My Big Flat Flop of a Wedding
Miguel Ramirez (Carlos Mencia) and his wife Sonia (Diana Maria Riva) are proud of their daughter Lucia (America Ferrera) who believes that not only is she at law school but is a good Mexican-American who will wait till she is married before sleeping with a guy. What they don't know is that not only has she dropped out of law school but is living with African-American Marcus Boyd (Lance Gross), a Columbia med school graduate who together plan to move to Laos where he will work for Doctors without borders. Lucia's parents are not the only ones who don't know about Lucia and Marcus plans as his father Brad (Forest Whitaker), a successful late night DJ, is also unaware of their plans to marry and move to Laos. They soon will know when Lucia and Marcus decide to tell their parents by inviting them both to dinner and it doesn't go well especially as earlier in the day Miguel had towed Brad's classic Jag away for being illegally parked.
As someone who has been in a culture clash relationship I love comedies about couples dealing with the conflict of their cultures because the situation is ripe for humour. Unfortunately when it comes to "Our Family Wedding" it goes seriously wrong by going over the top with the conflicts as the father's don't get on and have silly issues such as who should sit down first. It is just stupid and unfortunately takes the focus off of the culture clash and puts it on set piece gags which are not what you are watching for such as a scene where Miguel gets arrested for an old nudity charge.
The movies semi saving grace is the calibre of the cast as whilst the humour is poor and the characters are over the top you smile because of the actors. America Ferrera is so likeable that she could be turning out one cheesy joke after another and you wouldn't mind whilst Lance Gross is just as likeable although his character is simply too much of a nice guy. Then you have Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia who whilst playing completely over the top characters at least are amusing when they are not having to go over the top with stupid gags about flooding bathrooms and scratches on cars. Plus there is Regina King as Brad's ex who always manages to steal scenes in pretty much every movie she stars in.
What this all boils down to is that as a culture clash comedy "Our Family Wedding" is poor but the likeability of the cast and some of the quieter moments of humour save it although those quiet moments are in short supply as over the top set piece gags sadly take precedence.
