Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates Movie Review

1/10

Sigh. What’s been happening to the genre of comedy in recent years? It seems like instead of laughs brought out from realistic characters in real situations, the focus has been switched to crude, abstract, unrealistic craziness. Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates seems to have attempted the latter of the two and is yet another dismal comedy simply put to earn a large amount at the box office.

Inspired by the supposedly true-life stories of Mike and Dave Stangle – who were given orders by their cousin to bring dates to her wedding so that they wouldn’t disrupt the celebration by harassing the friends of the brides. Who better to play the sexy and outgoing brothers but the comedy stylings of Zac Efron (Bad Neighbours 2) and Adam Devine (Workaholics). Throw in the most popular female dates for a young adult demographic, Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza, and you’ve got yourself a ticket to the hippest, coolest film out yo – #swag (it’ll make sense if you have the displeasure of watching the film).

I never thought a movie could make me dislike Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick as much as Mike and Dave did. Every stupid line that was fed to them from so-called “writers” Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien echoed a worrying sign for the state of comedy these days. There is a scene in the movie in which Kendrick’s character is explaining how wild of an idea it would be to host a hen’s night where they would act as undercover prostitutes to compete for the highest pay.  She continues in depth with this poor excuse of a joke, to describe how eventually they would reveal themselves to their unsuspecting victims’ families – which is somehow meant to be funny.

Yet somehow others in the cinema couldn’t get enough of it. Most were bursting out in laughter at what profanities were said and what sexual innuendoes were implied which puzzled me as to why. There’s a point just before the third act where the bride (Stephanie Beard) gets a “luxurious” massage from one of the staff at the hotel, which transpires into the most ridiculous sensual therapy I’ve ever seen in a film. All of a sudden, obscene nudity is now on the table and from then on the film uses that scene to just open up the floodgates for more crude humor for the sake of being crude.

It’s no surprise that when the movie finished the director and his writer’s names couldn’t be seen in the credits (believe me – I sat there and waited) because it really does feel like it’s a movie made by 35 plus-year-olds executives, attempting to relate to a younger demographic. I’m certain none of us 20-year-olds talk with the words “hashtag” this and “hashtag” that. Nor are we that pedantic when it comes to breaking barriers in terms of racial and LGBT issues, that you need to include scenes of a bisexual cousin who is so rich and successful that she has to remind us all the time. In the movie’s aggressive attempt to shove an agenda of social issues in the face of the audience, it seems to have forgotten the importance of a consistent plot. It was pandering to the attempt of trying to relate and being “cool”.

As you might tell I am not a fan of this movie and I sincerely hope nobody has to experience the unbearably unfunny 98 minutes I was put through. This movie felt like a combination of the worst parts of Wedding Crashers and Bad Neighbours. See something else.