Father of the Bride Movies Ranked
I’ve been watching the third season of Only Murders in the Building. I absolutely love that show. It made me want to explore what other projects Steve Martin and Martin Short have done. So I decided to check out Father of the Bride, plus its sequel and the 2022 remake. So I thought it would be fun to rank all three movies, let’s get started!
3. Father of the Bride (2022): A totally lifeless remake of the 1991 classic that lacks any of the charm, magic, or humor about the original film. And there’s not much here that really worked for me, except for the wedding scene that was nice. It had all of the right emotions it was supposed to, but it didn’t have big enough emotions. The emotions weren’t as big as they should have been. Because the first two acts didn’t do a real good job of setting up the wedding sequence. Part of the problem here is that you don’t care about any of the characters, Andy Garcia’s character is too unlikable, too selfish, a bit too spirited that you don’t care about him. They try to have him be this overprotective father that is worried for his daughter getting married and growing up. But how they treat that in this movie makes him very unlikable. Part of the problem is I don’t think Andy Garcia was the right actor for the part. Andy Garcia is of course a Hollywood legend, he’s a great actor. But he’s a great dramatic actor that is great at playing more serious roles. And that’s why Steve Martin works so well, he is so fun and charming. Andy Garcia, doesn’t give off that energy or vibe at all. So he was miscast in here. It felt like they tried to add drama into the mix just to have tension between the characters. There’s a disagreement at a bar between the two sisters and you think it’s going to be creating this tension and conflict but it doesn’t. It doesn’t go anywhere, so it feels out of place. The sister played by Isabela Merced acts horribly in the movie just to progress the plot forward, there’s one about 60% of the way through the movie where she causes a lot of the tension leading into the finale of the movie. Just in general, it lacks any of the magic of the original film. They tried to take the elements from that movie and modernize them and put a Latino culture on top of it. But it comes off as a lifeless remake that doesn’t come anywhere close to being as good as the original film or it’s sequel.
2. Father of the Bride Part II: A decent sequel that was better than I thought it would be. Typically comedy sequels don’t always have the best reputation, this one is nowhere near the greatness of the original but it’s still fun. It has a lot of the charm and appeal of the original film, the cast returned so it’s fun to see them again. All of them are just as good and charming as they were in the original film. They gave Martin Short’s character more to do in the movie, I think that was a nice touch in here. I was worried that maybe it wasn’t going to work where they would take the scene stealing side character from the first and promote him, here I thought it worked and it made sense within the story. This movie also does a good job of feeling like the logical continuation of the original film. The first movie was all about Steve Martin’s George Banks having a panic attack over his daughter getting married. Here he’s freaking out that his daughter is pregnant and he’s going to be a grandfather. Plus adding in the extra layer of his wife being pregnant and their kids being born on the same day. In a lot of ways, that feels like the natural sequel to the first film. Now where this one gets held back is a couple of different things. First up, Diane Keaton getting pregnant in here as well feels a bit unnecessary. I think the movie could have worked just fine with one pregnancy, but with two it didn’t add much here. Second, in the middle act of the movie I thought the movie went too far with the hijinks that George caused. It felt a bit too forced and not as natural as it came in the first film. But in general, this was a nice surprise and it’s a sequel that was a lot better then I thought it would be.
1. Father of the Bride (1991): Like most rankings like this, the original film is the best of the bunch. This is just a fantastic 90s comedy with a fun concept for a movie. Where the over protective dad is freaking out about his daughter getting married and hijinks occur because of this. A large reason as to why the movie works so well is because of the cast, everybody is so fun and charming in here. Steve Martin is a legendary comedic actor that is so good in movies like this. You can easily buy him as the caring, loving, but overprotective father and that mixed with his comedic timing makes for a great character. Of course Martin Short giving a scene stealing performance in here with this accent that is so weird and quirky, yet so funny. Those two are really comedy geniuses and you put them together and it’s something really funny. It’s also fun to see Kieran Culkin, McCullary Culkin’s brother who went on to star in Succession and other movies. It’s fun to see the Culkin brothers show up in 90s movies. It’s also very funny. There's lots of funny gags that happen, most of it is pretty straight forward humor. Where Steve Martin is making a mess and breaking stuff in his wife’s husband’s parent’s house. It’s not super clever humor, but it’s done well and puts a smile on your face. It’s also very heartfelt and sweet, you feel good by the end of the movie. It’s very satisfying the way the wedding plays out. So when you put it all together you get a great 90s comedy that is romantic and it has a great cast inside of it. So easily, without question this is the best of the bunch.
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