Parents' Guide to The Wedding Ringer

There are brief moments throughout The Wedding Ringer when it's clear that Hart is acting, rather than just relying on his rapid-fire manic riffs to get him through a scene. He's a skilled comedian, but this movie is far too uneven to showcase his talent. It bizarrely goes from being so crass and disgusting that you want to cringe (like when a dog licks peanut butter off of the groom's genitals during the bachelor party) to occasional moments when it's better than you'd expect (like the reception dance sequence). And there are a few genuine laughs (that aren't just from gross-out humor) along the way.

But in terms of messages, The Wedding Ringer has troublesome portrayals of marriage, weddings (apparently they're only for women, and men only go in order to "score" -- either with their date or, better yet, a strange woman who's willing to have a one night stand), and male friendship. With the exception of the bride's clever sister (Olivia Thirlby), who knows that something is up, the women in the movie are all shallow and materialistic and the men even shallower (even the supposedly nice groom finds a spark with a stripper, of all people). On the bright side, though Hart and Gad mostly have an annoyingly uneven camaraderie (Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau or Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller they're not), when they do occasionally hit their mark, The Wedding Ringer is passably funny.