Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates movie review (2016)

The scenes in which she and Plaza vaguely try to make something of their lives and/or sit around on the couch, hoping to convince themselves and each other of how awesome they are, are the film’s highlights. Tatiana and Alice are far more compelling than Mike and Dave as they co-opt and upend bro culture. Plaza is game for anything, and these two likable actresses have an easy, zany chemistry with each other.

Then they meet Mike and Dave—and in theory, sparks should fly, because Tatiana and Alice are their female equivalents. But “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” is never nearly as subversive as it thinks it is, and by the end, everyone tones it down and learns to be a grown person. (It’s not exactly a spoiler; these hard-R comedies tend to go soft and gooey by the conclusion.) We’re supposed to find these guys lovable but they’re actually just adolescent idiots, even though Efron andDevine each have been consistently charismatic in the past (with better writing). Devine, the “Workaholics” co-star, works his fast-talking, manic shtick, and Efron continues demonstrating his willingness to toy with his pretty-boy persona the farther he strays from the Disney Channel.

Despite their efforts, “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” offers raunch with no smarts. It’s not content merely to present increasingly shocking sight gags, such as the thoroughly inappropriate massage the bride receives at the resort’s spa from the naked and limber Kumail Nanjiani, a one-note bit that gets dragged out ad infinitum. There’s also the moment when Tatiana reluctantly pleasures the brothers’ bisexual cousin (Alice Wetterlund) in the steam room in exchange for backstage passes to Rihanna (whom the film repeatedly refers to by her nickname, Ri Ri, which is just super edgy). And then there’s the nude, drug-induced incident involving the horses at the resort’s stables.

Showing these events once isn’t enough, though. The movie keeps referring back to them, over and over, as if reminding us about jokes we just saw will make them funny all over again (if they ever were in the first place). Similarly, merely making references to pop culture phenomena does not count as humor, such as an extended (and ill-fated) homage to “Jurassic Park,” or the acknowledgement of this movie's debt to the superior “Wedding Crashers.”

And then there are the outtakes. Good lord, the outtakes. Don’t we all see through these by now? Sure, it’s a clever way to keep us in our seats during the credits instead of running out to the bathroom, but they are never funny. Here, this is especially true. Hearing crew members cackling in the background doesn’t automatically make these moments hilarious.