'Shotgun Wedding:' Critics give mixed reviews for Jennifer Lopez's new rom-com

JLo is walking down the aisle on-screen, again.

After 2001's "The Wedding Planner," 2005's "Monster-in-Law," 2022's "Marry Me" and her real wedding to Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez is back in 2023 with "Shotgun Wedding," now streaming on Prime Video.

The movie stars Lopez and Josh Duhamel, who play a couple preparing for a destination wedding in the Philippines. Right before the lovers say "I do," criminals crash the nuptials and take the family hostage.

The Jason Moore-directed film includes romance, Jennifer Coolidge-laughs and a few grenades.

USA TODAY's Brian Truitt says the film is "no 'Marry Me,'" but it "at least has more firearms, torched faces, explosions and bloody fatalities than the usual Lopez fare."

Here's a roundup of mixed reviews for Lopez's latest wedding movie.

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USA TODAY

""Shotgun Wedding' is one of the more unsettling rom-coms in recent memory, with lengthy scenes of frantic wedding guests running from armed attackers, and JLo dropping grenades on pirates as she ziplines through a jungle. The actress gamely tries to overcome the script's tonal whiplash, but she ultimately gets upstaged by co-stars D'Arcy Carden, Lenny Kravitz and the deadpan Jennifer Coolidge, who leads her fellow hostages in a singalong of Edwin McCain's "I'll Be" in the movie's best moment." –Patrick Ryan

The New York Times

"In the frothy action rom-com 'Shotgun Wedding,' directed by Jason Moore, Lopez stars opposite Josh Duhamel: not exactly Clark Gable, but Lopez makes it work. She always does. As a couple whose destination wedding is interrupted by hostage-taking pirate-terrorists, the two bicker and banter with classic screwball brio, with a love-hate rapport that is both delightful and effortlessly convincing. Much of the dialogue feels canned and phony in the style of a badly written sitcom. But coming out of J. Lo’s mouth, I believed it." –Calum Marsh

CNN

"There are a few fairly impressive stunts (again, all of them in the trailer) sprinkled along the way, such as Darcy and Tom trying to zipline to safety. For the most part, though, this is a slapdash effort on most every level, seemingly sold almost entirely on the notion of watching Lopez run through the jungle in a tattered wedding dress." –Brian Lowry

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Variety 

"Not a world away from the urbanites-out-of-range setup for last year’s delightful Sandra Bullock-Channing Tatum starrer 'The Lost City,' this all yields some lightly amusing physical comedy, but neither Moore’s direction nor Mark Hammer’s script lean enough into the absurdity of the situation for the film to take flight." –Guy Lodge

The Guardian

"Against the odds, the expectations and the run of play, here is a romcom starring Jennifer Lopez and it’s … well, it’s pretty good: enjoyably goofy and sparkily written." –Peter Bradshaw

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Deadline 

"Lopez, a much much better actress than she is often given credit, tries valiantly — and physically — to make it all fly, even at the point she is virtually forced to turn into a commando in a wedding dress. Clearly though she’s having a blast, and that may be enough for the audience to go right along with her." –Pete Hammond

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jennifer Lopez 'Shotgun Wedding' reviews: Read critics' reactions