The Big Wedding
Lionsgate | Release Date: April 26, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
28
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
12
Negative:
18
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanApr 26, 2013
The movie, in its basic concept, is corny and contrived, but as written and directed by Justin Zackham, it's executed in a pleasantly wry and understated fashion. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreApr 25, 2013
Coarse, crude but often cute, The Big Wedding serves up the spectacle of its title, and the bigger spectacle of four AARP-eligible Oscar winners cursing like sailors. Read full review
55
Film.comLaremy LegelApr 25, 2013
The rare example of a film that had to have been a tonal mystery to everyone involved for the entire process of scripting, shooting, and editing. The lingering issue? They never managed to crack the case. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 28, 2013
Forced, formulaic and never believable. It's a particularly unholy combination. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenApr 25, 2013
It’s just such a shining example of a dull studio comedy. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyApr 25, 2013
The fact that the three actors who do most of the fooling around — Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon — have a combined age of 202 pegs this as a sex romp for the Viagra crowd. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 25, 2013
No one is bad in The Big Wedding, but no one is remotely believable, either. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 25, 2013
Most of this huge-cast extravaganza is a botched farce. When that doesn't work, it turns sentimental. The presence of liked and familiar actors helps make it watchable, but there is no disguising that this is a weak, badly constructed comedy. At least it's short.
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 25, 2013
The movie's own brand of charm has its subset of smarm. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 24, 2013
There’s not a bad performance in this movie. De Niro, Keaton and Sarandon are particularly good, what a surprise. But it feels as if all the guests at “The Big Wedding” are wearing ID tags telling us their one Plot Point. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraMay 27, 2013
Ben Barnes as a Colombian? Really? Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriApr 28, 2013
The Big Wedding isn’t terrible. De Niro is actually pretty good here — the script gives him plenty of raunchy one-liners, and, while they’re mostly lame, he delivers with conviction, which counts for something nowadays. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeApr 25, 2013
The film isn’t so much funny as it is merely amusing — a laundry list of inappropriate and potentially embarrassing moments that strive mightily, but never quite manage to land the laugh. Read full review
40
NPRKeith PhippsApr 25, 2013
Zackham's film feels as plastic as a cake topper — and just as hard to digest. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 11, 2013
The movie is bland hackwork; its crime isn't incompetence, but indifference. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 26, 2013
It's tired and dated with too few laughs to justify the stultifying attempts at drama and the impossible-to-swallow plot contortions. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 25, 2013
It’s nearly tragic to see America’s Greatest Living Actor on the guest list for The Big Wedding, the latest limp comedy about seniors behaving badly. Read full review
37
Washington PostStephanie MerryApr 25, 2013
Even the susceptible softies, who always cry at weddings, will probably leave the theater dry-eyed, not to mention feeling a little empty inside. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 1, 2013
I’m not saying there isn’t comic gold to be mined in the topic of cunnilingus and the senior set, but The Big Wedding couldn’t hit pay dirt even if it face-palmed the film first. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 25, 2013
To be fair, there are moments that earn their laughs and nostalgic memories for the marriage that was and the relationship that is that are sweet. But like many big weddings — a lot of things go wrong and not much goes right. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 25, 2013
There is nothing about the movie that isn’t utterly predictable. You meet a character, and it’s immediately obvious what’s going to happen to him (or her). And then it happens. Maybe it’s meant to make you feel good about your deductive reasoning skills or something. But mostly it just makes you want to see something else. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTom RussoApr 25, 2013
Quaint and crass get together — or would that be “bump uglies”? — with awkward, thoroughly flat results in The Big Wedding, an ensemble comedy with a tonal cluelessness as surprising as the name cast that signed on for it anyway. Read full review
20
Time Out LondonTrevor JohnstonJun 15, 2013
Putting the ‘retch’ into ‘wretched’, this wedding comedy makes the fatal assumption that the sight of acting icons of a certain age – Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon and Diane Keaton – behaving badly will have us rolling in the aisles. Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 27, 2013
This would-be-frothy date flick is a sub-"Meet the Fockers" dog’s dinner. Read full review
20
Total FilmNeil SmithMay 20, 2013
The Big Wedding isn’t telling a story so much as selling a lifestyle – one that, rather like Heigl’s morning sickness, makes you want to vomit. Read full review
20
Time OutEric HynesApr 30, 2013
Cloyingly crude and dispiritingly typical ensemble Hollywood farce. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 25, 2013
The Big Wedding lets them all down with bottom-rung sitcom shtick and an undercurrent of squareness masquerading as absurdity. Read full review
16
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinApr 25, 2013
It’s almost impressive how the moronic new ensemble comedy The Big Wedding manages to cram three hours’ worth of nonsensical subplots, extraneous characters, and implausible plot points into 90 minutes of streamlined idiocy. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineRob HumanickApr 27, 2013
For a movie ultimately about what freaks we all are behind the fronts we build for the sake of normalcy, the apathetically performed The Big Wedding couldn't possibly be more square. Read full review
10
The New York TimesStephen HoldenApr 25, 2013
To say that Justin Zackham’s farce The Big Wedding takes the low road doesn’t begin to do justice to the sheer awfulness of this star-stuffed, potty-mouthed fiasco. Read full review
0
Village VoiceCalum MarshApr 26, 2013
Many Hollywood films are founded on privilege, but few are as open and nasty about their racism, misogyny, and homophobia. Read full review
0
New York PostLou LumenickApr 25, 2013
“I’d rather gouge my eyes out with hot spoons!’’ De Niro exclaims at one point. I’m not sure exactly what he was talking about, but I’d like to think it referred to the prospect of being forced to watch The Big Wedding. Read full review
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