Unlike “Die Hard” (1988), “Bride Hard” (2025) is the kind of film that should go straight to streaming, not theaters, so people could enjoy the silliness instead of fretting over the elusive equation of whether it is worth the money and effort to leave your home. Samantha “Sam” (Rebel Wilson) is finding it impossible to be there for her childhood best friend, Betsy (Anna Camp), and keep her work commitments as an international secret agent, which means that she is on the outs with both groups. Will she find a way to combine her work and friendships and finally stop being a lone wolf? A group of mercenaries crashing Betsy’s wedding should help.
Good or bad news? Let’s start with the bad then end on a high note. Wilson is probably the weakest actor in “Bride Hard,” and it takes her a long time to warm up. She is either in action or comedy mode but is at a loss regarding how to smoothly transition. If Wilson was not famous, it would be a good time to see if her stuntwoman, Meredith Richardson, could act to see if she could do better. Wilson begins to find her footing when sharing the screen with Justin Hartley, who plays Chris, the best man. In her scenes with him, she depicts both sides of the character simultaneously. Maybe it was the direction that Simon West gave her to illustrate the protagonist’s issues, but it made the movie a slog to get through until the action kicked off.
The gold standard for female friendship action movies is “The Spy Who Dumped Me” (2018). It is one of the rare films where the story does not feint as if the two best friends are going to break up whereas “Bride Hard” threatens Sam and Betsy’s relationship from the start. It is always valid to end friendships when the other person does not value you, and Sam’s inability to be fully present for Betsy for a mysterious reason is superficially valid. If you break up with someone for not being a good maid of honor because of work, then you may be the asshole. The wedding is only important to the people getting married and wanes the further removed from the couple that you are. People cannot put their lives on hiatus up to every point leading up to the wedding even for people that they love. Also, if it is a hardship to move your bachelorette party to Paris, be a bad friend to me. Ditching a friend over a wedding, a glorified party that often leads to divorce, feels like a cover story to start ditching anyone, which inevitably and organically happens as people commit to a single partner for life, bout with an excuse so she won’t feel guilty. Stories that gin up conflict among women instead of depicting fierce friendships are an instant turnoff.
Time to put on my humorless liberal hat on. The wedding is held at the Caldwell Estate, a private Georgia island where whiskey is also distilled. The entire Caldwell family do not even have a whiff of a Southern accent. Before the dear reader replies, “Not everyone from the South has one,” true, but there are two points repeatedly made in “Bride Hard.” This family is rich and has been around for two hundred fifty years. They snuck a plantation wedding into the film without using the p word because then slavery and the family’s ethics would complicate the story. Writers Cece Pleasants and Anna Chlumsky pulled a fast one: get all the fairytale fantasy of a plantation wedding without ducking all the pesky criticisms over celebrating on a land soaked in human rights abuses as horrifying as making furniture out of skin and hair, mass rape, mutilation and torture, and more. Ew. Not on my watch. Is there a requirement that wedding movies be held on an island in the South? If it is on the mainland, not immediately accessible to mosquitoes, is it less romantic? I’m thinking of this movie and “You’re Cordially Invited” (2025). Side note: this movie’s floral designer needs to get all the work!
Ready for the good news? The rest of the cast does their best to make it work, and if you find yourself begrudgingly chuckling, here are the people to blame. The MVP is Camp, who understood the assignment and is always a goddamn delight. When it is time for the bride to realize her friend’s secret, Camp is out the gate and ready to lean fully into the fierce admiring friend. It gets easy to believe that Betsy is ready to exchange vows with Sam. She was the reason that I saw “Bride Hard,” and she did not disappoint. I started to notice her in “True Blood,” and she is the Shea Whigham of comedy.
Coming in second is a tie. One candidate is Gigi Zumbado, who plays one of the two bridesmaids, Zoe, from college. My first Zumbado performance was in “Heart Eyes” (2025). I did not recognize her this time, but she took a thankless, underwritten role, the pregnant wife who is out of her husband’s league, and brings a verve to the proceedings disproportionate to anything in the script. Let’s hope that she gets out of best friend purgatory and finds a role worthy of her talents. The next candidate is Virginia (Anna Chlumsky), the controlling problematic sister-in-law, is an archetype, but the “Veep” star makes the character endearing despite all evidence to the contrary. The writers made the right choice to make the entire family likeable.
Sherry Cola takes third place but would have gotten second if she had more screen time. In a meritocracy, she would have been cast as the lead. More people need to know of her existence because she has been doing the Lord’s work as long as I have known her: “Joy Ride” (2023) and “Shortcomings” (2023). Cola played Sam’s work bestie and psych evaluator. It felt as if her role got trimmed so the A team could bond and save the day, but the work crew and civilian squad were probably supposed to work together more.
Academy Award winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph does a good job, but in a role that is standard: the hard partying bridesmaid. Ugh, Randolph needs better work. She won an Oscar, and she is just getting supporting roles in movies like this and “Shadow Force” (2025). She was another incentive for seeing “Bride Hard.” I wonder if all the actors are super excited to work with someone of her caliber. At least it looks like she is having fun, especially since she gets paired with the most attractive actor in “Bride Hard”: Kristian Kordula. For perspective, Hartley comes in second. Hartley! While “Being Human” Sam Huntington, Remy Ortiz and Michael O’Neill belong in a different category, supporting male characters who did not fade away in the background, were distinct and memorable.
How is the action? Better than “A Working Man” (2025)! West’s directorial debut is a little film, “Con Air” (1997). He also directed “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” (2001) starring Angelina Jolie, “The Mechanic” (2011), a Jason Statham flick, which is probably better than “A Working Man” (2025), and “The Expendables 2” (2012). So West is no slouch, but I did not love the way that he shot the fight choreography, which was fun and Jason Bourne like. It was hilarious how people would execute these devastating moves, but they would run away awkwardly like kids. It felt like a running gag in the movie. Also, the denouement vehicle chase scene felt very green screen. If it was not, that is not great. Stephen Dorff plays the big bad as he is wont to do. “Blade” (1998), and he exchanges some bon mots with Camp. Their dynamic was superb because he was not falling for her cutesy girl act.
“Bride Hard” is not one of the greats, but it is not one of the worse of 2025 as widely reported. Watch it on streaming, and it will be a good time, but even in the theater, you will discover a begrudging chuckle or two emerging. Also, if you enjoy the “Pitch Perfect” franchise, it is an informal reunion. Think of it as a parallel universe sequel.
