Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and brief strong language, 90 minutes
Please, skip this awful "Family Wedding"
Maybe it's the broad stereotypes. Maybe the incoherent terribly unfunny script. Or maybe comedian Carlos Mencia. Or maybe it's all the above and then some. The latter is probably the reason why the new comedy "Our Family Wedding" simply stinks. It's one of the worst films of the year and is unfortunate because the lead actors, "Ugly Betty's" America Ferrera and "House of "Payne's" Lance Gross are such a darn cute couple.
Ferrera is Lucia, Gross is Marcus. They're a young couple living across the country together who go home to tell their families they've been living together and plan to get married before they leave the country to do mission work. Marcus' father is the "unorthodox" Brad Boyd (Forest Whitaker), a popular L.A. D.J. also popular with the ladies. Lucia's family is Miguel (Mencia) and Sonia (Diana-Maria Riva), a tight-knit, working class family and owner of a towing company. Their two families clash as they plan the wedding, opening up a whole series of problems for the young couple that could threaten their future.
Please pass on the dreck that is known as "Our Family Wedding," an unfunny, stereotypical and sloppy comedy that wastes a talented cast in the process. Rick Famuyiwa ("Brown Sugar," "The Wood") is responsible for directing this incoherent, wildly disjointed comedy that throws every wedding cliche and every comedic cliche possible (cake fights, animals and family members wreaking havoc and so on). Ferrera and Gross are an attractive couple whose characters get lost in the utter uninteresting mess and really all of this could've been avoided had they just been honest and communicated all this with their families in the first place.
Mencia is one of the unfunniest comedians around, and the fact that he can't act either doesn't help "Our Family Wedding." The film manages to bring down Oscar-winner Whitaker in the process, who's utterly wasted and misplaced, as is Regina King as a close family friend. Taye Diggs and Warren Sapp cameo and Eddie Murphy's older brother Charles Q. Murphy seems to be doing a wildly annoying and unfunny version of his brother. The best thing about the film is the energetic and catchy soundtrack, which leaves a far more lasting impression that this film.
By the time this TV movie of the week gets down to the exceedingly predictable climax, you know exactly what'll happen. Now you know why you skip family outings such as weddings, or in the case of the movie "Our Family Wedding," just forget about it all together. A bland, very uneven mess to avoid.
