Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates Review
R: Crude Sexual Content, Language Throughout, Drug Use and Some Graphic Nudity
20th Century Fox, TSG Entertainment, Chernin Entertainment
1 hr and 38 Minutes
Cast: Adam Devine, Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Sugar Lyn Beard, Sam Richardson, Alice Wetterlund, with Stephen Root, and Wendy Williams
Based on 80% of a True Story. Hard-partying brothers Mike and Dave place an online ad to find the perfect dates for their sister's Hawaiian wedding. Hoping for a wild getaway, the boys instead find themselves outsmarted and out-partied by the uncontrollable duo.
REVIEW: Every year during the summer 20th Century Fox has a tendency of releasing R rated raunchy comedies that barely entertain. Once in a blue moon, they release something amazing like Paul Feig’s 2015 comedy Spy. But with every Spy you get a 2014, Let’s Be Cops. But Does Mike and Dave fit in the realm of Spy or Let’s Be Cops?
THE GOOD: With Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates you have a very talented cast play as each other’s counterparts. Adam Devine and Zac Efron do have a comedic bond together and you feel their relationship as brothers. Though their time onscreen together isn’t as funny as you think it’ll be there is a lot of chemistry between the two.
The concept itself has a good sense of originality. It is really funny how the film is set up and the scenes you go through before Efron and Devine decides to take Plaza and Kendrick to Hawaii are laugh a minutely hysterical. For a moment I might as well say this was going to be one of my favorite comedies of the year. But then they went to Hawaii.
Some might say that this film is just an excuse for a cast and crew to go on vacation in Hawaii, but surprisingly this was shot in Georgia. So its nice to know there is actual production behind this than going the lazy Adam Sandler route and having the studio pay for his vacation.
THE BAD: Remember that question of is this more of a Spy or a Let’s Be Cops. This is more of a Let’s Be Cops type of screwball comedy. Yes there are some really good laughs here and there but Its hard to see this film as a movie, but more of a series of raunchy vignettes.
I bet the true story was extremely funnier if I was truly witnessing it, but in the form of this film it makes the humor juvenile and childish. The humor here is really bad. It is really all over the place from constant sex jokes to raunchy sex jokes that are more unconformable than funny. What makes it even worse the film constantly references Wedding Crashers and try to imitate some scenes from the film when you could just be watching Wedding Crashers.
There is a sense of character development throughout the film, but the entire cast are type casted to be what they are in every other film we see them in. Its as if the director went on set and said, “Adam Devine, be Workaholics Adam Devine. Zac Efron, be Bad Grandpa Zac Efron. Aubrey Plaza, be….just be yourself. OH AND DON’T FORGET TO AD-LIB” Yes most of the film’s jokes is ad-libbed and you can easily for it glows very hard. Even by the credits there are a montage of ad-libbed bloopers of funnier lines cut out of the film. The only person who is out of their realm with this humor is Anna Kendrick who is not only acting her ass off as a dumb chick whose emotionally scarred, but also is given the most character development that is genuinely sad. She is the only character you can get behind and feel for. She is the only emotional residence that is fitting for this movie. The best thing about this comedy is that its very short. Clocking in at 98 minutes, the film moves very fast and by the end you can easily walk into a better comedy like Central Intelligence.
LAST STATEMENT: For its talented cast that has some chemistry within each other, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates also needs a lot of other things such as a better screenplay, better jokes, better editing, and a better movie. Do yourself a favor because the movie keeps talking about it. Go watch Wedding Crashers.
Rating: 1/5 | 28%
Super Scene: Eric tells everybody to shut the fuck up
