Zac Efron's at it again - travelling ever deeper into the typecasting ghetto. After That Awkward Moment, the Bad Neighbours movies and Dirty Grandpa, you'd think he'd have had his fill of the 'fluids and F-bombs' genre. If only. Whatever about the wedge, Efron really needs to put more of a value on himself, as do his co-stars - Adam DeVine, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza - in this naughty nuptials non-event.
Efron and DeVine play 'lovable rogue' brothers whose over-enthusiastic partying puts the kibosh on every family gathering. With their little sister's Hawaiian wedding coming up, the boys get the titular ultimatum from their folks.
After a craigslist appeal for two suitable ladies goes viral, bawdy misfits Alice (Kendrick) and Tatiana (Plaza) get the hair done, dial down the harpyness and try to pass themselves off as a stockbroker and teacher respectively. It works, and soon Alice and Tatiana are on an all-expenses-paid trip to tropical paradise. If the pretence lasts past night one it'll be a miracle.
Like many a family do, enjoyment of this could well depend on the amount of liquid entertainment consumed beforehand. Stone cold sober, Mike and Dave... throws up the odd bawdy laugh but all the best bits are in the trailer. While Efron and DeVine definitely have chemistry there's no truly standout gags in the package - no pun intended. As for their co-stars, you really feel like Parks and Recreation's Plaza is slumming it with Kendrick in the same predicament, and terribly miscast. What is an Oscar nominee (Up in the Air) doing in this?!
Writers Andrew J Cohen and Brendan O'Brien worked with Efron on the Bad Neighbours movies, but those scripts are like Animal House in comparison to what's on offer here. Just take it as a very bad omen material-wise that Efron's abs are shown in four separate shots in the opening montage.
This is one invitation you really should decline.
Harry Guerin
