Love, Weddings & Other Disasters Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Love, Weddings & Other Disasters Blu-ray Movie Review

Love, theoretically.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 7, 2021

Some with a less than charitable attitude (ahem) might be prone to suggest that, depending on how wide the referent to fiascos in the title of this film may be, “other disasters” could well pertain to this film. The star pairing of Jeremy Irons and Diane Keaton in what by all measures seems to be a “romantic comedy” certainly gives the film a certain imprimatur, and yet for those of you who would like a little internet humor in this regard, I’d simply recommend using your favorite search engine and asking it to discover “comedies with Jeremy Irons”. Suffice it to say that my search returned results that included such legendary “laff riots” as Dead Ringers, Margin Call and The Man in the Iron Mask. That may indicate as well as anything how awkward a lot of Love, Weddings and Other Disasters often is, and to be fair to the Academy Award winning Mr. Irons, he’s not the only one who literally stumbles through this story of a number of disparate characters searching for and (of course) finding true love. The film begins with what one assumes is supposed to be a raucous bout of mirth, with a young woman named Jessie (Maggie Grace) about to go skydiving with her boyfriend, though his hysterical panicking in the plane suggests all is not well with this “plan”. The two do jump, but chaos (if not hilarity) ensues, with the boyfriend breaking up with her in midair, and with both of them literally “crashing” an outdoor wedding, leading to (non life threatening) carnage among the wedding party. A prevalence of cell phone video of the event makes Jessie a viral internet star to her dismay.

With Jessie's "introduction" out of the way, the film then moves on to a glut of other characters, and it's not very hard to see writer and director Dennis Dugan assembling his pawns for eventual pairing. Included in this aggregation is a tour bus (actually more of a kind of tour boat, albeit with wheels) guide named Captain Richie (Andrew Bachelor) whose glad handing repartee welcomes his passengers and who notices one lovely lady with a glass slipper tattoo. Jessie, in just one of an annoying number of pratfalls Dugan injects into the proceedings in a completely unsuccessful attempt to generate guffaws, literally runs into a fussy (and famous) wedding planner named Lawrence Phillips (Jeremy Irons). Lawrence is quickly set up with blind date Sara (Diane Keaton) who, in just one example of how completely lame and perhaps even objectionable this film's ostensible "comedy" can be, turns out to be actually blind (if you think that affliction might lead to more pratfalls, you're not mistaken).

Despite her notorious reputation, Jessie is hired at the last minute to help plan the wedding of a mayoral candidate, but a dispute between the bride and groom means Lawrence is also involved. One of Jessie's assignments is to hire a wedding band, which leads her to hunky guitarist and singer Mack (Diego Bonita). It's all just patently contrived, and unfortunately there's little to no breezy dialogue to help bridge the pretty obvious deficits of the plotting. Dugan, evidently not content with writing and directing duties, also gives himself a bit part as a smarmy game show host for a series of interstitials featuring couples who are thrust together per shows like Married at First Sight or 90 Day Fiancee. Of course that offers more supporting characters the chance to experience emotional if not physical pratfalls.

A brief making of featurette included on this Blu-ray disc as a supplement offers quick interviews with several of the principal cast, all of whom tout Dugan's comedy chops and the film's ostensibly brilliant writing and memorable characters. Suffice it to say that some with a less than charitable attitude (ahem) might suggest that the "acting" in this bonus feature is more impressive than anything seen in the actual film.

Love, Weddings & Other Disasters Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Love, Weddings and Other Disasters is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. I haven't been able to track down any authoritative data on the shoot, though the brief making of featurette has a few glimpses of cameras, and it looks like there's an Arri logo on one of them. As usual, I'm assuming this was finished at a 2K DI. This is a competent but never really totally impressive looking presentation. This is one of the few Lionsgate releases that I've personally reviewed that has a few flirtations with banding, and some of the lowest light material looks a bit on the noisy side. Those anomalies aside, detail levels are quite pleasing throughout, and the film's palette looks naturally and nicely suffused. Some dimly lit interior sequences, as in some of the club material featuring Mac's band, understandably doesn't offer the same fine detail levels as the bulk of the rest of the presentation.

Love, Weddings & Other Disasters Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the video side of things, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is perfectly workmanlike and enjoyable, but doesn't really provide any outstanding "wow" moments. There is good if occasionally sporadic engagement of the surround channels, notably in scenes like the opening skydiving sequence, or later some of the club material. But a lot of the film plays out in quieter dialogue scenes, where side and rear activity is typically limited to ambient environmental effects and underscore. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout the track. Optional subtitles in either English or Spanish are available.

Love, Weddings & Other Disasters Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Co-Writer / Director Dennis Dugan


• A Celebration: Making Love, Weddings and Other Disasters (1080p; 15:55) is a decent EPK with interviews and some behind the scenes footage.

Interestingly, given Sara's "predicament" in the film, one of the listed supplements is an Audio Descriptive track specifically described as being for blind people. Additionally, a Digital Copy is included.

Love, Weddings & Other Disasters Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In his review of Love, Weddings and Other Disasters, my colleague Brian Orndorf suggested that Dugan was perhaps attempting to make his own Garry Marshall movie, and to that apprehension I might add Dugan may have had efforts like Richard Curtis' Love Actually in mind (hence my joking "deck" subtitle underneath the Blu-ray review title, above). Unfortunately, this film is less of a soufflé than Love Actually , and in fact might be described the way Jessie's harried boyfriend suggests he's going to end up after skydiving, namely "flat as a pancake". Technical merits are generally solid for those who are considering a purchase.