Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates review: a backwards buddy movie that wastes Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick
Mike and Dave are brothers, but more than that, they’re lads. When these liquor salesmen aren’t drowning in their own supply, they’re driving a banterbus made of LOLZ.
Understandably, younger sister Jeanie hates them, but she’s getting married and feels some familial urge to invite them, despite them being total dicks. Mike and Dave have ruined past family gatherings, with dodgy fireworks, over-eager trampolining and the entirely-unrelated death of an elderly relative so Jeanie gives them an ultimatum – find a pair of “nice girls” to take as dates or you’re not coming to Hawaii. Because there’s nothing more prohibitive to laddish high-jinks than a nagging woman, right?
So the brothers put an ad on Craigslist and eventually settle for Tatiana and Alice, who scrub up nice to snag a free holiday. Really, though, they’re also self-centred, drug-addled idiots.
The brothers are played by Adam Devine and Zac Efron – for whom entire scenes are devised to get him to take his shirt off – while the ladies are played by Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick, two seriously gifted comics who deserve better than this.
What ensues is an escalating comedy of errors, where each hateful character takes it in turns to shit on a poor woman’s wedding. And the worst bit, even more of a travesty than the sappy, predictable ending? The credits blooper reel – largely unused improvised footage – which suggests all the best jokes were left on the cutting-room floor.