(2.5 / 5)
Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates is the type of film that needs no introduction — well, maybe a brief one.
Two lovably amped-up bros, Mike (Adam DeVine) and Dave Stangle (Zac Efron), roped into bringing dates to their sister’s wedding to keep them out of trouble, are tricked into bringing along supposed “nice girls” Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick) on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
The dopily maniacal Mike is strung along by Tatiana, an acidulously foul-mouthed party girl masquerading as a doe-eyed school teacher while the good-looking aspiring “drawer” Dave ends up with the frazzled yet well-meaning Alice, who seems to have gone into a tailspin after being left at the altar.
The film is one-third raunch — there’s a not-quite sex scene involving Silicon Valley’s Kumail Nanjiani as a tantrically gifted masseuse that may be the most outrageous since Team America — to one-third sweet — for all their obnoxious all four are essentially decent, albeit deeply insecure, human beings — and one-third just sheer what-the-heck — like a table of wedding brunch-goers breaking into simultaneous impersonations of the dilophosaur from Jurassic Park.
Written by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien of Bad Neighbours, Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates knows just where its appeal lies. There’s even an explicit reference to The Wedding Crashers, which this film essentially apes with more sex, drugs, and hysteria.
While the end credit bloopers suggest improvisation, this is a neatly constructed slacker comedy with a few good ideas — the girls are essentially slobs; the boys, while under-achievers, more preppy — with some big laughs — the sister in question, the unfortunate Jeanie (Sugar Lyn Beard), gets clocked round the face by an ATV in wince-inducing slo-mo — and a game cast; which includes the invaluable Stephen Root as the boy’s apoplectic father.
Sure, the title is lazy, but this is definitely a step up from this year’s other Efron-Plaza starrer, Bad Grandpa. It’s no Pitch Perfect (DeVine-Kendrick, 2012), but as a round of off-key karaoke with a group of mates goes, Mike And Dave is a lot of fun.
