Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates – Film Review by Robert Dooley

Director: Jake Szymanski
Writers: Andrew Jay Cohen, Brendan O’Brien
Stars: Zac Efron, Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick

Driving down to the cinema, an ad came on the radio proclaiming Mike and Dave need Wedding Dates to be the “sexiest” comedy of the summer and with a groan my expectations sunk even lower. The trailers had shown a slightly funny if somewhat formulaic looking comedy with a fear that all the best bits were being shown to get us in the door. Did it have a standard plot? Yes. Was it slightly funny? No. Only because it was hilarious.

Zac Efron and Adam Devine play the titular Mike and Dave, alcohol salesman with a history of ruining family events who have been ordered to bring dates to their sister’s wedding to keep them in line. They place an ad on Craigslist looking for “good girls” to bring on an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii for the wedding. This of course goes viral, bringing them to the attention of Tatiana and Alice (played by Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick) who force their way into the brothers lives pretending to be their dream dates when in reality they’re anything but.

It all plays out much as you’d expect however at no point is it boring. The jokes are fired out at a quick pace so you’ve only just composed yourself when they’re firing out more one liners.  The dialogue is good but it really comes alive with an exceptionally funny cast. Efron has shown that he has sufficient comedy chops with the Bad Neighbours films and he continues that trend here, toning it down slightly to play straight man to Devine’s squealing insecure Mike. I always found Devine a highlight of the Pitch Perfect films and it was great to see him centre stage. For any Parks and Rec fans, Aubrey Plaza plays her character as April Ludgate with the nastiness dialled up as far as it will go whereas Kendrick plays the emotional heart of this film as a woman jilted at the altar trying to get her life back on track.

Comedy can be very hard to get right but first time director Jake Szymanski does an excellent job. The film is paced perfectly, never lingering too long on any scene or after any joke and the big set pieces are directed with aplomb. If you want an example of how to perfectly shoot a woman getting hit in the face with an off road vehicle for maximum comedy impact, this is your bible. There are some sequences that are so awkwardly funny I was literally squirming in my seat.

However, there are some basic points where the film falls down. One or two of the endings for the character arcs don’t really land sufficiently and for a film which shares writers with the surprisingly feminist Bad Neighbors 2, it doesn’t really seem to know what it wants to say. Rather than giving us one clear message it seems to half say a few things. These issues would be more evident except that by the climax of the film I actually cared for the characters despite these shortcomings.

These issues are minor though as Mike and Dave need Wedding Dates is lifted above the standard formula with a fantastically funny cast who have bags of chemistry. It’s not a smart film and it’s not going to win any awards, but it’s the most I’ve laughed in the cinema in quite a while.