Title: Stag
Directed by: Brett Heard
Starring: Donald Faison, Eva Amurri Martino, Jon Dore, Leah Renee
Running time: 84 minutes, Rated R
Special Features: Trailer
Ken (Donald Faison) is well known for his outrageous pranks on the groom-to-be’s at their stag parties. Some of the pranks were so traumatizing, it ruined a few marriages before they had even begun. Now it’s Ken’s stag party and he’s getting a little nervous because he knows he’s due for some payback.
The negative: Predictable. Jokes were forced and not very funny. I didn’t feel the pranks that were played on these grooms were so outrageous that they would ruin marriages. These women were too uptight anyway. Ken did these men a favor. The pineapple was just a dumb call-back joke that was probably based on a real thing, but it was a “you had to be there” type of joke that probably shouldn’t have been included, but I guess it meant something to the writer/director to keep it in the film. Hooking up the starlet with the least attractive character of the bunch, c’mon. He was too frustratingly dumb to be even remotely charming. The smart, web savvy stripper who makes the morality speech before stripping was such an eye-roller. Just shut up and show your boobs lady. I don’t even think actress Lea Renee believed a word of that almost painful to hear speech to make it sound genuine.
The positive: The homophobic friend who turns out to be gay was a funny idea, but the execution felt forced. Eva Amurri Martino as the snobby starlet was funny, but her character was overkill.
There have been quite a few films about bachelor parties, but none really come close to the 1984 cult classic Bachelor Party or even The Hangover trilogy. Stag to me fell flat and the filmmakers tried too hard to get a laugh, so it was more feeble than it was funny.
Total Rating: C-
Reviewed by: JM Willis
