Reacher's Alan Ritchson Starred In A Forgotten Kevin Hart Comedy

These days, Alan Ritchson is known primarily for being the giant man at the head of Prime Video's "Reacher" series. His hulking physique has helped the show become a major success, not only because it matches the description of the character from Lee Child's original novels, but because fans were robbed of a book-accurate Jack Reacher in Tom Cruise's two movies from the 2010s. The show proved an instant hit and has since maintained its popularity, with season 3 of "Reacher" breaking a ratings record. With his successful streaming series, Ritchson not only gave the Jack Reacher saga a worthy on-screen adaptation but established himself as a major star who has since shown up in "Fast X," "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare," and will soon star alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Christmas movie with a wild premise.

It's been a long road to this point for the actor, who began his career all the way back in 2006 with his portrayal of Arthur Curry/Aquaman on The CW's "Smallville." Actually, he started before that by showing up on "American Idol" in both 2003 and 2004, eventually making it through his second audition before being banished by the ghouls behind the judge's table. Either way, Ritchson had been working for a solid two decades before he truly broke through with "Reacher," and on his way to stardom, he made some genuinely interesting films and appeared in some compelling TV shows. He also appeared in some slop, and 2015's "The Wedding Ringer" is the perfect example. Despite this ill-advised Kevin Hart comedy garnering abject reviews, Ritchson is actually a delight to watch in the movie, playing a role that couldn't be further from the hardened ex-military man he's since become known for.

Before "Reacher," Alan Ritchson appeared in one of the worst TV shows ever when he played "Expired Cow" in "Fred: The Show." But even that might at least be a little more interesting than "The Wedding Ringer," which, according to Kevin Maher at The Times, "manages to offend on so many levels that it's genuinely remarkable."

Directed and co-written by Jeremy Garelick, who previously did rewrites on "The Hangover" and has since directed "Murder Mystery 2" for Netflix, the movie stars Josh Gad as husband-to-be Doug Harris, who, two weeks ahead of his wedding, is fretting over the fact that he has no groomsmen. The socially awkward Doug simply isn't very good at making friends, but Kevin Hart is on hand to help. Hart's Jimmy Callahan is the owner of Best Man Inc., a company that actually specializes in providing friendless grooms with fake friends, and it's here that Ritchson comes in. The future "Reacher" star plays Kip Loyola/Carew, a sort of dim but charming pretty boy who auditions to be one of Doug's groomsmen and aces the audition after taking his shirt off and making his pecs dance.

It's not exactly one of Alan Ritchson's best performances, and the buddy romantic comedy certainly wasn't a critical success. But it did give the actor a chance to showcase his comedic chops, which have always been quite sharp, even if they haven't yet taken front and center since Ritchson fronted "Reacher."

"The Wedding Ringer" wasn't exactly the best directorial debut for Jeremy Garelick, though it also could have been worse. On the plus side, the movie made $79 million against a $23 million budget, making it a commercial success. On the negative side, Drew Hunt of Slant Magazine called it "so gallingly derivative that watching it feels like playing a game of basic-cable bingo." That's representative of the general tenor of reviewers, who collectively bestowed a Rotten Tomatoes score of 29% upon the film.

For Alan Ritchson, however, it must have been fun to indulge his goofy side, and while Kevin Hart actually manages to redeem certain scenes in an otherwise awful movie, Ritchson also does his best to endear himself to audiences, as much as he possibly can, while going shirtless for jokes, that is. "The Wedding Ringer" debuted a year after Ritchson played Raphael in two "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movies, and he has since spoken about how he hated filming those movies. As such, it was probably a nice little break for him to take on this light-hearted comedy, and that shows in his charmingly silly performance.

After "The Wedding Ringer," Ritchson would star in an overlooked MMA movie that's now streaming on Prime Video and several seasons of DC's "Titans," where he played Hank Hall/Hawk. He also made his own directorial debut with 2021's "Dark Web: Cicada 3301," which gave him a chance to demonstrate his comedic talents by playing a small supporting role just before he debuted as the titular hero in "Reacher" the following year. That directorial debut was certainly a lot better than Garelick's, and we'll hopefully we'll get to see more of the actor's silly side as his career progresses from here, ideally sans Kevin Hart or Josh Gad.