Bride Hard is the kind of action-comedy that would’ve gone quadruple platinum at your local Redbox in 2011. It stars Rebel Wilson as Sam (codename: Agent Dragonfly), a flaky secret agent who ditches missions and friendships with equal urgency, and Anna Camp as Betsy, the childhood best friend who’s tired of being left behind.

During a disastrous Parisian bachelorette trip, Betsy demotes Sam from maid of honor to bridesmaid. She’s had it with Sam’s sudden disappearances and flimsy excuses, and her tightly wound future sister-in-law (Anna Chlumsky) is more than happy to fill the role.

With a nudge from a fellow agent (Sherry Cola), Sam decides to show up for the wedding anyway. It’s an over-the-top spectacle on a private island off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, and tensions are still high between her, Betsy and the bridal party.

Things quickly shift from frothy to full-throttle when a group of mercenaries, led by Stephen Dorff’s grizzled villain Kurt, crashes the celebration looking for a hidden stash of gold. Sam jumps into action, using whatever she can find to fend off the attackers. She faces off against Kurt’s idiot henchmen and a smarmy best man (Justin Hartley) while trying to repair her fractured friendship with Betsy.

Bride Hard is like a cross between Shotgun Wedding and Spy. You’ve got the chaotic destination hijinks of the former (private island, weaponized hair products, lots of yelling) mashed up with the over-the-top, glam action of the latter. Rebel Wilson’s straight-laced Agent Dragonfly doesn’t have Melissa McCarthy’s chaotic energy, but she does deliver a few zingers during sneak attacks.

The cast is pretty stacked, and everyone here is doing their best to elevate the material, but the film feels like it’s stuck in a time loop. It plays like it was written in 2011 and left in a drawer until now, complete with dated emoji jokes, a Sophie B. Hawkins needle drop and twists you can see coming a mile away. Sure, there are wonky CGI and continuity errors, but even if those were top-notch, the story was still flat. Maybe it needed to lean more into the violence? Maybe it needed to be more raunchy? Maybe a mix of both?

There are so many ways this premise could be updated. Imagine a version that leans into espionage-era burnout and modern friendship dynamics.

And yet, even with all that potential, the genre hasn’t moved forward. Which raises the question: Have audiences outgrown women-led comedies? I don’t think so. But the ones we’re getting feel stale, and that has to change. For what it’s worth, there were plenty of people at my 9:45 p.m. Thursday screening of Bride Hard, so the appetite is still there.

What this genre needs now is risk. Just like Bridesmaids and Trainwreck flipped the bro-comedy model in the early 2010s, the next wave of women-led comedy needs to challenge what we expect from these films today. The disillusioned, irony-soaked moviegoers of 2025 are ready for something sharper and more self-aware. Bride Hard simply plays it too safe.

Also, a quick word on Academy Award winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph. She shows up here in a minor role as Lydia, a wisecracking bridesmaid and, as always, makes the most of it. She easily got the biggest laughs in my screening, especially during a lullaby rendition of “My Neck, My Back.” The film was shot before her Oscar-winning performance in The Holdovers, but it’s still frustrating to see someone with her range and screen presence relegated to the sidelines. She’s more than ready to lead. Give her the space, and she’ll redefine what this genre can be.

Bride Hard may not reinvent anything, but it serves as a reminder that the framework has potential. What it needs now is someone willing to shake it loose and actually bring it into the 2020s. If Hollywood is paying attention, Da’Vine would be a great place to start.