Divorce yourself from 'Wedding Ringer'

"The Wedding Ringer" is built around Kevin Hart's status as the movies' current life of the party.

Hart plays Jimmy, a professional best man hired by a sad sack (Josh Gad) to enliven his wedding.

In a sense Hart is playing himself, since what Gad's character wants is the same thing Hollywood wants from Hart - he's the firecracker who provides the spark to "Ride Along" or the "Think Like A Man" movies.

There is unfortunately no firecracker big enough for "Wedding Ringer," a dusty reject of a script so old we almost forget that it's title is a play on "Wedding Singer," and whose ideas have been done before, and better, by "I Love You Man" and "The Wedding Crashers."

Gad is Doug, a bland and lonely accountant who's mysteriously engaged to a vivacious blonde (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting), who's planning the usual garish wedding and is pressing her fiance for details about the best man and groomsmen.

Enter Jimmy, who pretends to be Doug's long-missing best friend. He brings along a small army of fake friends and groomsmen. (There is a potential for small colorful supporting roles here that goes completely unexploited. Ditto the bridesmaids.)

The movie has more Hart than heart, though there is meant to be a subplot about Jimmy dropping his "no real friendships" rule to bond with the hapless Doug, especially as he begins to sense that the wedding is a disastrous mismatch.

In general, though, it's the kind of comedy that trades character work for purportedly comic situations - at a stuffy rehearsal dinner, grandma catches fire, somebody throws a drink on her, it gets worse and so forth.

When all else fails: cameos. A pick-up game of football with Jimmy, Doug and his prospective father-in-law is peppered with Hall of Famers Joe Namath, John Riggins and Ed "Too Tall" Jones.

Ed Jones, the former Cowboy?

I hope Hart hasn't gone Chris Christie on us.

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