Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Foul-mouthed comedies can be a bit hit and miss. There is a very delicate balance act going on where too much can make it unbearable (case in point; 2013's Movie 43) and not enough makes it just bland. But Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates benefits not only from a strong script of non-stop jokes that all work really well, it also has a cast made up entirely of comic performers that all know how comedy works.

Mike (Adam DeVine) and Dave Stangle (Zac Efron) are two brothers who think they are the life of every party. But in reality, it is a very different story. The antics they think they get up to in their heads is very different to the chaos and destruction that actually happens, which is why their father Burt (Stephen Root) has adamantly put his foot down and demanded they bring dates to their younger sister's wedding in Hawaii. Thinking it's the classiest thing to do, they put an ad up on the website Craigslist (generally not a good idea for anything) and soon become a viral hit. This gets the attention of friends Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick), who decide to act respectable in an attempt to impress the guys, but this doesn't last long.

Now I know what you're probably thinking, you've seen the trailer, so you already know what's going to happen. And yes the plot of the movie is very basic, but that's a good thing in this case because there's no complex plot to distract from the jokes. Those are what you're going to see Mike and Dave for and there are a lot of them, with all of them landing. However, these jokes range from walking in on your little sister having an unorthodox orgasm to getting high in front of family members, so if those aren't up your alley, it's probably not for you.

The strongest part of the movie is it's experienced comic cast. Adam DeVine and Zac Efron have an amazing chemistry together and Efron is really benefitting from his recent turn into comedy. DeVine is getting really strong at his loveable goofball too. Aubrey Plaza plays the same dry, acerbic character and at first I found her a bit grating, but she definitely has her moments. The most amazing casting I thought was of Anna Kendrick. She's been in comedies before, but never as a wacky and desperate character and she pulled it off. The standouts in the supporting cast were Stephen Root, who is never as you've seen him before as Mike and Dave's extremely obscene father, and Lavell Crawford, but I'll laugh at him no matter what.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is a shorter movie than you realise, but the whole time it's non-stop laughter, despite the low-brow nature of the jokes. The best thing about it though, is that you can just switch off and have a good time while watching, which is something that not a lot of movies allow you to do these days.