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I would not mind spending an afternoon with Mike and Dave Stangle… Clothing is optional, of course.

This addition to the raunchy comedy genre is complete with the occasional boob shot, immature jokes and an incredibly inappropriate scene with a masseuse. And it was actually quite enjoyable!

Raunchy comedies, when executed correctly, have the ability to make you literally hold onto your stomach from laughing so hard. There are the Greats (There’s Something About Mary, Superbad) and the not so Greats (Bad Dirty Grandpa, funnily enough starring Zac Efron). Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates tells the story of the two well-meaning Stangle Brothers who must find dates in order to attend their sister’s wedding. The movie falls into that better than your average category on the raunch-com spectrum and it is an incredibly enjoyable summer picture. I will say, it did have a couple moments that made me experience that glorious feeling of my 8-pack summer bod developing.

Let me say, Adam Devine and Efron work incredibly well together. Resounding golf clap to whoever thought to cast them as brothers because their chemistry was fantastic and I truly loved seeing how close their characters were with their sister..

side note: And for all you Torontonians out there, REMEMBER SUGAR FROM THE ZONE? SHE PLAYS THE SISTER!! The second she and her voice came on screen, my friend turned to me and said “… Is that Sugar?!” And I thought she did a great job playing the Stangle sister.

I didn’t feel as much of a connection between the Brothers and their parents (Stephen Root was funny but ooh boy, I love Stephanie Faracy but I think she slept through certain scenes), however there were sporadic moments where I felt that family dynamic. Anna Kendrick played her role as a hilariously sullen yet wild gal fairly well and I liked the words coming out of Aubrey Plaza‘s character… but she had this indistinguishable accent that I don’t think anyone knows wtf it was. I found moments where the dialogue was hysterical and the emotions the actors were conveying hit the nail on the head in terms of delivery; Plaza had those moments, however that accent… It became distracting at times particularly as the movie progressed because I kept wondering “WHAT IS THIS?” In terms of secondary characters, Sam Richardson played Eric brilliantly and his character is one of my favourites in terms of development because he really came into his own by the end of the movie.

The first half of this movie was fantastically hilarious and solid, I thoroughly enjoyed it way more than I thought. They set it up brilliantly AND QUICKLY. Within the first 15 minutes or so the major conflict was set up and we were on our journey of comedy. Complete with all the references to twitter, reddit, facebook and Wendy Williams your heart may desire. I feel like the first half of this movie will be outdated in like three years but I digress. The trailer unfortunately like many gave away one of the major gags/reveals that I wish they wouldn’t have shown. The fast-pacedness of the movie kind of meandered a bit following the climax but the final few acts made up for that slowness because I was laughing and enjoying everything on screen during the final scenes.

A nitpick though that I cannot forgive this movie for is the blatantly obvious audio/visual dubs. Like holy shit, man. One or two times I can forgive but there were so many instances when the camera would cut behind Dave (Zac Efron) and a random piece of dialogue would just spew out that you know was not what he said at all. IIRC, during a scene between Plaza/Devine’s respective characters, the camera lingered on Tatianna (Plaza)’s face as Mike (Devine) said something and his mouth movements were not matching up at all with what we were hearing.

If you’re looking for a fun and silly raunchy summer picture and want a sprinkle of attractiveness to go with your comedy, check out Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates receives 3.5/5 Matt Damon heads.