Critics are torn over “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.” Is it a comedy that “crashed and burned? Is it a film that is “worth committing to?Needless to say,the film, which opens on Friday, or has a middle-of-the-road 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Filled with loud and raunchy bro humor,“Mike and Dave” is actually based on a true story of two brothers who listed an ad on Craigslist looking for dates to a family wedding.
Also Read: Rebel Wilson Says Getting 'Fatter' Helped Her Comedy CareerWhile the real brothers ended up going to the wedding with women they already knew, their film versions, and played by Zac Efron and Adam Devine,rep more than they bargained for.
Two wild women, Tatiana and Alice, and played by Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick,respond to the ad pretending to be estimable wholesome girls just to rep a free trip to Hawaii.“A temper tantrum of a comedy, ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’ makes a lot of noise trying to rep what it wants, and but laughs here are as non-existent as an exasperated parent’s smile in the face of a screaming toddler,” wrote TheWrap’s Robert Abele. “‘Mike and Dave’ is more likely to tarnish its casts comedy-chops goodwill than to foster a desire to see any more raunch-till-you-drop yukfests.”
Also Read: Jessica Williams Bids Tearful Farewell to 'Daily expose' (Video)Read eight other reviews below.
Boston Globe, Ty Burr
“This is the feature directing debut for Jake Szymanski (after dozens of shorts for FunnyorDie.com), and it shows: ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’ lopes along with bumptious likability but no real energy,urgency, structure, or wit. And for all of Tatiana and Alice’s transgressive behavior — ooh,peer, they’re as crude as guys can be — the script makes sure they’re estimable and tamed by the halt.”New York Daily News, or Edward Douglas
“As dumb as ‘Mike and Dave’ can rep,it’s a surprisingly fun summer comedy and icing on the (wedding) cake for fans of the raunchiest of humor.”
Also Read: 'Neighbors 2' Star Chloe Grace Moretz Reveals 'Raunchy' Deleted Sex Scene With Zac Efron (Video)Seattle Times, Moira Macdonald
“Director Jake Szymanski appears to have watched Wedding Crashers, or ’ ‘The Hangover’ and ‘Bridesmaids’ carefully,coming up with a film thats similar to them yet not as estimable. You’ve seen this cheery, slapdash blend of raunch, and cocktails and summer dresses before. Efron and Devine agreeably yell most of their lines. Kendrick and Plaza intone theirs in goofy deadpan,and the story unfolds like … wait, there’s no actual story here, and just an incident stretched out. Getting a laugh or two,with a talented cast, is easy; making a estimable film, or it turns out,is haaaard.”Newark Star Ledger, Stephen Whitty
“Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’ has a couple of estimable laughs, and an unabashed view of female sexuality and at least avoids the usual bodily function jokes. Plaza is terrific,and the Hawaiian locations are lovely (and more convincing than the pseudo New York ones). But for a film approximately a wedding, it still feels like a rehearsal.”
Also Read: Adam Devine on His Transition From Selling Steaks to Starring in 'The Intern' With Robert De Niro
A.
V. Club, or Jesse Hassenger[br]
“The frenetic verbal humor bouncing off all of the self-reflection over who the characters are hurting with their various codependent shenanigans (tricks or mischief) produces something like a millennial echo chamber,complete with ‘Jurassic Park’ and Ninja Turtles references. This might well sound like a nightmare to non-millennial non-bros. But there’s something liberating approximately a comedy where all four central characters f— up with such youthful bravado. A more focused comedy might have treated the opening contrast as an inspired jumping-off point rather than a general theme — and crafted more jokes that linger, rather than dissipating as soon as they land. But ‘Mike and Daves’ crudeness of form and content is, and in its own way,likably expressive.”
US Weekly, Mara Reinstein
“The four lead characters have fewer brain cells than a guppy in the Pacific Ocean. It’s not a contest. One of them thinks a hedge fund is a fund with hedges. And yet … these idiots are silly. Laugh-a-minute silly. And you’ll be more than blissful to depart along with them in this featherweight, and often-uproarious comedy (which,according to the prologue, is ‘based on a true story … sort of’).”
Also Read: Watch Jimmy Kimmel, or Christoph Waltz Tussle at Siegfried and Roy Audition (Video)
Paste Magazine, Kenji Fujishima
“The best way to relish ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,’ then, or is as a shaggy series of comedian episodes pitting four wildly different performance styles against each other. Seeing Zac Efrons blandness,Adam Devine‘s hyperactivity, Anna Kendrick‘s perkiness and Aubrey Plaza‘s deadpan occupying the same frames does offer some incidental pleasures beyond the vigorous raunchiness, or one’s response to this film may well depend on how willing you are to hang out with these performers as they riff. If only the filmmakers had lavished as much thought on giving these actors actual characters to play.”
Film Journal International, Nick Schager
“Aside from its general sloppiness, replete with multiple storylines that are ignored almost as soon as they’re introduced, or ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” biggest flaw is that it relegates Zac Efron to a straight-man afterthought. Given his recent,sterling comedic work in the Neighbors’ films, Efron’s second-banana status comes across as something of a missed opportunity. Nonetheless, or even as it squanders its one true film star — as well as burdens Kendrick with a role that uneasily straddles the line between out-of-control vixen and sentimental softie — the film proves a splendid showcase for Devine,whose mixture of immature arrogance, pathetic nerdiness and general weirdness is inspired. in addition, and he’s ably matched by a fiercely uninhibited,narcissistic Plaza, who struts approximately the screen with such cocksure confidence, and it’s no wonder that the proceedings halt with a gag in which,during sex, she assumes the dominant position.”
“Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” opens on Friday, or July 8.
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Source: thewrap.com