Shotgun Wedding

"Shotgun Wedding" is a chocolate-covered cherry with liqueur inside. It starts as a glossy but merely serviceable romantic comedy about a couple who both ...

[Howard Hawks](/cast-and-crew/howard-hawks) screwball romances like "Bringing Up Baby," in which a leopard wanders through periodically, the main couple clings to a collapsing dinosaur skeleton, and [Cary Grant](/cast-and-crew/cary-grant) ends up wearing a woman's silk robe and shouts, "I just went gay all of a sudden!" as well as catchphrase-laden lines that are too Hollywood-writers-room (like "Dad is a messy bitch who loves the drama" and "Pirates chasing you wasn't on your vision board?" [Mark Hammer](/cast-and-crew/mark-hammer) and filmmaker [Jason Moore](/cast-and-crew/jason-moore) (a film and TV veteran who directed "Avenue Q" and " [Steel Magnolias](/reviews/steel-magnolias-1989)" on Broadway, as well as " [Pitch Perfect](/reviews/pitch-perfect-2012)") have a sure touch with their leads and get sharp supporting performances from the secondary cast. But the performers are such fierce comic presences that we accept them as a couple of lovable kids who have a lot to learn about relationships. Still, the specificity of the characterizations and subsequent plot twists upend that expectation: everyone in this film is a bit of a kook, including the bad guys. There are also the concerns of Darcy's fiancé Tom ( [Josh Duhamel](/cast-and-crew/josh-duhamel)), a washed-up minor-league baseball player; the insinuating entitlement of Darcy's ex-lover Sean ( [Lenny Kravitz](/cast-and-crew/lenny-kravitz)), who wasn't invited but showed up anyway; the awkward energy of Darcy's divorced mom and dad, Roberto and Renata ( [Cheech Marin](/cast-and-crew/cheech-marin) and [Sônia Braga](/cast-and-crew/s%C3%B4nia-braga)), which informs the bride's anxieties; and the sprightly middle-American cluelessness of Tom's parents Carol and Larry ( [Jennifer Coolidge](/cast-and-crew/jennifer-coolidge) and [Steve Coulter](/cast-and-crew/steve-coulter)).

Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel talk about what it was like shooting their action scenes for Shotgun Wedding in a new featurette.

Lopez in turn had nothing but praise for Moore, saying that she felt like she and Duhamel were in good hands during their more dangerous stunts, such as the high-flying moment on the zipline. They also get into the trust that they had to have in one another while shooting their action scenes. In the featurette, Lopez and Duhamel — both of whom are staples of both the action and the romantic genres — talk about how the combination of comedy and heart-pounding action drew them to the project.

Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel stare down a 'Shotgun Wedding' on Prime Video; Bob Odenkirk ponders a "Life Upside Down"; a French diplomat's reputation is ...

[a strikingly beautiful fusion of earthy realism, dreamy expressionism and underdog melodrama](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-04-01/review-this-is-not-burial-its-resurrection-lesotho), telling the story of an elderly Lesotho villager (Mary Twala Mhlongo) who rouses herself from her deathbed to save the homes and graves of her neighbors and relatives from being destroyed by a new dam. And there’s not enough novelty and creativity in the way the picture was filmed — with the actors isolated in their own locations, handling a lot of the filming themselves — to compensate for the sparse plot. “The Mission” is less about Mormonism or Finland than it is a poignant and relatable portrait of loneliness, taking an intimate look at these good-hearted youngsters, cut off from their culture and their loved ones, who fight — and sometimes fail — to maintain optimism for an assignment that seems impossible. Taking a fly on the wall approach, Anderson watches these kids as they try to bring what they’ve learned in church and in language lessons out into the streets, only to find that they have trouble carrying on long conversations — and that when they do make connections, the Finns would rather talk about the Americans’ personal lives, not their spiritual message. [Bob Odenkirk](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2022-05-17/bob-odenkirk-better-call-saul-final-season)) impetuously starts an affair with political science professor Clarissa (Radha Mitchell), a colleague of one of his most well-heeled customers, Paul (Danny Huston). [“Shotgun Wedding”](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-02-02/josh-duhamel-cast-replaces-armie-hammer-shotgun-wedding) peters out down the stretch, as the explosions and gunfire overwhelm the banter. In “Condor’s Nest,” Jacob Keohane plays Will Spalding, a World War II vet who has spent the decade since the war tracking the Nazi officer who cruelly exterminated Spalding’s bomber crew. Unlike horror films, crime pictures, action-thrillers and even westerns, war movies aren’t a common genre for lower-budget productions anymore — perhaps because it’s hard to stage armed combat on the cheap. But Blattenberger can write punchy dialogue; he also wisely spends some of his money on ace character actors Michael Ironside, James Urbaniak, Jorge Garcia and Bruce Davison, each of whom pops up for a memorable scene or two. Director Jérôme Salle’s stirring melodrama dramatizes the escalating nightmare experienced by Mathieu (Gilles Lellouche), a French diplomat whose life in Siberia is upended when rumors spread that he’s a child-abusing pedophile. The action-comedy comes on way too strong in its opening 20 minutes, introducing an all-star cast in gratingly overstuffed scenes, featuring a surfeit of fast-paced, amped-up chatter. When her new fiancé — a failed pro baseball player, Tom (Duhamel) — invites both their large families to an over-elaborate island wedding, Darcy starts panicking again.

The movie critics are saying "Shotgun Wedding," starring Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel, "feels canned," but is "pretty good" and "enjoyably goofy."

"Lopez, a much much better actress than she is often given credit, tries valiantly — and physically — to make it all fly, even at the point she is virtually forced to turn into a commando in a wedding dress. "Against the odds, the expectations and the run of play, here is a romcom starring Jennifer Lopez and it’s … Clearly though she’s having a blast, and that may be enough for the audience to go right along with her." For the most part, though, this is a slapdash effort on most every level, seemingly sold almost entirely on the notion of watching Lopez run through the jungle in a tattered wedding dress." "There are a few fairly impressive stunts (again, all of them in the trailer) sprinkled along the way, such as Darcy and Tom trying to zipline to safety. Much of the dialogue feels canned and phony in the style of a badly written sitcom. well, it’s pretty good: enjoyably goofy and sparkily written." The actress gamely tries to overcome the script's tonal whiplash, but she ultimately gets upstaged by co-stars D'Arcy Carden, Lenny Kravitz and the deadpan Jennifer Coolidge, who leads her fellow hostages in a singalong of Edwin McCain's "I'll Be" in the movie's best moment." ""Shotgun Wedding' is one of the more unsettling rom-coms in recent memory, with lengthy scenes of frantic wedding guests running from armed attackers, and JLo dropping grenades on pirates as she ziplines through a jungle. The movie stars Lopez and Josh Duhamel, who play a couple preparing for a destination wedding in the Philippines. As a couple whose destination wedding is interrupted by hostage-taking pirate-terrorists, the two bicker and banter with classic screwball brio, with a love-hate rapport that is both delightful and effortlessly convincing. [Jennifer Coolidge makes her TikTok debut with JLo](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/01/20/jennifer-coolidge-tiktok-jenny-from-the-block-jennifer-lopez/11088544002/) [USA TODAY](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/02/11/jennifer-lopez-romantic-comedies-marry-me-gigli-wedding-planner-ranked/6730440001/)

Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel star as a bride and groom whose wedding gets hijacked by pirates in Shotgun Wedding, out now on Amazon Prime Video.

And sometimes you want the antidote to that, the complete inverse of reality and truth, and that’s Shotgun Wedding. Parting Shot: The bride and groom and their guests, all filthy and covered in blood, assemble on the beach at sunset to finally watch the couple exchange their vows. Darcy is the one who gets to throw the grenades and use the cake knife that Carol gifts her as a wedding present to finish off the last of the bad guys. Sleeper Star: There are a lot of funny supporting cast members in the film, including Callie Hernandez as Darcy’s dry, deadpan sister Jamie and D’Arcy Carden’s energy-healer-yoga-instructor, but Jennifer Coolidge as Tom’s mother Carol is great. That end, of course, is watching Lopez run through the jungle in a torn wedding dress and shapewear killing bad guys in ridiculous ways, and watching Duhamel’s Tom sustain a bloody “flap” on his hand after getting it caught in a deli meat slicer. – to defeat the bad guys, all while their bewildered guests stand around in the pool bickering, flirting, and trying to charm the terrorists into not killing them. You’ll find out, although the motive is pretty flimsy, but in this movie, the how and why are incidental, they’re just a means to an end. Initially oblivious to the dangers around them, Tom and Darcy realize what’s going on and turn into action heroes, resolved to save their families from these terrorists. Tom has gone a little overboard by planning a destination wedding in the Philippines for their close friends and family to attend. Darcy’s dad Robert (Cheech Marin) is a millionaire, but she and Tom have rejected his offer to pay for their wedding, since they’re older, established, and have money of their own (well, Tom is struggling because he just lost his contract as a minor league baseball player, but Darcy’s doing fine as a lawyer). Because they’re not super-rich, Tom is DIY-ing a lot of the wedding himself, for instance, on the night of their rehearsal dinner, Tom is so dedicated to making every detail perfect, he chooses to hot glue string lights to pineapple centerpieces rather than pay attention to his gorgeous fiancee’s sexual advances. The Gist: Tom and Darcy are grown adults who have been together for four years and have decided to get married.

Mitchell Travers (who was also the costume designer for "Hustlers") breaks down the entire series of custom gowns in the rom-com-meets-action movie.

"I was in some tiny bridal shop and saw a tiered tulle under-structure. [Carolina Herrera](https://fashionista.com/designers/carolina-herrera) mini dress, featuring a sculpturally draped train (above) — "so, we can tell that she likes a strapless silhouette," says Travers. But in an effort to do the right thing, she's tried to make it Darcy's by dropping it off-the-shoulder. "At the time, a lot of the world was not really up and running. Travers opted for a "champagne blush color," because Lopez always looks radiant in that hue. "I almost had to time out when I was going to tell Galia that the dress gets shredded, because you want to respect the art that they produce," he says. "In conversation with Jen, she was like, 'I just really need to be overwhelmed by it." Scott on 2014's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." Has she cut off the overskirt?" "When does she lose the train? "It really needed to go through an entire film's worth of action and adventure." [Jennifer Coolidge](https://fashionista.com/tag/jennifer-coolidge)) and ex-boyfriend Sean ( [Lenny Kravitz](https://fashionista.com/tag/lenny-kravitz)), who neglected to RSVP.