Whatever happened to the good ol’ days when comedies did more than thrust obscene nudity all over our screens?
⭐ ½
Josip Knezevic
Sigh. What’s been happening to comedies in recent years? It seems gone are the days when laughs came from real characters in real situations. Instead, we’re delivered crude, abstract, ridiculously over-the-top craziness. Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is exactly that – yet another dismal comedy aimed at earning big at the box office.
Inspired by the supposedly true life stories of the Stangle brothers, Mike and Dave are given orders by their cousin to bring dates to her wedding so that they don’t disrupt the celebration by harassing her friends and bridesmaids. Who better to play these sexy, outgoing brothers than Zac Efron and Adam Devine? Throw in the most popular female dates for a young adult demographic in Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza and you’ve got yourself a ticket to the hippest, coolest film out yo – #swag… yes, I’m cringing at that lineas well. If you have the displeasure of watching this film, it’ll make much more sense…
I never thought I would be put in a position where I would come to dislike Kendrick and Plaza. Every stupid line fed to them by so-called writers Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien echoes a worrying sign for the state of comedy these days. In one scene, Kendrick explains how wild of an idea it would be to host a hen’s night where she and Plaza would act as undercover prostitutes to compete for the highest pay. She continues in depth with this poor excuse of a joke and describes how eventually they would reveal themselves to their unsuspecting victims’ families – which is somehow meant to be funny…?
On the flip side, others sitting with me in the cinema couldn’t get enough of it. Most were bursting into laughter at what profanities were said and what sexual innuendos were implied. Apparently, obscene nudity and crude humour for the sake of being crude is all the rage.
It was far from surprising when the end credits failed to mention the director or the writers – believe me, I sat there and waited – because it feels like a movie that’s been made by older executives who are attempting to relate to a younger demographic. I don’t think any of us 20-somethings constantly say “hashtag” this and “hashtag” that. The movie desperately tries to “be cool”, but falls flat on its face.
You might have guessed by now that I’m not a fan of this movie. I sincerely hope nobody has to experience the unbearably unfunny 98 minutes I was put through. Imagine a combination of the worst scenes from The Wedding Crashers and Bad Neighbours (it’s actually written by the same duo) and that’s what you’ll get from Mike and Dave. Just see something else. Anything else.
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is available in Australian cinemas from July 7
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox
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