MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES – Review

Summer’s in full swing with big family gatherings and social events. It’s the perfect time for some raunchy laughs at the multiplex. Eleven years ago (no, really!) R-rated movie comedies made a big, big comeback when Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson were WEDDING CRASHERS. Four years later, the lead up to nuptials ignited a comic trilogy with THE HANGOVER. Then the ladies got in on the act just two years later with BRIDESMAIDS. This weekend’s new flick doles out a bit from all those entrees in the funny flick buffet, expanding on a comedy staple (or main course in the food analogy), namely the comic team. This doesn’t quite harken back to Stan and Ollie or Bud and Lou, rather the inspiration may be a bit over twenty years ago to Harry and Lloyd, those DUMB & DUMBER dudes, continuing through Harold and Kumar, on to various unions of Rogen, Hill, and Franco. Happily these two “bros” are matched up with a terrific pair of funny ladies when MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES.

The title duo are two goofball brothers, Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave Stangle (Zac Efron) who run a liquor distribution biz out of their plush NYC digs. Coming home from a big sale, they’re surprised to find the rest of their family camped out at said pad. It is an intervention of sorts. Papa Burt (Stephen Root) informs them that their kid sister Jeanie (Sugar Lyn Beard) will be getting married to her fiancée Eric (Sam Richardson) in Hawaii. The boys are in the wedding party, but Burt insists that this not be a repeat of previous family get-togethers. Mike is puzzled, since he believes that the two are the “life force” od those parties. A home video DVD compilation reminds them of how three such gatherings ended in disaster (usually with ambulances and major property damage). Burt will have none of this because he insists that the two swingin’ singles bring along dates for the wedding. You know, nice respectable, professional women. Mike get an idea to advertise on the website “Craig’s List”, and the ad soon goes viral. Their fame lands them a spot on TV’s “The Wendy Williams Show”. Out of work waitresses Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick) just happen to catch the program. Alice is still down after being left at the altar (her boozing cost them their last job), so Tatiana thinks a “vacay” may the way to get her pal out of her funk. After giving each other “classy” make-overs, they stage an accident in front of the bar where the boys are interviewing prospects. Now for a few more “white lies”, Tatiana says she’s a teacher, while Alice is a hedge fund manager. Mike’s ecstatic! Mom and Dad will love them! The boys are blithely unaware of the catastrophes and calamities in store for them when they arrive on the island with these “nice ladies”.

Of the many talented comic actors involved, the flick’s MVP may be the formidable Ms. Plaza as the take charge (and no prisoners) mastermind Tatiana. With her wide expressive eyes (always seconds away from rolling in disgust), she comes from a lone line of smart, funny women, going back to Mae West to Barbara Stanwick in THE LADY EVE  all the way to Jamie Leigh Curtis in A FISH CALLED WANDA with a dash of, seriously, Bugs Bunny (especially in drag, vamping Elmer and others). She seems elated to leave the “good girl” roles in THE TO DO LIST and TV’s “Parks and Recreations”. And Plaza has the perfect stooge (in the classic stage sense, not the famous team) in Devine as the far too confident dimwit Mike. His body struggles to keep up with his manic motor-mouth. Still Devine seems to have comic energy to spare, even sharing it with the amiable Efron. His Dave is the sweet, eager-to-please puppy who will go anywhere his big brother leads. His chiseled good looks nearly distract from the likable goofball within. Kendrick departs from her usual screen roles as the great brainy gal always in control (particularly in the PITCH PERFECT flicks) in portraying a lady best described as a “hot mess”. Alice is so intent on self medicating that she almost neglects the decency of Efron’s Dave. She still able to instigate the major high-jinks especially as she hilariously tries to bluff her way through describing her “high finance” job. The always dependable Root shines as the short-fused, but often indulgent, Daddy Burt. Special kudos to the fearless work by Beard is the often abused (literally the brunt of much slapstick) and resilient Jeanie. She’s hysterical in one of the film’s comedy highlights, an erotic and silly massage from scene-stealer Kumail Nanjiani (of TV’s “Silicon Valley”). Lots of funny folks get a chance to play in paradise.

First time feature director (but veteran of TV) Jake Szymanski keeps the action moving at a brisk pace and keeps the usual comedy flick lull (around the hour mark) fairly brief. The script (supposedly based on a “mostly” true story) from Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien provides several good set pieces (the “Jurassic Park Tour”), while allowing for the performers to “cut loose”. Luckily any self-indulgent “improv” bits are kept to a minimum (still stick around for some funny end credit bloopers), and the main plot points veer into some unexpected conclusions. And, as usual, Hawaii is gorgeous. It doesn’t hit the zany satiric heights of recent box office dud POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING (it’ll find its audience some day), but it delivers more consistent chuckles than recent retreads ZOOLANDER 2 and NEIGHBORS 2. If you can handle the barrage of rudeness and raunch (truly a “hard” R rating), then MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES might be (as the old song goes) the “cure for the Summertime blues”.