Will Jennifer Lopez ever stop making wedding films? That is, she has played a bride off and on since the release of her breakout hit Selena all the way back in 1997, when she was in her 20s. She is now well into her 50s. Will she keep churning them out into her 60s? Her 70s? And will her output ever even come close to the genre’s high-water mark, My Best Friend’s Wedding, also from 1997? The answers, of course, are yes, yes, and absolutely no, but we love her commitment to the form.

Consider the rom-com-action film Shotgun Wedding, a piece of (Amazon) Prime slop that features J-Lo as Darcy and alleged MAGA freak Josh Duhamel as Tom, two schmucks whose marriage in the Philippines gets derailed by pirates. Objectively, the film is the personification of “mid,” with dubious chemistry; bland characterizations; muddy yet predictable plotting; and lots of dead stretches where there isn’t a laugh to be found. What saves it, though, are brief moments of brilliance. Once in a blue moon, this largely stilted corpse of a film roars to life to deliver the gold standard: the LOL moment.

Some of these are delivered by the film’s script. The moment after Lopez and Duhamel inadvertently kill their first pirate perpetrator, for instance, is quite funny and surprisingly realistic. Director Jason Moore also pulls off some effective action, such as the first time his leads get into a physical confrontation and immediately bungle it. This is a pleasant surprise given how Moore is known mostly for light comedic fare like Sisters and Pitch Perfect. These beats are also a breath of fresh air considering how most of the film is rather lazily composed, with boring blocking and uninspired camerawork.

The film’s cast also do what they can with the material and have moments where they make it shine. Both J-Lo and Duhamel aren’t really provided with much to work with in terms of characterization in the early scenes of the film. Lopez, in particular, doesn’t do much with her part and seems to be playing the usual stilted, boring, perfect-looking character she has embodied in countless other films. Matters improve once the action kicks off, as both actors seem fully committed to embracing the comedic chaos. This is both bad and good. On one hand, it leads to funny moments like when Darcy is tangling with a violent goon and keeps saying, “Sir! Sir!” as if she is trying to reason with an irate old man in a donut shop whose favorite eclair is out of stock. But while funny, the zaniness feels a bit out of character, reflecting a silliness that you wouldn’t think Darcy would be capable of earlier on.

As always, the film’s secret weapon comes in the form of Jennifer Coolidge, who plays Tom’s mother, Carol. Coolidge is given a tall order in the film, serving as the primary comedic engine for material that is often listless and inert. While she is undoubtedly always trying hard, there are times when even her formidable powers come to naught. But there are others when she is truly unstoppable, particularly a beat where she wields a machine gun with an unhinged grin that must be seen to be believed.

Of course, glorious, goofy moments like this do not make a good movie. Shotgun Wedding holds something like 46% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I think such a rating is quite accurate. The film is overall missing the connective tissue that ties together its better beats into a cohesive, compelling narrative, and the result is a movie with major sections of downtime where there is nothing, comedic or otherwise, for viewers to hold onto.

That was what My Best Friend’s Wedding did so well back in the day. Unlike Shotgun Wedding, My Best Friend’s Wedding invests early on in its characters, giving them crystal-clear motivations and genuinely interesting personalities. Furthermore, it found the right actors, whose chemistry with one another makes each interaction pop. On top of that, it understood how to bring both comedy and drama naturally out of each character and their overarching dynamic with one another, ultimately resulting in a film with zero dead stretches and deserving of the title of one of the best wedding films of all time.

Shotgun Wedding was never going to measure up to that high bar. And for what it is worth, it is not a terrible watch. It has its moments, and even when its running on empty, you can’t help but marvel at how much material J-Lo has leeched out of this basic cinematic concept. Throughout her career, she has approached the theme of marriage from every conceivable angle. She has tackled it in the mold of a musical biopic (Selena), a Cinderella story (Maid in Manhattan), a thriller (Enough), and, more recently, an odd-couple pairing (Marry Me) and action comedy (Shotgun Wedding).

That’s an interesting endeavor to take on throughout a long and impressive career, despite not every movie being worthwhile. And as I said earlier, I would wager there is no reason Lopez’s marriage obsession will abate any time soon. Not that I would want it to. When she is still teetering down the cinematic aisle at 80 years old, you can bet I will be RSVPing, even if only out of perverse fascination.