Timing is everything for a film. Tragic events in the world or in one’s personal life can shape how they receive a film. If a film touches too closely on a recent issue, it can unintentionally turn off the viewer. Vice versa, said person could be forgiving of a film’s shortcomings in return for that familiarity. It’s a risk most won’t take, instead choosing a safer, lighter film that doesn’t challenge them, but simply entertains them.
Such is a time for myself. The day was Thursday and I was planning my screening of “The Secret Life of Pets” around my hectic schedule. It was at this time that I got an unfortunate call stating I’d have to put my dog down the following morning. Clearly, a film revolving around pets, specifically a dog being lost from its owner, wasn’t going to sit well with me. It’d either hit too close to home and I wouldn’t be able to stomach it or I’d look past any criticisms I’d have in favor of the familiarity and comfort. It wouldn’t be fair to the film or myself to go through the experience.
A day has passed since I put my beloved dog down. It was without a shadow of the doubt one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do! I’m still grieving and will be for some time. Me being me, I like to stay busy during heartache as a way of distraction. And there’s no greater distraction than the movies! Thankfully for me, I had a mindless raunchy comedy lined up, the perfect solution! Nothing too close to home or too challenging or thought-provoking. In a time of grief, laughter is the best medicine!
“Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” has perfect timing! Maybe not always in its comedy, but in its release date. I’ll be forthright in saying I may be a tad forgiving of this film, as I desperately needed a laugh and this film supplied just that. Overall, I’d say it delivered fifty-fifty in terms of its comedy quota. It’s one of those raunchy comedies that throws everything at the wall in hopes of something sticking. This usually results in a mixed bag, though it can be elevated slightly if the hits are big and the cast is lively. “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” has both!
Mike & Dave Stangler (Adam DeVine & Zac Efron) are two frat boys who don’t know when to quit. They show up stag to all of their family gatherings and ruin them. Fearing they’ll do the same at their sister’s wedding, their family gives them an ultimatum: show up at the wedding with dates or don’t show up at all. Not knowing how to approach dating, having only ever resorted to picking women up at parties, the brothers post an ad on Craigslist which goes viral. They wind up promoting their ad on a daytime talk show and field numerous outrageous in-person applications.
Alice (Anna Kendrick) and Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) are two frat girls who don’t know when to quit. They constantly get drunk before working to the point that they get fired. Nursing a hangover, they see Mike and Dave’s ad on TV and, wanting a free trip to Hawaii, decide to take them up on their offer. The only catch is the brothers are looking for nice girls, meaning the two have to pretend to be sweet and intelligent. You see where this is going.
After Tatiana intentionally gets hit by a car to trick the brothers into “saving” her, the two hit it off with the brothers and have their free ticket to Hawaii. The jokes in the first half of the film revolve around Alice and Tatiana having to live up to their lie. Aubrey pretends to be a schoolteacher, yet constantly lets her foul mouth get the better of her. Alice pretends to be a hedge funder, despite not knowing what it is, constantly elevating her lie(s) to preposterous levels. When she tries to lie about her ex dying, she kills him off three times: the first from cancer, the second from AIDS, the third from a plane crash. Dave being a bit doltish and incredibly caring buys into this, which is much funnier in execution than it is in writing.
The rest of the film is made up of countless raunchy jokes and gross-out gags. These include, but are not limited to, awkward dirty talk, untimely pornography viewing, the bride-to-be taking ecstasy the night before her wedding, and an incredibly sexual yet not actual sexual intercourse massage. There’s also a running gag of a bisexual cousin who continually hits on Tatiana that falls flat. Amidst all of the outrageousness is a cornucopia of pop culture references and crazy stunts, such as the ATV accident that the film’s trailer is most known for.
When the script, written by Andrew Jay Cohen & Brendan O’Brien, incorporates big stunts is when the film falters. These come off as too forced and elicit more groans than laughs. It’s during the smaller gags and raunchy wordplay that the comedy sticks. A good chunk of the film seems adlibbed, pretty much confirmed by the gag reel in the end credits. It would come as no surprise to learn that the biggest laughs came from adlibbed moments. When the director, Jake Szymanski, lets his actors loose is when the film as its best.
All four leads carry the material and work off of each other tremendously! They take the tired aspects of the script, such as them slowly realizing they’re all alike, and run with it. You can believe that both brothers, specifically Dave, want to do right by their sister, which makes their flustered responses to their dates’ freakier sides all the more funnier. In return, knowing that Tatiana wants nothing to do with the rambunctiously over-the-top Mike makes her awkward put-ons all the more funnier. Szymanski understands that the key to a raunchy comedy is in the reactions. It’s only funny if the characters around the antics know they’re crazy and act accordingly.
Even the two couples eventually falling in love winds up working due to the chemistry. Alice and Dave develop a sweet bond together, with Alice needing a sweetheart to get her groove back after being left at the altar months back. Anna Kendrick’s endearing perkiness and Zac Efron’s charm are the perfect match! As for Mike and Tatiana, they’re both one-in-the-same: obnoxiously confident as a way to mask their insecurities. Both are dependent upon Alice and Dave and fear the two of them getting their lives in order will leave them stranded in the dust. While Tatiana feeling sympathy for Mike feels trite at first, it’s made believable by this reasoning.
I won’t deny the shortcomings of “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.” It’s as obnoxiously over-the-top as the characters it’s anchored on, almost to a fault. Keyword being almost. There’s enough laugh out loud moments for it to be recommendable as a comedy. The four leads are energetic and command the screen, elevating subpar material and making good material great. There’s even a cameo by Marc Maron, and any film that gives Marc Maron screen time is worth something.
Mike and Dave may have needed wedding dates, but I, and more importantly the world, needed a laugh amidst tragedy, and this film delivered just that.
Final Rating: B