Unfunny comedies are always a drag and much more difficult to endure than, say, unscary horrors. This isn’t just an unfunny comedy; it’s one with a derivative, uninteresting storyline, told through exclusively loathsome characters and with zero heart. It’s the most unpleasant time I’ve had in a cinema in a long time.
That this is written by the same two people who brought us the perfectly serviceable Bad Neighbours movies is shocking. Their hit rate on jokes in those was pretty solid – here, it’s pretty close to zero. There’s two types of humour; scripted scene-long set-ups, and the cast’s adlib lines. Both suck with a truly punishing consistency. The best joke is probably a mean-spirited mocking of singer Seal’s face. But credit where credit is due, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates does pass the Bechdel Test. Sadly that just means the shitty female characters are slightly more fleshed out than usual, albeit still less so than the shitty male characters.
Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza are so much better than this rubbish. It’s painful seeing their considerable skills be barely hinted at, let alone put to good use. But it’s not the most painful thing about this film – that would be Adam Devine. He’s nauseatingly obnoxious, with his stupid facial expressions constantly overdoing everything and his over-the-top crying scene being one of the most revolting parts of this whole stinking mess.
It’s often bafflingly bad. It all comes to a merciful end with a song and dance routine in which I honestly couldn’t even tell what the joke was supposed to be. It’s one final act of laziness from the filmmakers, a way of saying “fuck you, we don’t even care” to the audience, just before they leave, never to think of this awful film again.
‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’ Movie Times
