After a quarter-century I wasn’t holding my breath for another installment in the FotB series, especially given the second was much less successful than the first.
However, something good that came out of the pandemic was that the actors got together for a short film meant to raise awareness of COVID safety, including a specific nonprofit.
Okay, I don’t remember the name of the nonprofit, so maybe the movie didn’t do its job in that regard LOL. I still thought it was terrific! In spite of its reason for existing it managed to have heart, make you laugh, and utilize nostalgia for the first two movies perfectly!
The plot is that, during lockdown, Matty organizes a Zoom call that includes both his sisters, his parents, his brother-in-law, and his nephew.
And others! There’s a reason for the call – he doesn’t want there to be another day where he and his fiancé Rachel aren’t married. Thus, rather than holding out until after lockdown for that dream wedding in Tuscany, he is going to have Rachel join the call and do a virtual wedding.
That means even more people will join the call. Specifically Franck, who is apparently ordained to be an officiant, and Rachel’s father. I won’t say who that surprise guest actor is, but considering Rachel’s clearly half-black it was an inspired choice. The most recent Comedy Central Roast featured this white man and had many jokes about his predilection for black women.
George is highly annoyed that the one child’s wedding he wouldn’t have to pay for is completely free, but the rest of the family has fun telling him to quit the bitching. They also have fun reminiscing about hilarious incidents from the earlier movies. Of course that includes the hot dog bun moment.
There’s also a surprising amount of heart for such a short movie. Of course we haven’t had time to get to know Matty and Rachel’s relationship, but while they deliver their vows the film ingeniously cuts to footage of George and Matty from the first two movies. Those movies may be focused on the father-daughter bond (both with the one who got married and became a mom and the one who was just born) but now we get to hear George say some really touching stuff about his only son, including how one day you realize he’s grown up and become a man YOU look up to.
I’m really glad they were able to get the whole cast together again. Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Martin Short, and the surprise actor are living legends, Kimberly Williams (under her married name of Kimberly Williams-Paisley) became a fixture of Hallmark movies, George Newbern has had a great voiceover career as Superman, and Kieran Culkin had the lead role in Igby Goes Down and has been one of the lead actors on Succession
Certainly come a long way from his time as Fuller
yet they all came back for this. Plus, as Rachel, they brought on board Alexandra Shipp, of the X-Men series and my favorite movie from last year, tick, tick…BOOM!, and as the adult versions of the babies born in Part II we have Florence Pugh and Ben Platt.
I’m now actually glad that baby was born to George and Nina in Part II, as it means scrumptious Pugh gets to be part of this franchise. I only knew Platt as the guy people complained was too old to reprise his part in the film of the high school musical Dear Evan Hansen but here he’s wonderful as a gifted 25-year-old musician.
I’ll add that I was impressed at how, since none of the actors are family in real life, the script found ways to justify even the married couples being in separate locations.
Watching the fun banter all these characters had and the love that shined through, I wished I were part of this cool family. I actually wanted to see more of them, in the form of a Part 4. Not Part 4ish – a full-length film. An easy choice for the plot would be the “birthday twins” Megan and Georgie* having a double wedding.
Alas, there have been no reports about such a film happening (although looking it up I discovered the name of the nonprofit I mentioned is World Central Kitchen). This was meant to be a reunion special, not a real sequel, which makes it that much more amazing that it worked so well. I’m grateful for that.
Plus for anyone who wants more there is the NEXT remake.
Bottom Line: Wonderful.
Up Next: The second remake that isn’t a sequel.
Questions? Comments? Feel free to write below.
*I actually forgot Annie’s son was named after her father. That’s one thing Part II did the same as but much better than Father’s Little Dividend.
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