7 Movies Like Mother of the Bride (2024)

Staff & contributors

Chasing the feel of watching Mother of the Bride ? Here are the movies we recommend you watch right after.

If you’re looking at posters and stills of this film thinking, “I know exactly what will happen here,” you’re right. Whatever it is, you’re right. Mother of the Bride is the type of vacation-wedding movie that’s been done a thousand times better before. But a generic premise is one thing; it’s easy to forgive cliches when you’re doing it right and giving the audience something else to look forward to, be it hilarity or romance. Being generic and lazy, however, is a different and less forgivable thing. Brooke Shields is the only one who feels like she’s truly acting here as she physically and emotionally throws herself into a character who is, sadly, too thinly written to deserve this much effort. If you’re still wondering whether the movie’s worth playing for the sake of Mother’s Day, just know that you’re better off reading Hallmark cards—they’re way less sappy and require only half the effort to go through.

For a romantic comedy with a fairy tale premise (a star falls in love with a regular person, and a much older one at that), The Idea of You is surprisingly relevant. It interweaves its romance with discussions of ageism and sexism, making it more self-aware than other movies in the same genre. But with that relevance comes a certain dryness; The Idea of You, for all its steamy scenes, lacks the sensuality and charm of a legitimate romcom. Solene is overly cautious, which doesn’t give much way to mystery and mistakes. She makes for a wise role model sure, but not necessarily a rootable heroine. If you like your romcoms to be more on the smart and predictable side, then you’ll enjoy The Idea of You. But if you prefer more hearty laughs and big gestures, then you’re better off looking for another title to stream.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance

Actor: Adele, Angela Davis, Anne Hathaway, Annie Mumolo, Bethany Brown, Brent Bailey, Chandler Lovelle, Cheech Manohar, Demi Castro, Dustin Lewis, Ella Rubin, Grace Junot, Graham Norton, Hedy Nasser, Holly Morris, Jon Levine, Jordan Aaron Hall, Lauren Revard, Mathilda Gianopoulos, Meg Millidge, Melanie Kiran, Nicholas Galitzine, Nina Bloomgarden, Perry Mattfeld, Rashal James, Raymond Cham Jr., Reid Scott, Roxy Rivera, Tiffany Morgan, Trevor David

Director: Michael Showalter

Rating: R

Unfrosted is the kind of bonkers treat filled with movie references, physical gags, and too-many-to-count stars that’s easy to sink your teeth into and enjoy for what it is—in the beginning, that is. It’s helped by snappy visuals and a colorfully accurate rendering of the ‘60s too. But then it wears you down with the same jokes and flimsy story, until eventually, you can’t help but ask: are you really dedicating an hour and a half of your life to watching *check notes* a Pop Tart get made? The filmmakers don’t make it any deeper than that sounds, sadly, even though there’s more drama and flavor involved in the real-life competition between Post and Kellogs. I’m not saying Unfrosted is a bad film—to be honest, I laughed out loud in many parts—just that you won’t be able to get over how overbudgeted and ultimately hollow it is.

Genre: Comedy, History

Actor: Adrian Martinez, Alex Edelman, Alexandra Wentworth, Ali Wentworth, Amy Schumer, Andy Daly, Aparna Nancherla, Bailey Sheetz, Beck Bennett, Bill Burr, Bill J. Stevens, Bobby Moynihan, Catherine Last, Cedric the Entertainer, Cedric Yarbrough, Chris Rickett, Christian Slater, Dan Levy, Darrell Hammond, Dean Norris, Drew Tarver, Earthquake, Eleanor Sweeney, Felix Solis, Fred Armisen, George Wallace, Gregory Burke, Hugh Grant, Isaac Bae, Jack McBrayer, Jack Murillo, James Marsden, Jaxy Boyd, Jeff Lewis, Jerry Seinfeld, Jessica Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, John Forest, John Slattery, Jon Hamm, Ken Narasaki, Kue Lawrence, Kyle Dunnigan, Kyle Mooney, Lauren Peters, Maria Bakalova, Mark Kwak, Max Greenfield, Melissa McCarthy, Mikey Day, Nelson Franklin, Patrick Warburton, Peter Dinklage, Rachael Harris, Ronny Chieng, Sarah Burns, Sarah Cooper, Sasheer Zamata, Sebastian Maniscalco, Shane Carpenter, Spike Feresten, Susan Elle, Tad Griffith, Thomas Lennon, Thomas Silcott, Tony Hale, Will Allan, Winter Bassett

Director: Jerry Seinfeld

Rating: PG-13

There are a lot of laughs to be had in Prom Dates, most of them coming from the funny and actualized characterization of Hannah, the lead’s queer best friend. But everything else about this coming-of-age film feels too familiar and forced to be memorable. Despite leading the film, Jess feels like a hollow copy-paste version of all the delusional, ambitious leads in teen films like Booksmart, Superbad, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, except there’s nothing particularly insightful or likable about her. She comes across as the annoying classmate you know too much about, against your own will. Events unfold in more or less predictable ways, though it’s not hard to imagine that the film could be elevated by a more robust cast. As it is, Prom Dates is a fleeting, forgettable entry in an already stacked genre.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Adam Herschman, Antonia Gentry, Arianna Rivas, Audrey Trullinger, Chelsea Handler, Emery Kelly, John Michael Higgins, Jordan Buhat, JT Neal, Julia Lester, Kenny Ridwan, Kiel Kennedy, Leonardo Cecchi, Patty Guggenheim, Shea Buckner, Terry Hu, Zión Moreno

Director: Kim O. Nguyen

It starts out easy and compelling enough, in the middle of a crime scene with a naked dead girl on the shore. But easy and compelling this refuses to be. The film seems to be a slow, painful look at the process of capturing a perpetrator, a detective’s effort to profile a killer. But it threw a lot more at the wall hoping a lot more would stick. The nonlinear storytelling spices up the action, but it just feels like the base story needed all the help it could get. If you do stick with the movie, you’ll see some gory details, some twists, and an unnecessarily complex story.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Andrzej Konopka, Andrzej Zieliński, Jakub Gierszał, Jan Wieteska, Justyna Schneider, Maja Ostaszewska, Paweł Jusiński, Przemysław Bluszcz, Wojciech Zieliński, Zbigniew Stryj, Zofia Jastrzębska

Director: Adrian Panek

Seemingly engineered in a lab to appeal strictly to romantic comedy enthusiasts who are familiar with every trope, Make Me Believe is charming and enjoyable in the moment, but ultimately does little with its ingredients. The things that it gets right are pretty foolproof: beautiful Turkish locales, steamy PG-rated romance, and a good dose of humor from supporting characters who can see the spark of love even before the couple does. Unfortunately this is all window dressing for a story built on flimsy foundations. The protagonist's assignment to book an interview doesn't actually carry that much weight, which makes the risk of pursuing and/or seemingly betraying her childhood neighbor feel inconsequential. And when these two characters inevitably meet in the middle, their connection is unconvincing, draining the excitement out of everything that follows.

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Actor: Ayça Ayşin Turan, Çağrı Çıtanak, Ekin Koç, Naz Çağla Irmak, Yıldız Kültür, Zerrin Sümer

Director: Evren Karabıyık Günaydın, Murat Saraçoğlu

Rating: R

Amid energetic lights and obnoxious airhorns, Katt Williams makes his way to the stage and quickly greets you with the gospel of crass. His descriptions and premises aren’t anything to write home about as his style is more a boisterous NSFW style that resembles a night of gossip. But for most of this set, you’ll just be thinking about how his performer voice sounds like a cartoon grandma, a southern Spongebob, and “Macho Man” Randy Savage preaching to you all at once. The set had a touchy mental health bit that sucked the life out the room for a moment, but would take an empowering turn in its final third as Williams talks about racism in 2024. It’s a mess, but it finishes strong, at least.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Katt Williams

Director: Troy Miller

Rating: R

The film takes us into the mind of a performative teenager trying to convince us, or an imaginary cameraman, of his coolness and wisdom. The second-person device may evoke teen comedy series from the 2000s (at best), but it is incredibly disorienting in this 100-minute movie. It is a slog of straightforward punchlines and tired cliches, which picks up a little too late in the final act where the central idea finally reveals itself: the harder you try to maintain control, the more easily it slips away. Similarly, the less brain power you use for this film, the better it gets.

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Actor: Charithra Chandran, Charles Camrose, Daisy Jelley, Dhanushka Anson, Guz Khan, Judith O'Dea, Kunal Nayyar, Lucy Punch, Madeline Holliday, Maisie Peters, Nick Frost, Russell Streiner, Sebastian Croft, Tanner Buchanan, Tim Downie

Director: Alex Pillai