Review: Hilarious MIKE & DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES Flips Script on Gross-Out Comedies

For decades, movie-going audiences have been subjected to crude, man-child comedies in which the female, romantic leads are portrayed as well put-together, successful, and sturdy, while their male counterparts get to be obscene, stupid, and juvenile. Well, after suffering through the oppressive piles of THE JERK, DUMB & DUMBER, BILLY MADISON, anything with Will Ferrell, Seth Rogan, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, or Jason Segel, ladies now have their turn to be profanely socially immature in the hilarious big screen comedy MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES.

Directed by Jake Szymanski, who has directing roots with Funny or Die, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, and HBO's 7 DAYS IN HELL, the movie focuses on the presumably true story of brothers Dave and Mike Stangle (HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, HAIRSPRAY's Zac Efron, PITCH PERFECT's Adam DeVine) who, after ruining countless family events with raucous behavior, are given an ultimatum requiring them to bring respectable dates to their sister's destination wedding in Hawaii.

As you do, the brothers take to Craig's List to find said respectable dates, and after their initial post goes viral, they are invited on THE WENDY WILLIAMS SHOW to tell their story. It is then that the newly unemployed, co-dependent, degenerate waitresses Alice (Oscar and Tony-nominee Anna Kendrick) and Tatiana (SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, DIRTY GRANDPA's Aubrey Plaza) decide that they need a "vacay" to to turn their downward-spiraling lives around, and set out to win over Mike and Dave.

The film, from writers Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien (co-writers of NEIGHBORS and NEIGHBORS 2, also starring Efron), draws heavy inspiration from Wilson and Vaughn's WEDDING CRASHERS, but where that film (one of my favorite comedies) was silly and stupid, this one is vulgar and side-splittingly shocking.

Mike and Dave are more or less younger versions of the typical Wilson and Vaughn characters, but Alice and Tatiana make the boys' now familiar brand of idiot humor look like child's play. In a self-reflective moment fairly early in the film, Plaza's Tatiana talks about "flipping the script." While she is talking about the traditional, real-world dating paradigm, that concept is even more appropriate when looking at the movie in relation to other recent, big-screen comedies.

While Efron and DeVine's Dave and Mike are not exactly the responsible foils that we are used to seeing from women in "man-child" movies, they cannot hold a torch to the sheer lunacy and debauchery of Kendrick and Plaza's characters.

While that style of humor is by no means new, or inventive, it is, somehow, refreshing to see it coming from a film's female leads, while their male counterparts stand aside, slack-jawed in disapproving horror. It is both very funny and surprisingly satisfying to see two expert comedic-actresses completely lean into the gross-out humor that has heretofore been almost exclusively reserved for man-children.

Plaza and DeVine, both known for other-the-top, comedic characters are the slightly more unbalanced secondary couple, while Efron and Kendrick have the more traditional romantic arc. DeVine, more or less, plays the same character he has in the PITCH PERFECT films and on WORKAHOLICS. Plaza, however, takes her normally quirky brand of wide-eyed, slacker humor to previously unseen levels. Tatiana is bizarre, she is shocking, she is off-putting, but more often than not, because of Plaza's weird earnestness, she is provides the group's biggest laughs.

Efron has equated himself more than well in these types of roles recently, with the unexpectedly entertaining NEIGHBORS movies, and this year's DIRTY GRANDPA, but it is Kendrick, the reigning princess of movie musicals, who takes the next step from her self-effacing social media persona and her performances is mumblecore, indie films like HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

Kendrick is still able to maintain the loveable "girl-next-door" quality that has brought her fame, while saying and doing vile and hysterically unthinkable things. Considering that she seems to film a half dozen movies every year, it is no surprise that Kendrick is constantly finding new ways to impress and entertain the movie-going masses.

The unsung star of the film is Stephanie "Sugar Lyn" Beard, who plays Mike and Dave's sister Jeanie. Unsurprisingly, her idyllic wedding doesn't exactly go according to plan, but some of the funniest moments in the film are the things that she does (often at the urging of Kendrick's Alice) that make things worse.

Her scene with Kumail Nanjiani as a masseuse will be a tough one to beat for the funniest scene of the year.

Ultimately, if you think that it is high time that the women in this gross-out pics get a chance to have some of the fun, you will love MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES; oh, and don't forget to stay for the closing credit bloopers; trust me, it's worth it.

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Check out the trailer for MIKE & DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES:

MIKE & DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES starring Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, Adam DeVine, Aubrey Plaza, Stephen Root, Stephanie "Sugar Lyn" Beard, and more, opens nationwide on Friday. MIKE & DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES is rated R for crude sexual content, language throughout, drug use and some graphic nudity.

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Did MIKE & DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES flip the script enough for you? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter @BWWMatt.

Banner Image:
Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, and Adam DeVine. Photo Credit: Gemma LaMana | Twentieth Century FOX Film Corporation

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