Directed By Roger Kumble

Starring – Dylan Sprouse, Virginia Gardner, Steven Bauer

The Plot – It follows Abby (Gardner) and Travis (Sprouse), who after a crazy night together in Las Vegas, discover they are married. They head to Mexico for a honeymoon with friends and family, but end up on another wildly unpredictable adventure, which tests their love once more.

Rated R for sexual content, nudity, and adult language throughout.

Beautiful Wedding (2024) | Official Trailer | Voltage Pictures (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Surmizing the same kind of open-armed embrace for unpredictable chaos and lunacy, which made “Beautiful Disaster” live up to every inch of its name, the same can be said for Kumble’s second delve into Abby and Travis’ world, this time while sulking up the sun and fun of the exotic Mexican beach sides. Because this is a sequel, Kumble decides to double down on this impulse, with the same kind of sex schenanigans that we’ve come to expect from two characters who embody overgrown adolescents, but also in visual graphics and even animation, which occasionally makes this feel like the “Crank 2” of sequels. If the comedy were more effective, the direction from Kumble would elicit more of a familiar momentum into the simplicity of 80’s and 90’s raunchy comedies, but even stated, I’m glad that he’s a storyteller who refuses to ever take his work or his characters too seriously, leading to an overall engagement that you might not enjoy, but one you’ll definitely never forget about. In addition to this, the lone improvement of this film over its predecessor comes in the palpable chemistry this time around, between its leads, which helps to articulate the craziness that they feel for one another. As to where the first film conjured these lukewarm embraces between two characters who quite literally felt like they were being forced together, their bond here feels not only lived-in with the barrage of memories and conflicts that Abby and Travis have faced throughout three hours of on-screen depiction between two movies, but also emphasizes the appealing depth to effort that Sprouse and Gardner instill towards their respective portrayals, which are ripe with the kind of vulnerabilities that prove neither are above making fools of themselves for the sake of the film. Sprouse’s Travis is still what I would consider toxic in the way he smothers Abby’s adventurous spirit, but Sprouse’s bad boy persona during the original film gives way to more of a lovable neanderthal here, and when combined with Abby’s clumsy innocence, solidifies an endearing bond that is at least fun to watch what they will screw up next.

NEGATIVES

This sequel accomplishes a lot of things, but perhaps the single biggest is that it made the original look better by comparison, and only took 85 minutes to do so. Normally, that run time would point towards a positive of its own, as the less time that you have to spend with these obnoxious personalities, the better, but nothing about this film feels easy, and by the time the film is over you start to realize just how difficult the movie strained to even reach that light and fluffy run time. For starters, the film begins by reviewing the entirety of everything that happened during the previous film, with accommodating visuals. So immediately I am angered by the fact that I not only didn’t have to experience its predecessor in the first place, but I now have to experience it against my will for a second time, before the movie even starts advancing the plot and dynamic of its dual protagonists. That should’ve been my emphasized warning, as the following film doesn’t get any better, from that point on, combining embarassingly ineffective humor with stacking characters and subplots that eviscerate even scraps of believability and nuance that simply don’t exist in this world. On the former, I laughed one time throughout the entirety of the movie, and that was almost accidental, as the dialogue feels written by a teenage girl dangerously dedicated to fan fiction, and on the latter I learned that the screenwriter cares about Abby and Travis’ dynamic about as much as I do, especially since he spends so much time distancing his movie from the advancement of their conflict, which only magnify the complete absence of stakes that the first movie at least had. One example involves Travis’ cousin being enveloped in an ongoing war with a rooster, as he scoffs against cock fighting, while others pertain to re-introducing characters to the audience as late as the film’s one hour mark, where glorified cameos seemingly take center stage in dredging up the debauchery that feels desparate to earn every inch of its unnecessary R-rating. On this aspect, the dialogue is loaded with forced vulgarities, reminding me fondly of the first time I discovered curse words, and the titilating emphasis of dry scenes involving nudity or sexuality out of nowhere, grows flacid quickly, especially because the film’s first half goes repeatedly to this well so often that it, and its magnetism in steamy romantic allure goes dry quite quickly. It’s also a structural mess in everything from the derivative familiarity of the first few scenes ranging from 2008’s “The Hangover” to 1997’s “Booty Call”, as well as a clumsy framing device, which the film’s dialogue can’t even faithfully pursue for fifteen whole minutes. This idea surrounds Abby and Travis talking to a priest to save their marriage, as it seems our introduction has fast-forwarded to the end of the movie to hint towards where their relationship ends up. So because this whole movie is basically told as a flashback to catch audiences up to what has happened to this point, any kind of overhead narration that follows should come from any of these three characters, but instead it comes from another character in the film who has nothing to do with this marriage counseling, and even less to do with the extent of their two film history, which he zeroes in on when discussing the insecurities that suddenly materialize in waking up to discover that they have done the ultimate deed. It also goes without saying that the film lacks any semblance of technical bravado or even momentary flare, wasting away the magnitude of its established setting with stagnant shots, saturated scores and post-production audio deposits so obviously manipulated that people in my audience made noises while discovering them. Visually, this film is a chore to interpret, with amateur framing that continuously obscures one character slightly out of frame during a dual character shot, and audibly the film’s constant dredging up of ‘La Cucaracha’ is only surpassed by its one-dimensional tones absorbing as much of the tonal plausibilities of each scene that they accompany, so as not to throw audiences off on what to feel at any given moment. Tones like these eviscerate any semblance of capability or craft from the various actors and production crew, but the film would rather leave them as simplistically void of depth as possible, which probably help when considering the performances are certainly nothing special. This isn’t a dig at Sprouse or Gardner, who I previously commended for embracing their inner vulnerabilities to play into Kumble’s unpredictable chaos, but rather the extent of their supporting ensemble, who feel every bit as emotionally cold as they do tangibly void to the integrity of the scenes they accompany. Because so much of this film’s focus deviates away from Abby and Travis at a drop’s notice, the dependency on these characters feels all the more vital towards the film’s integrity, disappointing it and the audience with lukewarm deliveries so edgeless that they make the immature dialogue stick out all the more bluntly, as a result.

OVERALL
“Beautiful Wedding” is a conceptually flawed and entertainingly flat engagement full of empty promises and endless regrets, which manages the impossible feat of falling short from even an embarrassing original. With disjointed focus, distracting technical snafus and an oversexualized immaturity towards its flat and unregistering humor, this is one invite undeserving of an RSVP, but more than deserving of its place inside of a January release date.

My Grade: 2/10 or F-