Shotgun Wedding: Movie Review

Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Coolidge, Lenny Kravitz, Sonia Braga

Director: Jason Moore

Shotgun Wedding arrives after being wrapped in casting issues for its leading man.

Initially slated for Ryan Reynolds, and then forced to replace Armie Hammer over abuse allegations, Josh Duhamel stars as Tom, the future husband of Jennifer Lopez's Darcy.

With a Philippines set wedding, everything looks to be going well for Tom and Darcy - but when Tom starts to falter after the arrival of Darcy's ex Sean Hawkins (Kravitz), it all seems to be falling apart. Things however, are made worse when a group of pirates kidnap everyone at the wedding - separated from the bridal party, it's up to Tom and Darcy to save the day.

Tonally all over the place, Shotgun Wedding doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Is it a comedy? Is it an action thriller? Or is it a R-rated comedy wannabe that's nowhere near as edgy as it believes it is?

The truth is it's all of this - and that's some of the problems faced by Shotgun Wedding throughout.

While Coolidge utterly steals the film from under the stars' noses thanks to a winning mix of comedy moments and one soon to be iconic meme in waiting, Lopez and Duhamel find themselves increasingly sidelined by the film's desire to be all things to all audiences.

Yet it's also a script that ties itself up in nonsensical edges - Lopez's character is supposed to have worked in the Seals but a long section of the film sees her character incomprehensibly unaware of how grenades work, a baffling scripting touch that makes no sense whatsoever. She throws her all in but it's sadly not enough.

Duhamel is fine as the groomzilla Tom, but he lacks an edge throughout - it's easy to see how Reynolds could have brought the role to life and perhaps less so Hammer, but Duhamel's bland touch over proceedings proves to be anaemic more than anything.

Ultimately, Shotgun Wedding is a film that should have settled one way or another early on for a direction and stuck with it. 

As it is, its garbled mix of messiness and directionless fodder means it's a film to be tolerated rather than remotely enjoyed - and is more likely to see many filing for divorce from this Shotgun Wedding.

Shotgun Wedding begins streaming on Prime Video on January 27.