Bridesmaid Wars
Life hasn't been great for Annie (Kristen Wiig - MacGruber) recently, her bakery business closed down and her so called boyfriend is only interested in being friends with benefits. To top it off her best friend Lilian (Maya Rudolph - Away We Go) has got engaged and wants Annie to be her maid of honour. Despite not feeling the romance Annie does her best to do her duties alongside Lilian's other bridesmaid Helen (Rose Byrne), Megan (Melissa McCarthy), Becca (Ellie Kemper) and Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey). But Annie finds herself in a competition as the determined Helen tries to take over as chief bridesmaid.
That will teach me, I remembered hearing lots of positive things about "Bridesmaids" when it came out and when I finally got the opportunity to watch it I expected to be entertained and didn't bother reading and reviews. How seriously wrong I was as "Bridesmaids" is one of the least funny comedies I have watched and suffers from becoming insufferable because it tries too hard. Now I honestly thought that maybe this was a gender thing, that maybe being a bloke the appeal of "Bridesmaids" was lost on me, but I asked some women friends and they agreed this movie just doesn't work.
Now concept wise "Bridesmaids" is good, the whole idea of a maid of honour finding herself in competition with one of the bridesmaids has great potential for being a riot of gags or some thing dark and funny. But every single joke is either dragged out or forced so that it becomes unfunny. Take the scene where Annie finds herself competing with Helen over a speech early on in the movie, it starts of amusing when we see Helen trying to steal the limelight but then it goes on and on and on until the joke is lost. And this is what goes on through out the movie and someone needed to tell the writers less is more.
It is not just the rivalry gags as we have slapstick which is restrained and plenty of crude and sex gags which for some reason don't make you cringe in the way intended. Oh don't get me wrong as they still make you cringe but more out of embarrassment for how bad it is.
The one thing I will say is that whatever faults there are with "Bridesmaids" the cast certainly try. Be if Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy or one of the British actors such as Chris O'Dowd they try to be funny.
What this all boils down to is that "Bridesmaids" ended up a huge disappointment for me which whilst having a good idea struggled under the weight of lame, drawn out gags which end up making it feel forced and unfunny.
