I’m so tired of those massive “projects” from big studios, made with huge budgets that don’t contribute even the tiniest bit to cinema (yeah, I call them projects because they approach filmmaking like construction work). It’s gotten to the point where I can’t help but feel sympathy even for a movie like Wingman, which is packed with terrible humor and cringeworthy moments. Because I have genuine respect for small-budget films that are made with real effort and heart. But Wingman constantly does silly things that makes me regret my initial good will toward it.
If you’re a big fan of that old-school 90s and early 2000s American humor—boundary-pushing, everyone-roasting, walking-the-line-of-obscenity type of comedy—then this movie is for you. Especially if, like the producer Harland Williams felt the need to write on the trailer, you’re fed up with the “extreme sensitivity” of recent years, then this “Totally UN-woke and out of control!” film is right up your alley.
But forgive me, I’m not one of those people who’s sick of the whole “woke” thing. On the contrary, I still identify as someone who calls himself “woke” and tries to look at life through a lens of certain sensitivity. That said, I do sometimes see a point in people’s rebellion when they say, “We’re tired of having to brake ourselves every time we make a joke!”
Wing Man is the story of an ordinary guy named Bob who suddenly loses his fiancée. Heartbroken Bob makes a deal with a weird, overly confident, rule-breaking professional wingman named Turk (Harland Williams). Turk is like a mix of Jacob from Crazy Stupid Love and early Adam Sandler characters: constantly over-the-top, ridiculous, and completely out of control, operating on the motto “If you don’t get laid, I don’t get paid.”
He puts Bob through a rapid transformation program, teaches him pickup tactics, comes up with absurd plans—and those plans inevitably spiral into one embarrassing, chaotic disaster after another.The movie has lots of cuts and pretty good cinematography.
I have to say, though, the sound design isn’t great and the audio levels spike in places. I’m not going to criticize the story of a film whose whole purpose is mindless laughs, but it does have a scattered narrative that sometimes loses you. I had to mention that too.
I can easily imagine a group of guy friends drinking beers together and laughing at this movie. In that sense, we can say it achieves its goal.
