After an active 2014 in which he made four movies, Kevin Hart continued his quest for world domination with 2015’s The Wedding Ringer. As the film opens, Doug Harris (Josh Gad) prepares to marry Gretchen Palmer (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting).

However, Doug hits a snarl: he has no close male friends so he lacks a wedding party. Doug discovers the existence of “Best Man Inc.”, a company run by Jimmy Callahan (Hart). Jimmy gets faux friends to help his clients pull off successful nuptials.

One caveat comes with this arrangement: Jimmy considers it all to be business, so no friendships are allowed. We follow Doug’s time with Jimmy and all the shenanigans that lead up to the wedding.

Is it a spoiler to state that Jimmy eventually violates his policy and becomes pals with Doug? Probably not – I wrote this part of the review before I got 10 minutes into the flick, so these developments should be obvious to anyone who’s ever seen a movie.

The eventual evolution of the Jimmy/Doug partnership doesn’t become the only predictable aspect of Ringer. Instead, it’s just one trite, tired part of a trite, tired movie.

Other than the movie’s basic premise itself, nothing creative emerges in this stinker. As much as the film tries to mock/subvert other wedding-based stories, it lacks the wit to make these stabs succeed.

Really, Ringer gives us little in terms of plot. Instead, it mostly provides a series of gags vaguely connected by an overall theme.

Sure, some trite character development occurs along the way, but make no mistake: the “plot” exists solely to throw attempted comedy at us.

Accent on “attempted”, as few laughs materialize across the movie’s 101 minutes. With the talent at the film’s disposal, the occasional chuckle arises, but we find far too few of them to sustain us, especially since the filmmakers mistake crassness and idiocy for hilarity.

Essentially Wedding Crashers mixed with There’s Something About Mary, Ringer lacks much form of creativity or subtlety.

It substitutes crudeness for comedy, with idiotic scenes such as one in which a dog fellates Doug – and develops lockjaw. Eep.

Ringer also sacrifices logic whenever the film wants to toss out more of its comedic meanderings. For instance, Doug and Jimmy perform a series of elaborate dances together at a reception. In the final film, though, Doug resists Jimmy’s attempts to get him on the floor.

Why? So we can be “surprised” by Doug’s skill as a dancer.

Of course, anyone who saw the movie’s trailer will already know how this scene unfolds, but even if we ignore that, Doug’s protests make no sense. Why does he refuse to dance when he’s so good at it?

The actors seem game and attempt to amuse us, but they fail. Jimmy just offers another take on the standard “Kevin Hart movie personality”.

That means he seems somewhat miscast. Hart’s comedic charisma manages to carry him to a degree, but the role of Jimmy really needs someone with more versatility – think Eddie Murphy, an actor who can pull off different personalities. As played by Hart, all of Jimmy’s “characters” feel pretty much the same.

At its core, Ringer boasts the potential to become an enjoyable comedy. Unfortunately, it lacks the wit and cleverness to give us anything other than tacky gags and a meandering narrative.

Footnote: stick around through the end credits if you want to see a little extra footage.

The Wedding Ringer appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with an appealing image.

Sharpness seemed good. A handful of wider shots tended to be a little soft, but those examples weren’t intrusive so the majority of the film appeared pretty accurate and concise.

No concerns with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and edge enhancement remained absent. Source flaws also failed to create problems.

In terms of colors, Ringer veered toward an orange/amber vibe, with some blues as well. The hues felt fine given the choices made here.

Blacks were deep and firm, while shadows showed good delineation. Overall, this became a pretty strong presentation.

Though not as good, I felt pleased with the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Wedding Ringer. Most of the material landed on the environmental side of the street, as the movie lacked showy sequences to use the five channels in an active manner. Nonetheless, the soundfield managed to create a good sense of place.

Audio quality was positive. Speech came across as natural and concise, without edginess or other issues.

Music showed good range, and effects offered a nice sense of impact with reasonable punch and clarity. This was a positive soundtrack for the material.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the DVD version? The BD’s lossless audio showed greater range, though both came with similar soundscapes.

Visuals showed the usual format-related improvements. This meant the BD looked better defined and offered superior colors and blacks.

As we shift to the set’s extras, we find a select scenes audio commentary with writer/director Jeremy Garelick and actor Josh Gad. Both sit together to discuss story/character areas, cast and performances, editing, and a few other movie subjects.

The “select scenes” designation tells us Gad and Garelick won’t speak throughout the whole movie, and that caused some apprehension. The disc lacks an index/menu for their comments, so I feared I’d suffer through tons of dead air across the movie’s 101 minutes.

While occasional gaps do occur, I’d estimate the commentary covers at least 75 percent of the film and possibly more, so it frustrates less than I anticipated. It helps that Garelick and Gad form an entertaining pair.

They joke in fine fashion and make this an enjoyable chat as they discuss the movie. We don’t learn anything I’d call fascinating, but the piece includes enough information to make it worth a listen.

A featurette called Going to the Chapel of Love runs six minutes, 25 seconds and includes notes from Garelick, Gad, producer Will Packer, and actors Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, Whitney Cummings, Ignacio Serricchio, Aaron Takahashi, Affion Crockett, and Colin Kane.

They tell stories about bad weddings they attended. It’s a cute piece but not one with much value.

The disc opens with ads for The Interview, Chappie, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 and Home Sweet Hell. No trailer for Ringer appears here.

Going into The Wedding Ringer, I can’t say I expected comedic greatness, but I thought I’d find something that at least qualified as competent. Instead, Ringer delivers a crass, cheap unfunny clunker from beginning to end. The Blu-ray offers good picture and audio plus a few supplements. Witness, crude and idiotic, Ringer fails in all ways.

To rate this film please visit the DVD review of THE WEDDING RINGER