JULY 13, 2016
After the upsetting events of the past week on the national scene, there is some comfort in finding an outlet to lose yourself for a few hours. My favorite outlet is seeing something really really stupid.
Cue “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.”
Incredibly, this is based on a true story. In real life, Mike Stangle and his brother Dave sought to get dates for their sister’s wedding by going on Craig’s List, though I shudder to think that what happens to them here really occurred in real life. That would be cruel.
Mike (Adam Devine from “Modern Family”) and Dave (Zac Efron) are the Stangle family screw-ups, with a long history of ruining any family gathering to which they are invited, so their father Burt (Stephen Root), concerned that they will wreck the upcoming Hawaiian wedding of their sister Jeanie (Sugar Lyn Beard) to her fiance Eric (Sam Richardson, who plays the nerdy Richard on HBO’s “Veep”), orders them to find respectable wedding dates so that they don’t encourage each other to produce yet another event-ruining stunt.
After their Craig’s List plea goes viral, the boys are invited to plead their case on “The Wendy Williams Show,” an appeal that catches the eyes of Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick), two trainwrecks who see the chance for a free trip to Hawaii. After a contrived meet-cute moment (which involves a traffic accident), Mike and Dave invite these two “nice” girls to the wedding in Hawaii. Big mistake.
Although Mike and Dave are in the film’s title, the women are the drivers of “Wedding Dates.” Plaza, who has been a stalwart of independent films for years, perfected her dry-as-dust delivery for 7 years on “Parks and Recreation,” and she’s hilarious here. And Kendrick, who is so often relegated to playing the good girl, seems liberated in getting the chance to be bad. The two actresses, friends in real life, have a chemistry here that can’t be faked.
As do the men. Efron has been having a lucrative side business co-starring in slob comedies — this is his third just this year after “Dirty Grandpa” and “Neighbors 2” — makes you believe that he and Devine could actually be brothers, and their interactions feel genuine. Kudos too to the supporting cast — this movie has a strong supporting bench — to Stephen Root as the boys’ exasperated father, and two veterans of HBO’s “Silicon Valley” — Alice Wetterlund as the boys’ over-sexed lesbian cousin and Jumail Nanjiani who has a hilarious bit as a naked masseur.
The problem with “Mike and Dave” is that it’s not smart enough about being stupid. If you look at “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” which was made 38 (!!!) years ago, the stupidest, most sophomoric jokes are carefully placed throughout the film for maximum impact. Yes, it’s dopey, but it’s also absolutely brilliant. That’s the standard to which “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” aspires, and one which it just misses. The screenplay just isn’t there — there’s a lot of horseplay but not enough real comedy — and while the talented cast is game, they’ve got very little to work with.
“Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” is the perfect film to watch if you’re stuck on a cross-country flight or have a hole in your Netflix queue. Otherwise, pass.
GRADE: C+
