Directed by : Jake Szymanski
Written by : Andrew Jay Cohen, Brendan O'Brien
Starring : Zac Efron, Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Sugar Lyn Beard
Release Date : July 7, 2016
Until I saw the opening title sequence for "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates," I did not know that this was loosely based on the true story of the real Mike & Dave Stangle, who did post an ad on Craigslist looking for wedding dates. Even with knowing that fact however, the movie doesn't feel like real life. It pretty much plays out as you would expect from a comedy that focuses on being outrageous, over-the-top, and raunchy. Crazy party guys meet crazy party girls, and go through crazy shenanigans. It's not groundbreaking material, but I actually did not end up hating it.
I know comedy is subjective, but there were multiple times I did find myself being highly amused or outright laughing out loud. With that said, many of the jokes, sight-gags, and physical humor, in this movie can come off as obnoxious, obvious, and clearly just goes for the cheap laughs. Jokes about lying, drinking, sex, and drugs? It's got all that. Jokes involving embarrassing behavior, inappropriateness, rudeness, shocking but humorous plot developments? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Basically nothing much you haven't seen before, or should shock you. Well, there is a particular sauna scene, and massage scene, and a nude scene, that went places that are rather unforgettable.
Although this movie embraces being stupid and dumb just for the sake of comedy, it wouldn't be remotely as entertaining as it ended up being if it wasn't for the excellent cast. Adam Devine and Aubrey Plaza are in full force here with the physical and outrageous comedy. Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick play the innocent but inappropriately funny humor well. Add in a strong supporting cast by Sugar Lyn Beard and Alice Wetterlund, and what we have in this movie are people with great chemistry together, who are enjoyably entertaining enough to watch through the stupidity and absurdity.
Presumably, "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" is potentially positioning itself as a future cult-comedy favorite. There are scenes in this movie that are definitely worth a re-watch, and the dialogue can be enjoyable enough to listen through again. However, the only thing really holding this back from being a true comedy classic is that short of a few sequences, it doesn't differentiate itself too much from the more well established comedy films out there.
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