Our Family Wedding (2010)

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

For once I wish that I had at least glanced at some reviews of this movie, thus saving me money and an excruciating amount of time sitting through this drivel. Every insipid stereotype, stupid cliché, and corny joke was tried, and each failed completely. I am not even going to go there about the goat and the bottle of Viagra. For the most part, the talent was there, but I got the sense that each one had been given a large dose of some drug just to make it through the motions. For the entire movie, it felt like even the actors did not want to be there, and I cannot say that I blame them one bit. By the way, the goat had the best lines (ahem: none).

"Our Family Wedding" has some good actors and two great actors, Forest Whitaker and America Ferrera, but a horrible script. A young interracial couple travel back home to tell their families they're getting married and to plan a quick wedding. Their fathers, their cultures and their families clash. This is just rehashed material and no better than a poor man's "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner".They were going for laughs, and although I did laugh-out-loud in a few scenes, most of the lines were just rude, and all of the characters, especially Whitaker's, were just being insubordinate. Every character had friction with one another and sometimes we weren't even privy to the reasons, so not only were we not laughing, we're frustrated as well.The few laughs were not enough to overcome the frustration and many pointless scenes. Even if they were going for drama instead, there is no sense of drama just from watching characters act in horrible ways because the script tells them to. I can't really recommend "Our Family Wedding", only possibly to die-hard fans of the genre and fans of America Ferrera. This is a Ferrera we haven't seen before, mature and subdued, and she at least was nice to watch.

Much like those fun little videos you made back in high school, you aren't going to get it unless you where there. This movie defiantly has a lot of clichés, but that is kinda the point. For anyone who has had a marriage, or dating relationship, is cultural clashes this is a movie you can relate to. Unfortunately if you are white and have a white relationship this film will have very little connection to you. I am black and my fiancée is Mexican, so this movie had A LOT of connection with me. I could relate to 95% of this movie, therefore giving me a biased advantage. Although the audience reach of this movie isn't very big, nor is it a blockbuster by any standards, is it a FUN little film and shouldn't be looked over if you are in a relationship where each others families have culture clashing.

Like a terrible version of "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" blended with "The In-Laws," "Father of the Bride," "Grand Canyon" and "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding," this newest effort by director Rick Famuyiwa (who has helmed such masterpieces as "Brown Sugar," "The Wood" and "Blacktop Lingo," among others), is one of the worst films of the year - so far.It also does for goats what "The Love Guru" did for elephants - burns a vision of those beasts in one's retinas that can never, ever be erased.Instead of blacks and whites coming together after fighting each other throughout the movie (and then reconciling in the end), we get blacks and Hispanics going at each others throats for almost 100 minutes with no relief or comedic situations to speak of, and certainly no satisfying resolution, one way or another.Plot has ultra-wealthy Marcus (Lance Gross, part of the Tyler Perry's "House of Payne" clan), son of Brad Boyd (Forrest Whittaker, Oscar-winner for "Last King Of Scotland"), who falls in love with Lucia Ramirez (America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty"), the salt-of-the-earth daughter of a tow-truck driver, Miguel (stand-up comedian Carlos Mencia, of Comedy Central fame).One day, Miguel has to haul away Boyd's Rolls-Royce which is parked illegally or something like that. Of course, the two begin to argue and also to throw around the first in a series of stereotypical black and Hispanic insults. Get used to this, folks.Like every other film (and television sit-com) of this ilk, the befuddled young couple is excited to spring the big news, but something always spoils it. Here, the setting is a fancy restaurant where Boyd and Ramirez fire more racial insults at one another and forbid the marriage.Rest of film consists of young couple trying to mend fences while various oft-used situations take place (elderly Latina grandmother falls over when she sees Marcus is black, sensible mothers try to reign in husbands' bigotry and stupidity, extended families meet to discuss wildly divergent wedding preparations, sappy talk between father and daughter, a wedding cake fight and some kind of sports or civic event - here it's an amazingly unfunny softball contest in which the two dads, of course, face off against one another).Do the nuptials take place? Do the fathers-in-law come to some kind of agreement? Will Marcus and Lucia stay together forever? Will there be a whole slew of black-Hispanic "comedies" made after this? Was I a complete moron for watching this drivel? Well, I can answer "yes" to the last two questions, at least.Mencias should go back to his stand-up routine while Whittaker needs to give his Oscar to the man who SHOULD have won it - Peter O'Toole (for "Venus"). After "Vantage Point," "Street Kings" and now this turkey, the Academy Award gods have had enough. Ask Cuba Gooding, Jr. Gross and Ferrera are typical young leads, boring and insignificant, while only Marcus' mom, Regina King ("Ray") comes anywhere near a halfway decent effort.So, if one likes watching people of different races and ethnicities screaming at one another, another movie in which men are made out to be total idiots, bigoted and racist material being bandied about (imagine if one of the leads was a WHITE person) and a goat with an erection (don't ask), then by all means, shell out 10 bucks to see this movie, you won't be sorry at all.