Do you think Adam Devine is the funniest person alive? Not do you think he's funny, but do you think he's light-years funnier than Louis C.K., Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer and John Oliver combined? If you answered yes, and only if you answered yes, then you might find Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates enjoyable. That's the only scenario where anyone could love this toothless wannabe raunch comedy.
Brothers Mike (Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron) like to think of themselves as the life of the party, but in actuality, their antics as wedding guests often result in severe property damage and injury. In anticipation of their beloved sister Jeanie's Hawaiian wedding, their parents demand they find dates to bring along to keep them in check. After their search for dates on Craigslist goes viral, a TV appearance catches the eyes of Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick), a pair of relatively trashy roommates. Tatiana hatches a plan to woo the brothers for the free vacation to Hawaii. Soon the tables turn, as Mike and Dave's secretly wild dates begin messing everything up.
Mike and Dave's attempts at humor fall squarely into the Workaholics school of inebriated bro comedy. The booze-fueled slog asks Devine to carry the comedic load with a series of sexual misunderstandings and shocked expressions. There might not be a single joke in Mike and Dave that's on par with the lamest jokes in Wedding Crashers (the characters even mention the superior film).
The film never makes viewers care about these characters. As the tamest of the bunch, Efron's Dave offers the closest thing to a grounded lead. Unfortunately, Kendrick simply isn't convincing as a crazy mess, no matter how mussy her hair. When Dave and Alice calm things down and connect in Hawaii, there's actually some decent chemistry. On the other hand, there's nothing particularly likable about Devine's portrayal of Mike, he's just a self-destructive loser. And as Alice, Plaza serves up full-blown narcissism for most of the movie, only to suddenly flip course for and act empathetic toward Mike — a guy who openly admits he just brought her there for sex — for no discernible reason.
Even in Mike and Dave's moment of triumph, the best their parents can muster is, "Those assholes kinda did it." No, those assholes failed miserably. ♦
