Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, 2016.
Directed by Jake Szymanski.
Starring Zac Efron, Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza.
SYNOPSIS:
Two hard-partying brothers 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 out-hustled by an uncontrollable duo.
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates or MAD-NWD as I will refer to it throughout this review, is a fun but forgettable comedy that borrows heavily from other better made films with mixed results.
Mike and Dave Stangle (Devine and Efron) are fun immature hellraisers whose parents tell them they need to bring two “nice” girls to their sister’s wedding in Hawaii so they don’t rile each other up and ruin it. Based loosely on the real life duo, the Stangle brothers decide to post an ad on Craigslist and the potential ladies pile in. There’s a great montage sequence of the various dates they go on and then we’re introduced to Tatiana (Plaza) and Alice (Kendrick) – two not so nice girls who really want a vacation to Hawaii. The premise is good and the performance from Plaza, Kendrick and Efron are strong. The weak link is Devine who’s over bearing man child is at times like watching Jim Carrey on crack. Devine takes up a lot of screen time whereas the other funnier actors play second fiddle to him. Efron has managed to establish himself as the go-to guy for raunchy comedies but he seems muted throughout MAD-NWD as if he was told to step back and let Devine do his thing.
Able to take a bit of the limelight are Plaza and Kendrick who offer up two enjoyable performances. The whole notion of girls having to be nice and quiet, smiling, intelligent but silent is played on throughout and MAD-NWD seems like it has something to say about this, but the message is lost in the various gross out comedy.
MAD-NWD isn’t unfunny, it’s just completely forgettable. Sitting in the cinema for just over an hour and a half you will find yourselves laughing, but the film won’t still make you laugh as you’re driving home,
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★/ Movie: ★ ★
Helen Murdoch
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published August 14, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
