Of modern film comedies about weddings – “Bridesmaids,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Father of the Bride,” “Wedding Crashers,” “The Proposal” – “Shotgun Wedding” is the first to feature Balinese pirates trying to hold a wedding party hostage and shaking down the father of the bride for $45 million in exchange for the life of his daughter.
Written by Mark Hammer (“Two Night Stand”) and directed by Jason Moore (“Pitch Perfect 2”), the middling “Shotgun Wedding” stars Jennifer Lopez of the 2001 release “The Wedding Planner” among others as Darcy Rivera, a woman of a certain age, who for reasons unclear gets cold feet about marrying longtime fiance Tom Fowler (Josh Duhamel), who also has last minute reservations about taking the leap.
Originally, executive producer Ryan Reynolds was set to play the male lead. He was replaced by Armie Hammer, who was then replaced by Duhamel. The “White Lotus” herself Jennifer Coolidge plays Tom’s mother Carol, who always manages to bring amusing attention to herself after the pirates force all of the wedding guests into a pool and staple their place cards onto their clothes. This is how the pirates realize that the bride and groom are not among the hostages and are somewhere on the idyllic island (the film was shot in the Dominican Republic), where the wedding was supposed to take place.
