BRIDE HARD Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Simon West
Stars: Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Anna Chlumsky, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Gigi Zumbado, Sam Huntington, Stephen Dorff, Justin Hartley, Colleen Camp, Sherry Cola, Michael O’Neill, Brannon Cross.
The title of this formulaic female driven action comedy is a mashup of the raunchy comedy Bridesmaids and the 1989 action thriller Die Hard, which set the benchmark for the genre.
Rebel Wilson plays Sam, a secret agent who is something of a maverick who doesn’t follow rules or orders. Sam has been friends with Betsy (Anna Camp, from Pitch Perfect, etc) since childhood, and she has been chosen to be the maid of honour at Betsy’s upcoming wedding to Ryan (Sam Huntington, from tv series Good Girls, etc). Sam has arranged for the bachelorette party to take place in Paris, to coincide with a special mission in the city. But the date of the assignment is moved up a day early, forcing Sam to sneak away from the party. She succeeds in taking a bioweapon from a terrorist. But she is stood down by her controller Hadine (Sherry Cola).
When she returns to the party Betsy is disappointed and replaces her as her maid of honour, giving the role to Virginia (Anna Chlumsky, best remembered for her role in the 1990s tearjerker My Girl), her fiance’s tightly wound and bitter sister instead. Sam is heartbroken by the decision and leaves.
Nonetheless she turns up to the wedding which is being held on a private island estate belonging to Ryan’s wealthy family, which lies off Savannah in Georgia. Betsy is given a bit of a cold reception, particularly by Virginia, who has gone all out on the preparations. But the ceremony is interrupted when a group of heavily armed mercenaries, led by Kurt (Stephen Dorff, from The Power Of One, etc) turn up and take the rich and powerful wedding guests hostage. Kurt intends to break into the family vault and make off with a fortune in gold bullion. Sam fights back, taking down the crooks using her special skills and lots of household items as weapons (electrified water sprinklers?). And what role does hunky best man Chris (Justin Hartley, from tv series Tracker, etc) play in proceedings?
Bride Hard is the first feature script written by Shaina Steinberg (who has worked on tv series like Spartacus and Chase) and Cece Pleasants Adams (a head writer on The Talk and The Late Show With James Cordon) and it is pretty cliched stuff. On paper the plot sounds intriguing, but the writers play the situation purely for laughs. Some of the jokes fall flat. The balance between comedy and action doesn’t completely work either. The violence is kept pretty lowkey for the most part, but a couple of deaths jar.
The director is Simon West (Con Air, etc), who is a dab hand at staging fast paced solid action thrillers, and he maintains a swift pace here although the action sequences have a familiar quality to them. The film looks good thanks to the crisp cinematography of Alan Caudillo (tv series The Cleaning Lady, etc).
Wilson seems miscast here and doesn’t really convince as a kick-ass action heroine/secret agent. (It would be easy to compare her role here to Melissa McCarthy in the 2015 action comedy Spy, but that is too lazy.) However, she throws herself into the role with gusto, and she brings a certain energy to the material. She delivers risque one-liners as she takes out the villains. It’s obvious that Wilson has improvised some of her dialogue in these encounters. However most of the physical stuff is performed by her stunt double, which becomes obvious in a few scenes. Camp is good as the selfish, entitled Betsy and Chlumsky brings a hard edge to her performance as Virginia, a control freak who delights in seeing Sam sidelined. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who won an Oscar for her performance in The Holdovers, is wasted here and given little to do as Lydia, one of the bridesmaids. Dorff’s Kurt is essentially a one-dimensional villain, barking orders at his minions and becoming more frustrated as Sam continues to upset his plans.
Bride Hard is a bit of escapist fun – it’s best to leave your brain at the cinema door as that is the best way to enjoy the film.
★★★
