Full-fledged comedies have become a mixed bag in recent years. Either sacrificing character development or intelligence or just jokes in general, modern comedy never seems to strike a balance between the three. 2014’s What We Do In The Shadows seems to be the bar that I’ve set a comedy to live up to (high expectations, I know), but mildly humorous just doesn’t cut it anymore. Hollywood has become so desperate as to take actors from critically beloved TV shows, Workaholics and Parks and Recreation in this case, to imbue a sense of actual hilarity within the mix and in the instance of Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates, it mostly succeeds.
Adam DeVine, from the aforementioned Workaholics, and Zac Efron, from…just about any movie with no discernable reason to exist, star as Mike and Dave Stangle. Based on a true story, these two men became a giant craze after their mildly humorous Craigslist post looking for dates to their sister’s wedding. After being featured all over the internet and The Wendy Williams Show (as one so naturally would), they ended up selling their life story and someone thought it was a good idea for a comedy starring four attractive white people. Well, they weren’t entirely wrong.
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Within the somewhat true story established in the film, the Stangle brothers have been screwing up family celebrations for years and everyone has had enough. Their father gives them an ultimatum: bring two respectable women to their little sister’s wedding or be shunned for life. With a deep love for their sister in their hearts, they agree and the Craigslist ad is introduced. In come Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick to swoop on for a free vacation to Hawaii. Essentially the female versions of the brothers, they must collectively get their acts together. This introductory stuff in the movie isn’t particularly funny. What it ends up feeling like is a bunch of actors getting to grips with the tone of the material. Thankfully, taking only 20 minutes to get everything in gear before we arrive on Hawaii, the movie doesn’t take long to get really fun.
The Hawaii setting has been overdone within the last decade of Hollywood and it’s not difficult to think of a funnier movie within that setting. It’s a big surprise to find that it’s never a big point of the film, instead relying on the charms of the cast and script. Written by Neighbors scribes, Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien, they ended up crafting a template of a movie. Making sure there are enough moments that the actors can improvise the funniest stuff, the writers made sure there are just enough set-pieces to make us not feel bored. Arguably, these set-pieces are the worst part of the film. Between the misuse of Kumail Nanjiani as a massage therapist to an ATV sequence that has been heavily used in the trailer, Mike And Dave stalls at these moments. With the lack of momentum, there should be nowhere to go but down.
The cast is the true savior of the movie. DeVine and Plaza really steal the show from the two established actors of the bunch. DeVine brings his signature eccentricities to the mix, not unlike Kevin Hart. To say he’s not like his character in his hit TV show would be a lie, but he plays it so well that it almost doesn’t matter. The character that is established makes sense and DeVine’s sensibilities aren’t too far off from that. On the other hand, Plaza is fairly different from her shy character on Parks and Recreation. She still shares some of those traits (volatile, emotionless, lack of empathy) with this character, but she’s able to bring something altogether her own to this character. These are the most fleshed out people in the world, but you believe what they do when they do it because it works for the established world. Efron and Kendrick don’t fare nearly as well. Kendrick has the acting chops and is funny at times, but she just can’t catch up with the comedy veterans. She is game to do everything asked of her, but I’m not sure she has the same comedic sensibilities and timing that others would. And Efron just couldn’t carry a movie if he tried.
Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates is not the best directed film in the world. It’s not even close to being among best made this year, but damn is it funny. When things get into gear, this movie can’t be stopped. You could see it as a millennial Wedding Crashers (a movie they just so happen to namedrop) and you wouldn’t be wrong. Never really original or particularly smart, Mike And Dave is a fun, stupid movie that is the perfect antidote to the serious stupidity in this tepid summer movie season.