You May Not Kiss the Bride (2011) Dave Annable, Katharine McPhee, Rob Schneider, Mena Suvari, Kathy Bates, Ken Davitian, Tia Carrere, Kevin Dunn, Vinnie Jones, Stephen Tobolowsky Movie Review

You May Not Kiss the Bride (2011)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Katharine McPhee and Dave Annable in You May Not Kiss the Bride (2011)

A Farce of a Fake Honeymoon

Bryan Lighthouse (Dave Annable) is a good guy and makes a living by taking photos of pets for wealthy owners who like to dress them up in costumes. But an incident with a dog and a cat brings him to the attention of Croatian Mob boss Vadik Nikitin (Ken Davitian - Meet the Spartans) who is willing to forget the incident with his wife's cat if he agrees to fake marry his daughter, Marsha (Katharine McPhee - In My Dreams), so that she can get a green card. In order to convince the INS that the marriage is real Bryan and Marsha head to a tropical island on honeymoon, except when Marsha gets kidnapped it leads to all sorts of chaos from psychotic stalking assistants to Marsha's real boyfriend, Brick (Vinnie Jones - She's the Man), showing up and jumping to conclusions.

"You May Not Kiss the Bride" is a bit of a surprise package as the skimpy info I had on it and my unfamiliarity with some of the main cast made me think that this would be a cheesy rom-com which would plod along and struggle to entertain. Yet not only does it feature a surprising array of familiar faces in supporting roles but it is also surprisingly enjoyable, although not overly original as "You May Not Kiss the Bride" is simply a farce built on many moments of confusion.

Vinnie Jones in You May Not Kiss the Bride (2011)

So as I said "You May Not Kiss the Bride" is a farce built upon confusion so for example when Brick shows up on Bryan and Marsha's fake honeymoon and sees an unmade bed and a condom he jumps to conclusions over what Bryan has been up to despite being told that nothing can go on between him and Marsha. The thing is that whilst the story is original what happens is less so as one confusing situation leads to another and rapidly increasing chaos for poor Bryan who actually falls for Marsha and she falls for him. Although when it comes to the kidnapping side of "You May Not Kiss the Bride" it has some twists.

But here is the real truth about "You May Not Kiss the Bride", it benefits massively from a surprising cast as whilst Dave Annable and Katharine McPhee are likeable and good looking they are only okay. But then you have Vinnie Jones delivering a comical heavy performance and Mena Suvari as Bryan's delusional assistant who wants to sleep with him. Then there are Kathy Bates, Rob Schneider and Kevin Dunn amongst a few more recognizable faces and they all put in entertaining performances which lift this light weight comedy from being okay to enjoyable.

What this all boils down to is that "You May Not Kiss the Bride" might not look or sound great, especially as it barely got a cinema run, but it isn't that bad. It is light weight and in many ways obvious but the likeability of Dave Annable and Katharine McPhee combined with a recognizable supporting cast and some genuinely amusing scenes makes it a pleasant surprise.


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