Latest news with #SimonWest
News.com.au
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Rebel Wilson's an unlikely action hero in Bride Hard as Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore sequel falls flat
Aussies Rebel Wilson and Naomi Watts are front and centre on the big screen, as Adam Sandler revives a cult comedy classic BRIDE HARD (M) Director: Simon West (Con Air) Starring: Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Anna Chlumsky, Stephen Dorff. Let's call the whole thing off No need to be hunting for any subliminal meanings within Bride Hard's title. The only objective here is to mash-up the rom-com raunch of Bridesmaids with the all-stops-out action of Die Hard. While there have been worse reasons for a movie to be wished into existence, there is much to this uneven production that will have you wishing it never existed at all. To get right to the heart of an insurmountable problem, the movie's comedy department is simply never open for business. Inept joke construction and lifeless line delivery tease an eerie emptiness from scene after scene, cold-bloodedly killing each and every chance of a laugh. What about the action stuff in Bride Hard? Surprisingly, it goes down quite well. Partially because the mindless mayhem at hand offers some welcome respite from all those thudding punchlines. And also, because an unusual choice for an action heroine in Rebel Wilson throws herself into the fray with a gameness and gusto that the rest of Bride Hard sorely lacks. At least the plot is easy to follow, which some might consider to be a vague plus. Wilson stars as Sam, a decorated spy whose latest mission is to serve as maid of honour at the coming wedding of her lifelong best friend Betsy (Pitch Perfect regular Anna Camp). After Sam's undercover commitments see her dismissed from Betsy's bridal party on the eve of the big day, a sudden shot at redemption appears out of nowhere. With the wedding ceremony overrun by machinegunning mercenaries taking hostages and wanting a cache of gold, the only resistance mounted comes from Sam in her codenamed guise as Agent Butterfly. Unfortunately, the consistent lack of zing ruining the comedy scenes eventually smothers any lasting interest in Sam's solo quest, or what will become of the unlikeable Betsy and her equally unappealing entourage. Bride Hard is in cinemas now. THE FRIEND (M) **** General release. Be sure to mark down this dog-centric comedy-drama as one of the hidden movie gems of the year. Those who go looking for The Friend will be rewarded with an experience that is both instantly fetching and lastingly absorbing. On paper, the concept does not look promising. Two hours of Naomi Watts emoting at a Great Dane? That can't possibly work. And yet, the movie achieves complete success for one genuinely miraculous reason. The aforementioned Great Dane emotes right back at Watts with the same depth of character and expressive range as his human co-star. Watts plays Iris, a New York-based writer and editor reeling from the sudden death of her beloved creative mentor, Walter (Bill Murray). Turns out Walter's final gesture before his tragic passing was leaving custody of his canine companion Apollo to Iris. Much of the movie is taken up with Iris' ill-equipped efforts to care for a dog the size of a small horse in an apartment the size of a postage stamp. The close proximity of this lonely woman and stoic pooch – both of whom are in differing states of deep mourning – sparks a gradual joining of forces that is a pure delight to witness. Just as impacting is a handful of scenes shared by Watts and Murray where the actual nature and meaning of Walter's inexplicable death is revealed. Highly recommended. HAPPY GILMORE 2 (M) **1/2 Now streaming on Netflix. Back in the mid-1990s, Happy Gilmore was the goofy golfing movie where Adam Sandler forged a screen persona that would later see him become the most successful comedy drawcard in motion-picture history. These days, Sandler is more of a businessman than a funnyman. A nine-figure stay-and-play deal with Netflix means he doesn't have to worry about crafting product that will sell cinema tickets. A second Happy Gilmore was always going to happen, and it was always going to be more of a reunion than a reboot. Therefore Sandler stacks the deck of this second Happy Gilmore with countless callbacks to what longtime fans loved about the first one. As for relative newcomers to Sandler's shouty, louty shredder of the fairways, there is a huge stack of sports celebrity cameos and big names in small roles to be enjoyably sifted through. As for a story, all you need to know is that an older, but no wiser Happy is doing it tough in his late fifties, taking to the booze after he accidentally killed his wife with a stray golf ball. However, with five kids (and John Daly) to feed, clothe and support, Happy must eventually pick up the clubs and make one last attempt to come in under par, or see out the rest of his days stuck in the sandtrap of life. There's arguably too much golf and too few good-to-great gags to land this on the same green as the original. Nevertheless, there is a sweet swagger to all the swinging and missing in play that true Sandler-philes will be unable to resist.
San Francisco Chronicle
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Review: Yippee ki‐yay, Rebel Wilson is a one-woman killing machine in ‘Bride Hard'
In a directing career going back almost 30 years, Simon West has never even tried to make a good movie. His filmography is a catalog of intentional mediocrity — 'Con Air,' ' The General's Daughter,' ' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,' ' The Mechanic.' Yet it takes a certain discipline to stick to what you're sort of good at and never make an audience suffer through your deepest feelings about life and existence. Like his latest effort, 'Bride Hard,' West's movies are never exactly good, but they're almost never boring — and boring is the only unforgivable sin. His latest movie's title, 'Bride Hard,' says it all. It has become a cliche of the Hollywood pitch meeting for would-be filmmakers to describe their proposed projects in terms of two previous box office hits: 'It's like 'Dracula' meets 'The Avengers'!' 'Bride Hard' doesn't try to hide the fact that it's a mashup of ' Bridesmaids ' and ' Die Hard.' So, even though it's a cynical effort, with no aspiration behind it, there's something playful about it too. Everybody's in on the fact that they're doing something silly. Like 'Bridesmaids,' 'Bride Hard' focuses mainly on the maid of honor, Sam (Rebel Wilson), who finds herself in a competition for the approval of her best friend (Anna Camp), who is getting married. Sam keeps falling down on her maid-of-honor duties, and one of the bridesmaids, the wealthy Virginia (Anna Chlumsky), keeps showing her up. But what Sam's friends don't know is that Sam isn't being negligent. She's trying to balance the imperatives of a social life with a career as a world-class secret agent, a one-woman killing machine. The first 20 minutes, which almost amount to a 'Bridesmaids' parody, are a little slow. The bridal party is in Paris, and Sam keeps having to ditch her friends every few minutes to do spy work. But the movie picks up when it moves to an estate in Georgia, where the wedding is to take place. At that point, the 'Die Hard' aspect of the story kicks in. In place of the late Alan Rickman, who played the villain Hans Gruber in the 1988 action flick, we get Stephen Dorff and a team of mercenaries bursting into a wedding ceremony with machine guns. They take everyone hostage, except for — guess who? — Sam, who just happens to be apart from the wedding party at that particular moment. So you have a situation in which a really bad guy is looking for money and probably intends to kill all the hostages. And you have one talented but unarmed person, Sam, who has to figure out how to rescue them. Sometimes even a humble, not-so-good movie can teach us lessons about filmmaking, and this is the lesson of 'Bride Hard.' You know that whole 'Die Hard' formula, in which it's one person, facing long odds, trying to rescue everybody? That formula is indestructible. In the case of 'Bride Hard,' we barely believe in the characters or their relationships. Wilson — the hilarious Fat Amy of the 'Pitch Perfect' franchise — isn't convincing as an action star, and the movie's light tone all but guarantees that nothing truly bad will happen. And yet, when Sam goes on the attack, we're right there with her. Somehow, we end up caring. Wilson is fun, as always, and she's nicely supported by Chlumsky as the passive-aggressive Virginia, and Camp who, as the bride, walks a nice line between sincerity and comic absurdity.
New York Times
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Bride Hard' Review: Taking on Baddies at Her Best Friend's Wedding
If ever there were two genres that traffic in too-muchness, it's the destination-wedding rom-com and the secret agent action-thriller. So call it fate that over-the-top meets outlandishly excessive in 'Bride Hard,' a spoofy genre mash-up whose raison d'être can be boiled down to this line, uttered late in the proceedings: 'She's using the chocolate fountain as cover.' The 'she' is Sam, a.k.a. Agent Dragonfly, who leaps into muscular, gravity-defying action to take on a group of interloping baddies at her best friend's wedding, all while wearing a frilly bridesmaid's dress. She's played to perfection by the ever-game Rebel Wilson, leading a cast that leans earnestly and ably into the escalating absurdity. Working from a screenplay by Shaina Steinberg, the director Simon West, who until now has focused mainly on such outings in mayhem and stunt work as 'The Mechanic' and 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,' lands this hybrid beast in the realm of the sort-of caper and the not-quite romp. Sam is a devoted spy whose preposterous cover story is one of the screenplay's funnier jokes, and who's barely had time to participate in the countless bachelorette rituals for the bride-to-be Betsy (a high-spirited Anna Camp). Feeling neglected, Betsy has demoted her bestie from maid of honor to bridesmaid — much to the delight of the groom's sister, a control freak expertly brought to passive-aggressive life by Anna Chlumsky. The extravagant nuptials, on a private island off the coast of Savannah, Ga., grind to a halt with the arrival by speedboat of a gruff mercenary named Kurt (Stephen Dorff), who is in pursuit of a cache of gold. Cue an assortment of purposely ridiculous chases and explosions, and the chance to see Sam wield hair supplies as weapons and go mano a mano with Kurt's henchmen and the weaselly best man (Justin Hartley). The rest of the wedding party is a collection of one-note types played with conviction, among them the sunny groom (Sam Huntington) and a sex-obsessed bridesmaid (Da'Vine Joy Randolph). A smorgasbord of unconvincing danger and semi-schmaltzy lessons in friendship, 'Bride Hard' is rarely as funny as it could be. Opportunities for satirical digs go mostly unplumbed, although you might note that a key prop is a Civil War cannon. You might also note a glaring continuity gaffe in the final sequence, an apt reminder not to give any of this a second thought. Bride HardRated R for sexual references and some violence. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters.
CNN
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Action-comedy ‘Bride Hard'
Director Simon West's 'Die Hard'-meets-'Bridesmaids' action-romp stars Anna Camp and Rebel Wilson. Rick Damigella reports.
Daily Mail
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Rebel Wilson forced to undergo emergency plastic surgery after 'freak accident' nearly left her disfigured
Rebel Wilson has revealed she was caught up in a 'freak accident' on the set of her new film Bride Hard that almost left her face 'permanently disfigured.' The 45-year-old actress explained that she got smacked in the nose in a dramatic fight scene on the last day of shooting, which left a 'pool of blood.' Luckily, Rebel was quickly sent to see a plastic surgeon who stitched her up. 'A gun accidentally got whacked across my face,' Rebel shared in a recent interview. 'It was just a freak accident, and my nose got split open, so I left set. 'It was weirdly my last night of shooting. I was like, "How unlucky can I be?"' Speaking to Access Hollywood, she continued: 'I was freaking out. They take an ambulance, and they have to call a plastic surgeon, because if they didn't, I would have been permanently disfigured. 'So, we got the plastic surgeon, they did all the stitches, and you can't tell now.' Rebel plays a secret agent named Sam in the upcoming action-comedy film alongside fellow Pitch Perfect star Anna Camp. Directed by Simon West and written by Shaina Steinberg, the movie follows Sam (Wilson) as she serves as the maid of honor at her childhood best friend's lavish wedding, which is taken hostage by mercenaries. Anna Chlumsky, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Gigi Zumbado, Stephen Dorff, and Justin Hartley also star. 'There's so much comedy in this, but there's also so much action,' Rebel told Savannah Guthrie during an appearance on the Today show of the film, which is set for release on June 20. 'I kick butt… it was hardcore.' Rebel went on to add that she did all the stunts in the movie herself, without the need for a stunt double. 'I did a bit of karate back in the day when I was younger, and at one point when I was 18 and I was a complete idiot, I went in at an all-star martial arts fighting competition and then I got punched in the face and I thought fighting isn't for me,' she continued. 'But maybe I had some muscle memory left because I do all the fights in this movie and fight off the mercenaries who come to attack the wedding. 'It was really fun.' The actress stars alongside Anna Camp in Bride Hard, set for release on June 20 Rebel was spotted out and about in New York on June 16. In paparazzi photos she flaunted her trimmed-down figure in a bright red jumpsuit with a V-neck design and retro boxy shoulders. The flattering garment was tied at the waist with a matching fabric belt and Rebel added a pair of pointed red heels. She coordinated her makeup to her look with a raspberry lip stain and a warm rosy blush and wore her blonde hair down in soft mermaid waves and largely skipped the accessories. The actress recently posted to social media to share her latest eating tip as she entered the last week of her 'health challenge'. At that time, Rebel said she had shed 1kg over five weeks after cutting chocolate and ice cream from her diet. The Bridesmaids star posted a selfie to show off a 'healthy' evening meal consisting of chicken breast and salad.
