3 stars

A photogenic American couple's tropical destination wedding is crashed by pirates in this action comedy from Pitch Perfect director Jason Moore.

As professional baseball player Tom Fowler (Josh Duhamel) has been recently let go from his team, the dream wedding he has been planning for fiancée Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) is getting his laser-focused attention.

Such is the vigour Tom is directing to this remote Philippines dream wedding, he might be failing to notice that his bride-to-be is feeling like her voice isn't being listened to and so as a line-up of family and friends begin to arrive on the island, the wheels begin to come off their relationship.

Those family, including Tom's mum Carol (Jennifer Coolidge), Darcy's mum Renata (Sonia Braga) and dad (Cheech Marin), dad's new girlfriend Harriet (D'Arcy Carden) and Darcy's former boyfriend Sean (Lenny Kravitz), add to the strain.

And if a wedding isn't stressful enough, the resort island has been targeted by pirates common to the area, who take the wedding guests hostage and demand a ransom from Darcy's billionaire dad.

But have the terrorists bitten off more than they can chew by getting in the way of this capable bickering couple on their wedding day?

Shotgun Wedding has plenty going for it.

While it doesn't live up to its full potential, it delivers on laughs and we all need a good laugh these days.

Mark Hammer's screenplay is interesting, and that's a compliment, as he tries to do a lot of things within the frame of an action comedy, though it fails in tone and in wasting the talent of its supporting cast.

The producers - Lopez among them - have attracted a luminous cast of players, most timely of whom is recent Golden Globe winner Jennifer Coolidge who comes off best with a handful of great lines as the mother-of-the-groom who overshares with the pirate captors.

Playing Lopez's parents are distinguished Brazilian actress Sonia Braga and stoner comedian Cheech Marin, who is a little wasted in mostly humourless roles. Rounding out the cast are musician Kravitz and Carden. Unfortunately for the supporting actors, the screenplay is focused on its handsome leading players.

The Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel characters are kept away from them - variously running from and occasionally accidentally killing their pirate captors - for much of the film's running time.

I've always thought Lopez was a natural comedienne. She does physical comedy and acerbic dialogue so well, though rarely has the populist fare she often stars in given her the chance to fully let rip. While this might not be the funniest or wittiest film of recent times, she gets plenty of solid opportunities to shine.

Lopez plays well off Duhamel, who is as adept at physical comedy as his co-star.

With such a handsome cast and laughs to be had, I must say that audience members with a weak constitution might find Shotgun Wedding a bit much.

Director Jason Moore doubles down on the violence in the action half of this action comedy.

There is plenty of gunplay, plenty of visceral gore, sometimes played for laughs - Darcy thanks Carol for gifting the couple a bread knife she has already put to grisly use.

It looks like the producers have stepped in at one point to keep the film at an acceptable classification level. One of the kidnappers is set up for a particularly gruesome ending in the resort's kitchen, but the film cuts to them already dispatched and on the floor.

Co-star Jennifer Coolidge's White Lotus has shown us we love seeing rich people in turmoil in exotic locales - this film does that too, just with a higher body count.