Bride Hard

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★

Rated: M

Directed by: Simon West

Screenplay by: Shaina Steinberg

Story by: CeCe Pleasants Adams & Shaina Steinberg

Produced by: Kevin Ulrich, Jason Ross Jallet, Max Osswald, Colleen Camp Cassian Elwes, Joel David Moore

Starring: Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Anna Chlumsky, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Gigi Zumbado, with Stephen Dorff, and Justin Hartley.

‘That’s what you get for messing with my best friend’s wedding.’

A title with a take on Die Hard (1988), I wasn’t sure Bride Hard was going to work.

Directed by Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Expendables 2, The Mechanic) and starring Rebel Wilson, I was expecting a comedy with a side of action. And that’s pretty much what the film delivers.  No parallels to the Die Hard franchise that I caught, anyway.

Bride Hard starts off with BFF, Sam (Rebel Wilson) and Betsy’s (Anna Camp) childhood home movies.  Then the inevitable parting.

Fast forward 30 years to Betsy’s hen’s night (that’s Aussie for bachelorette party) and we get college roommates, Zoe (Gig Zumbado) pregnant and lamenting she can’t revel like, up-for-some-stranger-dick, Lydia (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

Then there’s sister-in-law-to-be, Virginia (Anna Chlumsky) AKA bridesmaid-zilla, who’s taken over the reins since Sam has been a friend, literally missing in action.

So when Sam is called away on a secret spy mission in the middle of the bachelorette party, she loses her right as maid of honor.  Because it’s Virginia Betsy wants holding back her hair as she pukes.  Virginia has always been there.

Feeling like the worst friend ever, Nadine (Sherry Cola), work colleague / psyc performance analyst convinces, a little too easily and will-be-going-in-the-report, Sam to go to the wedding.

In the end, saving the day.

There’s a lot of, ‘My flowers match my nails.’

But also, ‘I think hairy ears are a sign of intelligence.’

There’s humour I didn’t expect to find funny, like flowers all over a Moke (those open air, doorless vehicle that are like a hybrid of a mini and a ute) that take guests from the gate to the extravagant house made up for the big day.  It tickles.

There’s obviously a lot of stunt double work for Rebel Wilson as the bad arse secret agent but the character leans into that uncanny heroism: the running off in her dancing emoji outfit, her emotional support boobs.

The humour lands most of the time.

Sure, the drama gets over the top with Betsy in her wedding dress trying to recapture the fun of friendship with besty Sam, as mercenary Kurt (Stephen Dorff) and co., known for killing off cartels, attempt to rob the elite that is Betsy’s new family to be.

But it’s cute and punchy.

I’m not saying I loved this movie, but Rebel as Sam holds the line of self-deprecation without over doing it, making Bride Hard funny without being too silly.