Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Year: 2016
Genre: Comedy
Directed: Jake Szymanski
Stars: Zac Efron, Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Stephen Root, Stephanie Faracy, Sugar Lyn Beard, Sam Richardson, Alice Wetterlund, Mary Holland, Kumail Nanjiani, Marc Maron
Production: 20th Century Fox

They're two brothers stuck in a permanent state of adolescence. They're two puerile reprobates pretending to be nice girls to hustle a free trip to Hawaii. The setting; a lavish Oahu resort where Mike (Devine) and Dave (Efron) will watch their little sister Jeanie (Beard) get married. The tables are set, the wine is chilled, the suckling pig has been basted; lock and load.

Based on a true story

Where doth hav'th the keg, bro?

Mike and Dave is yet another bawdy comedy in a summer already inundated with bawdy comedies. As such it has all the familiar contemporary trappings of the genre: basic camera coverage, bacchanalian sensibilities and an over-reliance on improvisation. Thankfully the main four; Efron, Plaza, Devine and Kendrick, find their niche within the plot. Their motivations are clear, their chemistry easygoing and their interactions with other supporting cast members is downright Shakespearean. This may come as a pleasant surprise to some. Comparing a mediocre comedy to Shakespeare? Well the plot is inducted by a quixotic request from the parents of the brothers to find wedding dates, in the hopes of pacifying them. When they find their dates, each duo tries hard to put up a front but ultimately succumb to their worst natures. Chaos ensues, truths are revealed, it ends in a wedding.

Mike and Dave's greatest asset is its self-effacement. It knows it's juvenile, it knows it's unoriginal and it knows it's second life on blu-ray is going to be limited to Redbox and the paltry shelf space of the guy that peaked in high school. Yet it really doesn't care. It's here to make you laugh, and it will resort to Adam Devine screaming at an octave only dogs can hear to do it. At least instead of the girls being relegated to the shrill "I'll give him one more chance to grow up" roles, they're giving as much as they can take (if not more). I don't know about you but there are somethings even I wouldn't do for Rihanna tickets.

If the film has a secondary asset it's in Mike and Dave's attempt to flip the script on gender roles and casual misogyny. By far the most noticeable permutation of this theme is Alice Wetterlund's libidinous cousin Terry who competes with the frat-house bravado of Devine's Mike for the heart of Tatiana (Plaza). While disappointingly underused, when Wetterlund is on screen hilarity naturally ensues. Sugar Lyn Beard likewise joins in the fun in two uproarious set-pieces that are brought to the tipping point by her chirpy disposition. She's much more than a caricature and her wedding is a little more than a plot device but rather an opportunity for all involved to grow as people.

Of course just like the recent Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), Mike and Dave is unsuccessful in translating socially progressive themes. But unlike that retread, Mike and Dave does have its heart in the right place and its impact cannot be overstated. You can tell there's a lot of pieces cut from the final product (including a competitive streak between the brothers that doesn't go anywhere), yet I like to think most of those cuts were made to get Aubrey Plaza to not just shine but glimmer. She's been in two films with Zac Efron so far this year and both times she's proved her co-star a middling comedic force and the material she's given beneath her abilities.

Running the gambit of predictable and safe comedy back-and-forths, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates stands as one of the biggest surprises of the summer season. It may not successfully flip the script and many have derided it as a middling Wedding Crashers (2005) for the snowflake generation. Yet as a comedy it just works.

Final Grade: C+