Checked out Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, the semi-raunchy comedy starring Zac Ephron, Anna Kendrick, Aubry Plaza, and Adam Devine. The premise is that Mike and Dave are brothers who rile each other up at family gatherings and cause havoc so their parents demand they bring a couple dates to their sisters wedding in the hope that will keep them calm. Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick play a couple of not-so-nice girls who see a free trip to Hawaii so they fix themselves up and con their way into a couple dates to a destination wedding.
This is a pretty good movie pretty much carried by the personalities of the four stars. The movie is otherwise kind of a mess from a filmmaking standpoint and the writing isn’t so great but it looks like the four stars did a lot of ad-libbing to improve the movie. And, interesting, despite the title, all four actors are the leads of the movie – it’s not just a dude comedy.
And it is kind of interesting that the four leads have real and different personalities which is kind of a low bar of praise but given the nature of most raunchy comedies, it’s notable they aren’t just basic stereotypes. I credit a little the writing but a lot the actors for that. In general, they really do a great job – except maybe Adam Devine who goes a little over the top. But he’s trying.
Which is more than I can say for the weirdly bad film-making… which is a weird thing to ding in a comedy but it was noticeable at times. Some scenes were clearly filmed on a green screen with a fake Hawaii backdrop. Other scenes had noticeably bad extras seemingly walking in front of the camera (making me think they were contest winners who won a walk-on). And one scene had was clearly cobbled together from different takes by the way the hair and the makeup of one actress shifted shot to shot (this character took a blow to the face early on and, throughout the movie, they couldn’t keep a consistent set of bruises and cuts). Normally I don’t fault a movie for this kind of thing but it was actually distracting in the flick.
But, overall, not enough to say the movie is bad. it’s fine. It’s good. If you like the main actors, that’ll help a lot. Zac Ephron continues to impress with his comedic chops and no one can fault the adorable Anna Kendrick (NO ONE, I tell ya!). Aubrey Plaza is playing a less nice person but I dig her regardless (she was the best on Parks and Rec). And, yes, Adam Devine seems the odd-man out to me but he plays well off Ephron and the rest so I guess I’ll give him a thumbs up too.
Score: 80