Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
If ‘Die Hard’ was about an off-duty cop rescuing hostages after a Christmas party goes violently off the rails, ‘Bride Hard’ swaps the holiday chaos for wedding bells and follows a secret agent who springs into action when mercenaries take her best-friend’s wedding party hostage.
Rebel Wilson plays Sam, a workaholic secret agent who is the maid of honor for her childhood best friend, Betsy (Anna Camp), but decides to slip out for work just minutes after arriving at the venue for the bachelorette party. Worst best-friend/maid-of-honor ever? Undoubtedly!
Tired of Sam’s constant absence, and her failure to perform even the most basic maid-of-honor duties, Betsy reassigns the role to her snobby sister-in-law, Virginia (Anna Chlumsky). A snubbed Sam shows up anyway for her friend’s lavish wedding on a private island, nudged into attending by her supportive colleague, Nadine (Sherry Cola). And that’s where all hell breaks loose, with terrorists infiltrating the wedding and taking everyone hostage, giving Agent Sam a chance to redeem herself and play saviour to her bestie. This isn’t ‘Bride Hard’. It’s Bridesmaid Hard.
But do you know what other movie was about terrorists taking over a wedding party? ‘Shotgun Wedding’ starring Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel. Which, by the way, was a lot more funnier. ‘Bride Hard’ probably banks on a dose of nostalgia, bringing Rebel Wilson and Anna Camp back together after ‘Pitch Perfect’, which won’t mean anything to viewers who haven’t seen their earlier films. But even otherwise, the two actor have no chemistry as onscreen buddies.
For most of the film, Rebel Wilson is lumbered with a wildly impractical red bridesmaid dress, which becomes the basis for one of Bride Hard’s rare laughs, like when she compares herself to the dancing emoji in the red dress. Apart from a few amusing action scenes where she brawls with terrorists in that outfit or plays helpless to gain the upper hand, the film is largely un-funny. Rebel struggles to sell her agent character, and maybe Sherry Cola could’ve used a bigger part in the film.
In the second half of Bride Hard, some funny moments come from Betsy (Anna Camp) being utterly wide-eyed in awe of Sam’s combat skills. Her unfiltered admiration works as a clever send-up of spy action films, where women typically fawn over the male hero. But again, these moments are few, and not even as hilarious as you’d expect them to be.
It took me two days to finish watching Bride Hard, so I’d suggest that you try watching something else.
Rating: 4 on 10 stars. ‘Bride Hard’ is on Prime Video.
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