Mike and Dave Stangle posted something on Craigslist once that got a lot of chuckles and wound up going viral. The story is the same as any sort of Tucker Max wannabe; they were wild party guys who did all sorts of shenanigans, none of which they have actual proof of but “you had to be there, man.” The ad inspired proper shenanigans, apparently, and the brothers wound up cashing in profoundly. For all the stupid stuff that has gone viral over the years, from a guy wanting potato salad to “Gangnam Style,” the Stangles wisely decided to cash in while they could.
They ended the story by becoming millionaires off their life rights, which wound up becoming the film Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates.
Zac Efron and Adam Devine wind up in the roles of the titular Stangle brothers, who apparently cause so much mayhem together they are given one condition for their sister’s wedding: they have to bring proper dates. When their Craigslist ad goes viral, all they get are women looking for a free vacation to Hawaii, the two wind up in the crosshairs of a pair of party girls (Aubrey Plaza, Anna Kendrick) looking for a vacation. Posing as the sort of nice girls they’re looking to meet their parents, the foursome wind up in Hawaii and then all hell breaks loose.
It’s an interesting idea, to take the usual “bad boys pretend to be good to get girls” motif and flip genders but unfortunately this is a film that does very little with it. Mike & Dave rely on the usual gags involving physical humor, sex gags and alcohol related hijinks that bad comedies have.
That’s a shame because there’s a fairly impressive cast here. If you could get something interest in front of four genuinely talented actors this would’ve been a far more interesting and better film. Unfortunately, Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates falls into that sort of Wedding Crashers level territory of mediocre badness in that it confuses aggressive boorishness with comedy.
When Zac Efron has fully transformed himself from teen star to a genuine, A-list movie star of significance this is going to hold the same place in his cinematic resume that Bachelor Party does for Tom Hanks.
Nothing out of the ordinary as there’s a deleted storyline, some deleted scenes and a handful of other passable extras.
20th Century Fox presents Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Directed by Jake Szymanski. Written by Andrew Cohen & Brendan O’Brien. Starring Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, Adam Levine, Aubrey Plaza, Stephen Root. Run Time: 98 minutes. Rated R. Released on: 9.27.16
