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| Alice and Tatiana, not Mike and Dave |
A Review of Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates by Nick
Olszyk
MPAA Rating, R
USCCB Rating, O
Reel Rating, Two Reels
It
must be said for the sake of honesty that Mike
and Dave Need Wedding Dates is a really stupid movie with many immoral
qualities. Yet in this same spirit, it must also be said that my wife and I,
enjoying a rare moment without our children, had a wonderful time. Even when
following the common conventions of the genre and adjusting content for adults,
respect for common decency must always remain. While certainly entertaining, Wedding Dates ignored this fact many
times, not enough to be considered a total disgrace but enough to sour an
otherwise sweet and enjoyable romp.
Mike
(Adam DeVine) and Dave (Zac Efron) Stangle, your typical late twentysomething
man-children, are brothers still living in a rundown apartment selling their
own brand of liquor with dubious marketing techniques. They have a bad history
of ruining family events, so their father insists that they bring dates to
their baby sister Jeanie’s wedding. “I don’t want you going stag and riling
each other up,” he fumes. Fortunately, she is the only thing they love more
than lighting fireworks from their crotch. Their quest goes viral after posting
a craigslist ad, insisting they only want “nice girls.” This catches the
attention of the equaling irresponsible twentysomething woman-children Tatiana
(Audrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick), who feign respectability to get a
free trip to Hawaii. Yet things quickly get out of hand as their ruse unravels
and the Stangle boys find themselves in more trouble than ever.
Here
is a confession that should never leave the mouth a respectable male, but after
science fiction, romantic comedy is my favorite genre. The act of falling in
love is an awkward yet gentle dance with misinterpretations and farce, best summarized
by Owl from Bambi:
You're walking
along, minding your own business. You're looking neither to the left, nor to the
right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. You begin to get
weak in the knees. Your head's in a whirl! Then you feel light as a feather;
and before you know it, you're walking on air. Then you know what? You're
knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head! It can happen to
anybody. So you'd better be careful.
The joy of this adventure is
seeing how the couple, or in this case couples, will eventually get together.
Love involves letting someone in and letting yourself out, which is always
uncomfortable. Yet the other person is doing the same, and that is what creates
great comedy.
Wedding Dates begins promisingly by
having the girls in on the secret before the boys. Think Some Like It Hot but with vastly inferior dialogue. The word
“dialogue” is used specifically because the story process and character development
is pretty sophisticated, but there seems to be a five f-word per scene minimum.
The best aspect is the acting. DeVine, Efron, Plaza, and Oscar-nominated (and Twilight alum) Kendrick are all young
actors at the top of their game. Plaza especially is a comic genius who could
make the New York phone book sound funny.
The setup is
incredibly well done and holds tremendous promise, yet at almost exactly
halfway, it crashes, burns, and only occasionally recovers. It is far more
graphic than necessary, well beyond its R-rating. A perfect example is a scene
where Alice, in her own friendly but disturbed way, discretely pays to get Jeanie
a massage with a bit more than usual. It’s a scene that could be funny if
handled properly, but instead the audience is treated to something that would
make Hugh Hefner blush. It does not serve the story and takes the viewer
completely out of the experience. Comedy often involves upsetting social norms
but must happen in a manner that does not offend. Wedding Dates is full of scenes that offend, offend again, and keep
going.
Surprisingly,
these characters, despite their poor behavior, remain entirely loveable and
even profound at times. They are all damaged and act out because they have no
other outlet. They deserve a film that challenged their shenanigans rather than
indulged in them. Then they would get a happy ending that didn’t involve
scented candles and regret.
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