Certificate: 15 (violence, substance use, alcohol use, smoking, foul language, sexual content). Running Time: 128 mins. UK Distributor: Prime Video
WHO’S IN IT?
Jennifer Lopez, Josh Duhamel, Sônia Braga, Jennifer Coolidge, Lenny Kravitz, Cheech Marin, D’Arcy Carden, Selena Tan, Desmin Borges, Alex Mallari Jr., Callie Hernandez, Steve Coulter, María del Mar Fernández, Héctor Gonz
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Jason Moore (director), Mark Hammer (writer), Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Jennifer Lopez, Benny Medina and Alexander Young (producers), Pinar Toprak (composer), Peter Deming (cinematographer), Doc Crotzer (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Just before their dream wedding, a bride (Lopez) and groom (Duhamel) must save their guests after they are taken hostage…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON SHOTGUN WEDDING?
The action classic Die Hard has seen many imitators come for its crown over the years, but nearly all of them can’t go without being described as “Die Hard but in/on [BLANK]”, thereby maintaining the original film’s might. For instance, Air Force One was “Die Hard but on a plane”, Under Siege was “Die Hard but on a boat”, Olympus Has Fallen (and, to a lesser extent, White House Down) was “Die Hard but in the White House”, and even as recently as Violent Night, which was “Die Hard but in an actual Christmas movie”.
Now comes along Shotgun Wedding, which can aptly be described as “Die Hard but in a Jennifer Lopez wedding rom-com”, and to its credit runs with that concept for as far as it can go. Of course, director Jason Moore’s film never gets as thrilling or even as funny as the very movie it’s borrowing heavily from, but thanks to a considerable amount of on-screen charm that’s mostly provided by its leading lady, it’s a perfectly okay attempt.
The film begins as couple Darcy (Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) are about to wed in front of friends and family on a private island in the Philippines, but frustrations between the supposedly happy couple – including Darcy’s fear of lifelong commitment, and Tom’s over-attentive planning of their big day – threaten to boil over before the ceremony gets underway. However, their soon-to-be-married strife must take a backseat when, all of a sudden, pirates swoop in and take all the wedding guests hostage, demanding that Darcy’s wealthy father Robert (Cheech Marin) transfer millions of dollars over to them if they, along with the bride and groom, are to survive. Now, Darcy and Tom must avoid being captured while trying to find a way to save their loved ones – and maybe, also, the love that they have for each other.
The concept alone makes this one of the few wedding rom-coms that feels somewhat fresh, even though it is of course doing the whole Die Hard thing almost to a tee, but Shotgun Wedding plays things perhaps a bit too safe to fully reach its potential. The threat that comes from these pirates never entirely comes across, because they do very little to make themselves intimidating (none of the hostages are ever seriously harmed by them; even Hans Gruber and his goons in Die Hard at least offed a good few people before John McClane stepped in) and, as quickly proven in some of the earlier action sequences, can easily be defeated by – of all things – a handcuffed Jennifer Lopez in a multi-layered wedding dress. The “real” threat, though, comes from a reveal that is telegraphed very early on, pretty much as soon as you’re introduced to one particular character and how they relate in some way to at least one of the couple-to-be, but the more you start to realise how elaborate and honestly nonsensical their plot ends up being, you’re no more intimidated by this big bad than the other, somewhat useless villains.
Moore and screenwriter Mark Hammer also struggle to find an appropriate tonal balance for their film, which constantly fluctuates between your typical screwball romantic-comedy, and a surprisingly violent action-thriller where people are blown up, shot at, and even burned alive with some pretty gnarly scars afterwards. That isn’t to say that extreme violence, particularly the kind you would actually see in an action movie like Die Hard, can’t ever be made out to be funny in this kind of film where the main genre is almost the complete opposite, but here it never feels as though it’s meant to be part of a joke, and more like the director and writer just wanted to indulge in their adult rating rather than tie it together with everything else. Again, though, it’s hard to feel as though you’re watching anything truly adult when, mere moments after something pretty brutal happens, we’re watching Jennifer Coolidge channel her own character from The White Lotus for a back-and-forth scene designed for pure chuckles.
All of that being said, though, Shotgun Wedding does still manage to have some semblance of a heart, and just enough charm to carry itself. Much of that comes from Jennifer Lopez, who we already know to be a natural on-screen performer, particularly in high-concept rom-coms such as this, and manages to liven things with her own steady charm and neatly balanced chemistry with Josh Duhamel, which helps to even out certain scenes that are clearly just there to show the world that Lopez is still one of the most attractive women in the world (did I mention that she’s also one of the film’s producers?). She and Duhamel are clearly having fun together, and their strong screen presence does make you really want their characters to succeed, which carries things even when other stuff around them isn’t quite up to their level of commitment.
Had it opted for a much fiercer tone rather than stay well within its own comfort zone, then maybe Shotgun Wedding would have been more memorable than it ends up being. Instead, it’s an okay-to-mediocre romp that does certain things fine, and other things not so much, but is just about watchable thanks to its star power and the natural charm that its leads are capable of producing. I can see why it was put onto streaming rather than in cinemas (Amazon bought distribution rights from Lionsgate last year), because it isn’t quite exciting or balanced enough to warrant a theatrical response – plus, there’s a better movie playing in cinemas right now that’s also about a group of people taken hostage in the Philippines that the lead hero must save, so just go and check out Plane instead. At least that one doesn’t necessarily have to be described as “Die Hard but in/on [BLANK]” like this and so many other movies have done.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Shotgun Wedding is kept alive by the natural charm of stars Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel, but suffers from its inability to play things unsafely, which reduces the overall threat and the impact of its surprisingly violent tone that frequently clashes with the lighter-hearted rom-com approach.
