Our Family Wedding: DVD: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Review by JAM
Marcus and Lucia are two young lovers on their way to marital bliss or so they think. You see, it’s their marriage, but when their parents get involved it becomes their parents’ wedding and their lives come crashing down right before their very eyes. Will love be enough or is the honeymoon over before the marriage has even began?
Marcus (Lance Gross) is an aspiring doctor out to change the world by joining Doctors Without Borders and heading out to Laos. Lucia (the amazing America Ferrera) is the young woman who has fallen in love with him, left law school to teach the underprivileged, and has kept secrets from her parents this whole time. Believing they have found their soulmates, they head out to LA to meet the parents and share the wonderful news. To say it does not go well would be an understatement.
Brad Boyd, Marcus’ dad (Forest Whitaker), is a single dad living the life of a 20 year old bachelor with the clubbing, the partying, and the nightly romances. Problem is he has a twenty something son looking for advice on life, relationships, and marriage. Oh yeah, and the way he meets Lucia’s father Miguel Ramirez (Carlos Mencia) leads to the start of the crazy festivities to come. Throw in Lucia’s mother Sonia (Diana Maria Riva), a stubborn and ornery sister Izzy (Anjelah N. Johnson), and Brad’s long time lifeline Angela (Regina King), add a couple of grandparents and friends and we have a recipe for disaster.
Race, family relationships, and physical happenings all threaten to derail the upcoming festivities, but you get the chance to see if love can cure all… Even family.
JAMS Ink on Our Family Wedding
The movie itself is a fairly enjoyable romp through the pre-wedding festivities of a happy couple, just amplified due to racial, familial, and relational obligations. America and Lance actual seem to make a good couple on the screen, definitely the highlight of the movie. They are dealing with issues every married couple faces during the preparation along with a number of issues that seemed to be specific to their relationship and families.
There in lie the issues with the movie. It was a fun loving enjoyable movie in the vein of Meet the Parents until the parents really got involved. Forest Whitaker is often an amazing actor, but playing the part of a middle-aged lothario made him come off as a wasted character that was exemplifying messed up black male stereotypes. It was especially annoying to see a son that exemplified positive role model type traits coming from a father that seemed to never see what he truly had before him. Carlos Mencia’s character is done so over the top that he never is likeable or even really understandable until the very end of the movie.
One of the other bright spots was Lucia’s sister Lizzy. The sharp tongued sister seemed to be underused even though she played in some important scenes to the movie. The end credits showed that Carlos’ character is going to have more fun when it comes to wedding time for her as the melding of cultures will continue.
I recommend this movie as long as you are not expecting comic perfection. It does have its spots where it is truly funny and its spots where it truly is not, but overall America Ferrera and Lance Gross save it before it goes too far. So take a look if you get the chance.
EXTRAS
Blu-ray and DVD Special Features:
● Deleted Scenes
○ Lucia and Miguel Toss the Ball
○ The Families Meet Gusto; the Families Walk and Talk Outside of Gusto’s on the Street
○ Marcus Asks Angela to Stand in for His Mother
○ Angela’s House – The Morning After
○ Brad is Pouring His Heart Out on the Radio
○ The Director’s Cut Ending
● Extended Scenes
○ Police Station – Sonia and Miguel Discuss Lucia and Marcus
○ Angela Discovers Tipsy #1
● “Til Dads Do Us Part” featurette
● Gag Reel
Deleted scenes and gag reels are always fun to see visions of the movie that did not come to fruition and outtakes that keep the set light and laughing. The deleted scenes do give some more insight into the characters, but I don’t know if they are really missed in the end.
Our Family Wedding from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment makes it way down the aisles of your closest stores on July 13, 2010.
OUR FAMILY WEDDING
Street Date: July 13, 2010
Screen Format: Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (BD) / English 5.1 Dolby Digital (DVD)
Subtitles English, Spanish & French (BD/DVD)
U.S. Rating: PG-13
Total Run Time: 103 minutes
Closed Captioned: Yes
Remember check out this review and more from JAM at www.hollywoodteenzine.com for teens and tweens, and at http://jammoviereviews.blogspot.com for movies of all genres and ages.
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