Shotgun Wedding is a bare bones action comedy.

Darcy and Tom gather their families for a destination wedding, but the ceremony gets put on hold when gunmen take everyone hostage. Now, they must do everything they can to save their loved ones — if they don’t wind up killing each other first.

Shotgun Wedding was originally going to be released into theaters, in fact it was supposed to come out in June of last year. Amazon Studios bought the rights to the movie from Lionsgate in March 2022 and now here we are today as it released on Amazon Prime Video and it’s not exactly hard to see why.

The positives come from Jennifer Coolidge who despite given not a whole lot to work with still manages to be pretty funny and still have some great comedic charming. Coolidge’s charm really works here and easily steals the show, Jennifer Lopez isn’t too bad here either although I would argue her performance is a step down from last year’s Marry Me. The rest of the cast isn’t too bad either, in fact all of them really try their hardest with such a lacking script that’s heavily restricting them from doing anything memorable.

The major issue here is that Shotgun Wedding is about as dull as you can get with a action comedy, the action scenes are not memorable or aren’t very fun at all. The comedy is mostly restricted to Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel arguing over and over again, which while it might be funny for about 3 minutes it quickly gets very old. If anything the actual comedy comes from the side characters. There’s some genuinely funny bits from the side characters that actually work decently, the other major problem is the script. There’s just not a whole lot here to work with, if the goal was to make an action comedy movie well this sure is an action comedy but it’s missing quite a lot on what makes a good action comedy.

Overall Shotgun Wedding is very forgettable and such a waste of potential with such a great cast.

Shotgun Wedding is available on Amazon Prime Video.

4/10 D+

Halftime is a decent documentary but leaves the viewer wanting more.

Global superstar Jennifer Lopez reflects on her multifaceted career and the pressure of life in the spotlight.

It honestly pains me to give the rating I’m going to give Halftime, I’ve always been a fan of Jennifer Lopez even if a lot of her performances are misses. Her music has always been enjoyable and lately her performances (Hustlers and Marry Me) have been quite great. I will say that a lot of articles are flat out lying about what this documentary is about, it’s not some “Jennifer Lopez attacks Shakira because of the Halftime show” situation that articles would have you believe. In fact Lopez herself does not blame Shakira at all, most of the documentary is about the NFL and the 92nd Academy Awards aka the Oscars. Anyone who remembers the huge discourse about The Oscars that year would tell you how badly the Oscars dropped the ball with some of the nominations, so many people got snubbed for ridiculous reasons Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers) and Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems) being the main two. It was nice that Jennifer Lopez told how she felt about the situation and the message of wanting to be taken seriously as an artist only for people to flat out laugh at you definitely sticks with you plus can feel quite relatable. The main problem is this documentary is it feels like it’s trying to say something much more before ending abruptly, it also doesn’t help that it doesn’t fully connect the viewer to Jennifer Lopez. Some of the last few celebrity documentaries such as the Billie Eilish one and The Blackpink one were successful because they connected the viewer with Billie or Blackpink, it felt like we got to know them more as people and saw their day to day life. You don’t get that same freedom in Halftime, it feels much more closer which is unfortunate. The only people who are going to instantly connect are fans of Jennifer Lopez, which is fine but it’s such a shame to try and included a bigger audience. Overall Halftime isn’t a bad documentary and as I said before it’s nice Jennifer Lopez told her story and how she felt. It’s just a documentary that needed a lot more power to it and deserved a lot better.

Halftime is available on Netflix!

6/10 C+

Marry Me is a strong return to form of the romantic comedy genre!

Pop superstar Kat Valdez is about to get married before an audience of her loyal fans. However, seconds before the ceremony, she learns about her fiance’s cheating ways and has a meltdown on stage. In a moment of inspired insanity, Kat locks eyes with a total stranger in the crowd and marries him on the spot. As forces conspire to separate the unlikely newlyweds, they must soon decide if two people from such different worlds can find true love together.

Marry Me was very nice surprise, it’s a romantic comedy that is genuinely really sweet and is actually quite funny as well! The chemistry between Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson absolutely works here, there’s something that just feels really heartwarming and really raw about it. The acting is really solid here as well, Wilson and Lopez give really sweet performances that make you care about their characters, the writing has some genuinely great humor that worked well here. While yes Marry Me isn’t really anything new it’s a very nice return to form for the genre, plus I don’t really mind a film not doing anything new as long as it’s well made, well acted, well written and so on. Which that is what Marry Me is, a genuinely well made movie that really does a fantastic job of being a romantic comedy. Marry Me heavily reminds me of the romantic comedies back from the early 2000s in a very good way, between the characters, the soundtrack (which is fantastic) and the writing it feels like a trip down memory lane. Overall Marry Me is the biggest surprise so far of 2022, if you are a fan of romantic comedies or just looking for something to watch on Valentine’s Day give this one a shot!

Marry Me is in theaters and on Peacock!

7/10 B

Hustlers (2019)

Inspired by the viral New York Magazine article, Hustlers follows a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients. Hustlers a movie that could have easily been one of the worst movies to come out of 2019, however that is not the case here and far from it. The performances were all really great especially Jennifer Lopez who gives her best performance in a very long time, which is quite great to see. I’ve always liked Jennifer Lopez and always wanted her to make a huge comeback and this is definitely it. Constance Wu is also really great and she really does deliver! I think what really makes this movie is oddly enough the writing, combine that with the acting and you have some pretty powerful moments where you really care about what’s going on and what happens to the characters. The direction from Scafaria is some of the best I’ve seen so far this year, she really drags you into the film and knows how to create characters. There’s a few emotional moments in this film was well and really shows what people are willing to do for their loved ones, it’s one of those movies that really shows how much everyone involved wanted to be really great, overall this is definitely the biggest surprise (at least for me) in 2019. This could have easily went horribly wrong in a thousand ways but with strong performances, strong storytelling and really great writing! This is one I recommend checking out!
9/10 A