man who has been on over 1000 dates with the dating website Love, Guaranteed and is still yet to find ‘the one’. Enter Susan (Rachel Leigh Cooke), a lawyer who is in desperate need of a winning case, sparks fly and love blooms.

This film very much gets worse as time goes on, the characters become more and more unlikable and considering the fact that start off as poorly conceived cliches you can imagine how bad they are by the end. The message of the film seems to be oddly inconsistent and change on the fly. At one point the film is pushing that it is wrong to guarantee love, but by the end of the film it is fine to guarantee love because the baddies payed the main characters some money; the film is morally bankrupt.

Wayans Jr tries his best to inject some much-needed charism into this film, because god knows that Cooke is a wet blanket, but the poor script leaves him with little to work with. Everything about this film feels artificial and as though it has been made by comity, that is to say everything feels just a bit too safe and false.

Overall, this is a very by the numbers rom com, you can tell no real thought or effort was put into it. The romantic spark isn’t there and the characters and their dialogue is just awful.

Pros.

Wayans is trying

Cons.

It is on for too long

It feels low effort

The leads have no chemistry

The characters start off as cliches and quickly get worse

0.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Bridesmaids: Melissa McCarthy Is Actually Funny, For Once

Bridesmaids is a comedy film directed by Paul Feig. The story follows Annie (Kristen Wiig), a woman whose life is coming apart at the seams, yet she handed the responsibility of being her best friend Lillian’s (Maya Rudolph) maid of honour. What follows is a struggle for power between Annie and Helen (Rose Byrne), Lillian’s new fancy friend who seems to upstage Annie at every turn, with the struggle between the two threatening to take over the whole wedding.

I have been meaning to watch this for some time, I enjoy the films of Paul Feig for the most part, with the exception of his Ghostbusters film, so I went in with high expectations. It does serve to be a more nuanced version of a gender swapped Hangover, which many accused it of being, and is probably the better of the two films.

I appreciated the comedy of this film it was far more subtle then I was expecting to be. When I saw the names of those involved with it, I was expecting gross out jokes and a lot of physical comedy, and though that is a part of the comedy profile of the film there are also a lot of smart jokes as well. In that regard Melissa McCarthy was actually bearable, not only that but she made me laugh.

Overall, this film showed off the talent of all involved except Byrne who it wasted badly, a strong comedy film and a mostly enjoyable watch.

Pros.

The comedy

Reigning in McCarthy and the others

Not relying on gross out gags and slapstick and having some actual well thought out smart jokes

Nailing the drama

Cons.

There is no reason that this film is on for two hours and ten minutes

4/5

Reviewed by Luke