By The Double Feature: Versus crew takes a look at “OUR FAMILY WEDDING”
Synopsis
The weeks leading up to a young couple’s wedding are comic and stressful, especially as their respective fathers try to lay their long standing feud to rest.
Blak’s commentary
“Our Family Wedding” is the typical guess-which-surprising-race-is-coming-to-dinner comedy in the vein of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” and “Guess Who.” However, as typical as the barebones dad-hates-dad plot is, the film is less than satisfactory. Forest Whitaker, a usually terrific thespian, does well with the comedic material (stepping out of his dramatic comfort zone) and Carlos Mencia (ever lovingly the over-the-top performer) does well as the film’s biggest comedic effect but as a whole, “Our Family Wedding” is a middling disappointment. The core romance between leads Lance Gross and America Ferrera is left as an afterthought, a subplot that doesn’t matter nor is given much compelling shine even when it is put in the forefront. Then there’s the waste of a great supporting cast – Regina King, Charlie Murphy, Taye Diggs, Anjelah Johnson. While there are two solidly funny moments within the film – both involving the punching bag of a supplement Viagra – “Our Family Wedding” is essentially a forgettable comedy that is derivative of its better counterparts.
2.5 out of 5
Brad’s commentary
Our Family Wedding is a romantic comedy with a packed cast of talent from Forest Whitaker, America Ferrera, Regina King, and more. Following the cliché plot of two families of different races having to come together and understand each other when their kids plan to get married. From there the plot is a mess of clichés that follow everything in the book for the families hating each other from the start due to their differences. Only for them to go from wanting to end the wedding to coming together after a five-minute conversation. The jokes fall flat or are so overused they don’t come off as surprising, the acting is so over the top it makes it impossible to relate to any of the characters, and there is no situation where you are rooting for the problems of this movie to be resolved. While the cast is packed, this is the lowest of any of their careers by a landslide. The movie does have a couple moments that are fun, but they are loose pocket change in a haystack when compared to what the other 120 minutes of runtime have to offer. Which is to say its not worth all the digging to find those couple moments.
1.5 / 5
Double Feature: Versus Podcast
Check out Blak and Brad’s full thoughts on OUR FAMILY WEDDING as well as YOU PEOPLE on the latest episode, available to listen to now!
Double Feature VS is a podcast series in which two friends Anthony and Brad step in front of the mic and clash heads, come together, break up, and come together again on the subject of two competing films on each episode. Directorial debut vs Sophomore slump (or success), critically acclaimed vs fan-favorite, original vs sequel, blond vs ginger, ebony vs melanin, etc. The possibilities? Endless. The arguments? Futile. The debates? Epic (also humorous). The combination of audio material, written film reviews and video commentaries (all found on doublefeaturevs.com) are all part of what makes this a great new series for cinephiles, moviegoers, movie lovers and everybody in-between.
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