When my lovely partner recently suggested we watch the 2016 comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, I must admit I felt similar to how I did when we plopped our hennies down to Instant Family, my review of which you can read here. Of course, I was immediately attracted to the idea due to Mike and Dave starring the one and only Zac Efron. An effortless movie star of near boundless charisma, Efron has been consistently elevating the films he’s appeared in for nearly 20 years now.

Yet overriding Efron’s innate appeal was the fact that the movie came out back in 2016. So much has happened in the culture since then that I feared the film might feel like it came out in 1916 instead, especially with its attitudes toward sex, gender and possibly even race. Yet Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is less objectionable than I feared it might be, and like its eponymous protagonists, even grows on you over time.

The film naturally concerns the story of brothers Mike and Dave, played by Adam Devine and Efron respectively. Both brothers are directionless and deeply immature. When not selling liquor, they spend their time attending family events and causing a disruptive ruckus. Their fun, freewheeling existence eventually comes to a screeching halt when their younger sister Jeanie (Sugar Lyn Beard) announces her wedding to Eric (Sam Richardson) in Hawaii. They are told they must bring “nice girls” as wedding dates who can prevent them from spoiling the event for their sister. It is an order which sends a questionable message about women needing to tame men who won’t take accountability for their own actions.

But in any case, Mike and Dave embark on their hunt for these so-called nice girls, a search that unexpectedly goes viral and catches the attention of best friends Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick). Attracted by the idea of a free trip to Hawaii, the women put themselves on the brothers’ radar, and soon, the four of them are jetting off to the Hawaii resort. Unbeknownst to Mike and Dave, however, Tatiana and Alice are just as aimless and hard partying as they are, a mild lie of omission that becomes a springboard for hilarity and hijinks.

It may blow your mind to know that such a ridiculous sounding movie is actually based on a real-life event. Back in 2013, there really were two brothers who put an ad on Craigslist requesting dates for an all-expense-paid trip to their sister’s Hawaii-based wedding. As in the movie, the ad went viral, and the bros were even featured on the morning talk show circuit. While undoubtedly a fun little vignette from the more innocent days of the internet, it’s at first unclear whether this story has enough value to merit a feature-length movie adaptation.

I say this because for the first 60 minutes or so the film doesn’t give us anything to chew on. The story is flat. The characters don’t really have discernable goals. Perhaps worst of all, the film isn’t funny. Its early attempts at laughs mostly revolve around its characters being loud and lewd, as well as the crass, dated, borderline cruel humor I originally feared it might.

Being an artifact from 2016, for instance, it will surprise exactly no one that the film takes an early crack at someone who may or may not be trans or that it treats it’s one lesbian character as a complete joke and pervert. Yet both of these qualities pale in comparison Kumail Nanjiani’s utterly deranged cameo as one of the resort’s in-house masseuses, which is easily the most repugnant part of Mike and Dave‘s first hour. With this being a family blog, I won’t go into the details of what his scene entails. I will only say that if you are squeamish about inappropriate sexual behavior and racist stereotypes, you should fast forward or close your eyes, plug your ears and start chanting, “La, la, la, la.”

Yet luckily for sensitive 2025 viewers such as myself, this horrifying scene is also when the film finds its footing. Post-Nanjiani, the film finally takes the time to expand upon its characters. It fleshes out the flaws, fears and insecurities driving their behavior, which allows us to get more squarely in their corner. Such character development doesn’t just benefit Mike and Dave from a storytelling perspective. It also makes it far funnier. The film is then able to base its humor in who its characters are and how they react to various wild and wacky scenarios rather than in taking cheap shots at marginalized groups of people.

All of Mike and Dave‘s talented cast do a great job with this welcome change in direction, but the standout is undoubtedly Sugar Lyn Beard as Jeanie. Like most of its actors, she is largely squandered during the film’s first hour. But once given some actual emotional and comedic material to work with, she nearly runs away with the film. Her performance as a sweet, sunny yet very jittery bride-to-be provides the film’s later scenes with a deeply sympathetic center of gravity. In addition, its manic energy recalls Anna Farris and fuels some of Mike and Dave‘s funniest bits and set pieces, such as an extraordinary ATV accident and a bizarre clapping routine that comes out of nowhere.

At one point in Mike and Dave, Plaza’s Tatiana says to Devine’s defeated Mike that “You act all confident, but, inside, you’re scared of everything.” In many ways, this line also sums up the film itself. Like its protagonists, the film is initially defined by a swaggering superficiality and mean-spirited comedic style that often punches down. Yet similar to its central characters, the film eventually reveals a softer, more sensitive side that radically improves it. While nothing can fully negate its first hour, Mike and Dave’s eventual turnaround shows that redemption is possible even for a movie with icky, somewhat immoral qualities. All it takes is filmmakers being willing to grapple with their characters’ damaged and deeply unwell hearts.