Directed by Jake Szymanski
Written by Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien
Cast: Zac Efron, Adam Devine, Aubrey Plaza, Anna Kendrick, Sugar Lyn Beard, Sam Richardson, Alice Wetterlund, Mary Holland, Stephen Root, Stephanie Faracy, Lavell Crawford, Kumail Nanjiani, Wendy Williams (cameo), Marc Maron (cameo), Jake Johnson (cameo)
Soundtrack: Jeff Cardoni
As one who possesses a degree in History, I’m accustomed to being well-researched and having a greater context for what I write about.
In the case of ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’, I have to admit, I’m pretty much flying blind.
I can tell you that it’s directed by Jake Szymanski, who directed ‘7 Days in Hell‘ for HBO last year (‘Mike and Dave’ is his feature film directorial debut), and it’s written by Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien, who wrote ‘Neighbors‘ and ‘Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising‘, but none of this means anything to me because I haven’t seen any of those. Maybe you have, and maybe you know exactly what ‘Mike and Dave’ is going to be already, but I didn’t really know what to expect going in, and I definitely didn’t know if I was even going to laugh.
Shockingly, I have to admit I rather enjoyed it. As my basic standard for comedies is “Make me laugh”, and ‘Mike and Dave’ made me laugh quite a bit, I have to call it a successful comedy film.
The movie’s premise is based on the experiences of the real-life Mike and Dave Stangle (played by Adam Devine and Zac Efron in the film), who did, in fact, post an ad on Craigslist looking for wedding dates. In the universe of the movie, however, they end up with Tatiana and Alice (Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick), who turn out to be bigger bro-dawgs than this boys themselves, leading to all sorts of rude, lewd, and crude hijinks.
If I had to sum up the movie in one word, it would be Energetic. There are never any lulls, it’s very tightly paced, and it clocks in at under a hundred minutes, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome; although, I suspect an uncut version would run closer to two hours, as there are scenes, if not entire plotlines, shown in the trailers that are not in the final cut of the movie (like “bocce ball” and “wake and bake”). It is also evident based on the trailers (and outtakes shown during the end credits) that ‘Mike and Dave’ is highly reliant on improvisation and proverbial spaghetti throwing, which is fine, it’s a perfectly acceptable technique, just don’t come looking for high art.
All in all, everybody’s pretty much on point with their performances, and, for an R-rated comedy, I was happy ‘Mike and Dave’ wasn’t entirely reliant on gross-out and/or toilet humor, as seems to be the trend with so many marketed comedies these days. It’s not anywhere near the level of ‘The Nice Guys‘ in terms of overall quality, or ‘POPSTAR‘ in terms of satirical brilliance, but if you just need to get some laughs for ninety minutes (and you’re not easily offended), then ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’ is perfectly acceptable as a cinematic candy bar.
Rating: ★★★☆☆