Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

They think they have just made them all better parties, but to their parents and to admittedly, reality, brothers Mike (Zac Efron) and Dave (Adam Devine) have only ruined all of the family events they've participated in for their wild party style. So when its Jaine's (Sugar Lyn Beard) turn to get married the family is taking no risks: Mike and Dave are to bring wedding dates to the wedding in order to be kept at bay. That's when Alice (Anna Kendrick) and Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) put on the façade of being nice and ordinary girls to score a free weekend in Hawaii after discovering an advert from the two brothers. Yet when the chaotic spirits of both pairs start to explode, an apparently normal weekend turns into a ludicrous series of events.

"Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" has good and charismatic leads, with natural comedic timing and an appropriately funny cast built around them with a script that has some effortlessly funny gags working. Yet, a fair amount of laughs are not enough to surmount the film's lack of heart, which often transpires into both annoying and unmotivated sequences and humor which is close to being mean spirited.

What severely lacks from the film is a fresh and interesting comedic voice. As much as you feel the director's passion, I couldn't help but feel very cold about the style and visual choices the film makes. It is directed with almost no life, it doesn't feel alive and breathing, the shot choice is for the majority so basic it made my head ache at some point. There aren't any passages in the film where you feel inspired filmmaking and character or story being given a chance to flow. The editing is very mechanical and brings the film into feeling more like a series of gags, which might be occasionally good, but lack any kind of drive given the very predictable and clichéd script.

Still, there's no denying the talent almost everybody has for comedy and even when handed what for most is very average material they manage to elevate it and thanks to what is sure to be a lot of improvisation they make the scenes that work, work really well and transcend what are otherwise deeply problematic character development elements. Efron's career has lately been all about these R-rated comedies and I have to admit I am one who really enjoys his effort in these: he is a great screen presence and always brings a palpable irony to the scenes. Adam Devine at this point is an enigma for me, I have no idea where he'll go in the future, that is because he has some really borderline annoying stuff here, but I don't know if it's thanks to him or the gag in itself I was never brought to a breaking point. I enjoyed probably all of his beats and he had many different ones to bring alive, succeeding in all of that variety.

What is frustrating about the movie is how standard it feels and how much everything around it is striving to be better, but what we end up is this basic studio comedy that goes through every single beat we except and leaves the audience with little passion at all. The premise is right, the talent behind cast well, the script is trying to go to fresh places occasionally, but there is an incredible aura of average all around that simply flattens the film to the point of annoyance. Not to mention the ridiculous quantity of screeching women all over the place that had me almost covering my ears.

"Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" is a film that delivers some good and at times great laughs thus succeeding a laugh prompter, yet a comedy film it lacks any depth of character or story to make it live any further than its closing credits unfortunately.

The film's premise and plot is partially based on a true story. It starts where Mike and Dave settle on two girls, Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alicia (Anna Kendrick), who turn out not to be respectable at all, but just as self-absorbed and clueless as they are. They are also just as rude, ready for alcohol, the film does evince a welcome sense of gender parity for bad behavior.

Similar to Wedding Crashers, Hollywood demands that the wedding is messed up, so no surprises there, nor in what happens afterwards. All four actors have great comic timing and their improvisation skills are tested, but within the content of the film, crude sexual gags and tastelessness hammering the same jokes over and over hold them back. This film isn't clever, witty or funny enough to warrant anything more than a one time viewing. For films such as this in which we know what it is about, it's utterly predictable and not as entertaining as it could have been. Simply put, the jokes aren't that great as to warrant consistent laughs, just light chuckles.

'Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates' had some promise when the trailers first came out. I honestly believed this film would capture the tone of the first 'Hangover' movie, but something went wrong early on.

1. I know this film was based on true events, and I guarantee the true events would have been far more entertaining than the ones depicted in this film. For he most part, the movie has a strong opening where we see how these two brothers party, but we also witness the aftermath of their wild antics. Things move well enough till we get to the point where they actually end up on Hawaii. At this point, things take a tumble off a cliff.

2. Mike and Dave and played by Adam Devine and Zac Efron respectively. These two make an okay pair as brothers, but Adam Devine (especially) pushes the limit. Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick are probably the worst additions to the cast, cause they are terribly unfunny. You would assume both Devine and Plaza would bring a certain level of comedy and timing, but they unfortunately don't and the jokes are misplaced.

3. I'm not saying the movie is completely unfunny, but the most you get are a few chuckles here and there. Efron and Kendrick are better actors to star in a film like this, frankly this is below their standards. This should have been a direct to TV or DVD movie which featured some unknown/up-and-coming actors instead of bigger names filling the void. The side characters are annoying as f#%k, which in turn lowers the bar on the comedy.

The movie fails to redeem itself and it's only passable as maybe a rental. No one should waste their time and especially money on going to the cinema to watch this.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates was humorous and quite entertaining. It has somewhat of a plot and was enjoyable. Some scenes could have been removed however. It was thankfully not too vulgar and relied on the performances of its four main cast members to bring it home. There was great chemistry between the four, some funny moments that most audiences should laugh at and slightly sentimental too. Audrey is a natural treasure but the weakest link was Anna Kendrick who was not as funny as she was annoying. You know this film is not in the running for any Oscars but it exists to entertain and achieved that. Glad I watched it.

I can't believe I'm about to write this line.

MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES is the funniest movie I have seen this summer (so far).

There, I said it and I don't even feel like I need a shower.

I know - I'm surprised, too.  MIKE & DAVE is a pretty funny movie of the over-top, gross out type - think THE HANGOVER or NEIGHBORS,  

M&D tells the story of...well...Mike and Dave (Adam Devine and Zach Efron) who think they are just "great partiers" at the various weddings they go to - as seen through their eyes in the opening credits, only to discover "the rest of the story" from their parents (Stephanie Faracy and the great, underused Stephen Root) - they go out of control to disastrous results. The remedy?  Bring dates to their sister's destination wedding.

They go about it by putting an ad on Craigslist that goes viral.  Enter into it Alice and Tatiana (Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza) two ladies that party even harder than Mike and Dave who B.S. their way to the wedding pretending to be shy, demure and ladylike.  As you can imagine, chaos ensues.

The key to this type of movie is the performances of the leads and in these 4, they are in good hands.  Aubrey Plaza commands the first part of this movie as she is over the top and inappropriate from the start.  She had me laughing early and often.  Zach Efron joined in gamely and Adam Devine does what i think Adam Devine does, be the dimwit.  I gotta admit that this act wears thin on me, but is serviceable here.  Kendrick draws the short straw on this part of the movie as she seemed to be trying to hard in a part that was underwritten.

And then an interesting thing happens...as usually occurs in these types of films, they leads find their "hearts" and the shenanigans tone down.  When this happens, the relationship between Kendrick and Efron shine (I'd really love to see a movie with just these two) their heart and sincerity come to center stage and I really start to root for them.  Fortunately, for me at least, this means that Devine needed to tone down his act, which I was grateful for.  The unfortunate side effect is that Plaza had to tone hers down as well, and she became somewhat of a background player in the 2nd half of the film after carrying the first half.

Comedic movies often rise and fall on the performances of the supporting players, the can be fun (see THE HANGOVER) or they can be non-descript (see the recent GHOSTBUSTERS), fun works, non-descript doesn't.  This movie has fun supporting players starting with the afore-mentioned Root as Mike & Dave's father.   Add to that Alice Wetterlund's bi-sexual Cousin Terry, Mary Holland's uptight Maid of Honor Becky and Lavell Crawford's Best-Man Keith, they all have their moments to shine.  But, for the me, the real unexpected surprise was Sugar Lyn Beard as the Bride, Jeanie.  She was inappropriately hilarious in a role that could have been one note, but wasn't.  Only Sam Richardson's groom, Eric, was not fun, but he wasn't supposed to be - and he wasn't

Is this movie an Academy Award winner?  Well...no.  Is it a fun way to spend a couple of hours on a warm summer evening - heck, yes!  And isn't that what summer comedies should be?  I think so.

7 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank (of Marquis)