MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES

Call it "insane and insaner."  Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is a comedy where everything is loud, over the top, and pretty predictable.  The fact that it's loosely based on a true story doesn't diminish any of that at all.

Mike Stangle (Adam Levine) and his younger brother Dave (Zac Efron) are amazingly close: They live together, they work together selling beer, and they party together at all their family events.  The latter is is a problem, as they get each other worked up and wind up causing mayhem and destruction.

The latter is a problem for Mike and Dave's parents (Stephen Root, Stephanie Faracy), who are concerned that the brothers' antics will ruin the upcoming Hawaii wedding of their sister Jeanie (Sugar Lyn Beard) and Eric (Sam Richardson).  The parents want the brothers to bring "nice girls" to the wedding, to keep them calm.  Mike and Dave's Craigslist search for dates (offering a free trip to Hawaii) goes viral, even getting them an appearance on TV with Wendy Williams.

Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick) are best friends and wrecks: Alice is an emotional wreck after being left at the altar, and the pair are always drunk or stoned, broke, unemployed, living in squalor,and pretty much out of control.  They see Mike and Dave's offer as a free vacation, so they make themselves out to be nice girl (a teacher and a hedge fund manager) and get Mike and Dave to invite them to the wedding.

Once everyone's in Hawaii, things quickly get out of control.  Mike keeps pursuing Tatiana, who keeps him at arms length; she's also pursued by Cousin Terry (Alice Wetterlund), who has a rivalry with Mike.  Alice seems to be falling for Dave, but all the wedding festivities have her somewhat traumatized; she also somehow becomes best friends with Jeanie.  And while Tatiana and Alice are always drinking and cursing, somehow they're loved by all and the brothers get blamed for any problems.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is pretty much what many summer movies are but shouldn't be.  There is zero subtlety here, from Adam Levine shouts his lines to the most over-the-top sex scene since The Bronze to virtually all the characters curse up a storm from start to finish,  The story is utterly predictable (wacky hijinks, wedding in peril, self-awareness, redemption, happy ending) and none of the jokes are great or memorable.   I like a lot of the cast here, but the occasional chuckle doesn't make up for the majority of this movie.

Overall grade: C-
Reviewed by James Lynch

THE TO DO LIST dvd

There are plenty of teen comedies that revolve around sex -- but what about one where the "teens" are in their 20s and 30s, and where the movie may or may not be a parody of teen movies, and the decade when it's set?  The To Do List is a comedy that spends as much time spoofing the teen comedy genre as telling jokes.

Set in Boise, Idaho in 1993, The To Do List revolves around Brandy Klark (Aubrey Plaza), who just graduated from high school with complete academic honors -- and the reputation as a control freak and a virgin.  She's not interested in partying or boys, until her friends take her to a kegger and she becomes infatuated with Rusty Waters (Scott Porter), a musical good-looking hunk who barely noticed Brandy.  Of course,  Brandy has a nice, geeky friend named Cameron (Johnny Simmons) who Brandy considers just a friend and lab partner.

Brandy writes up a "scam list" of sexual activities to do with assorted people, leading up to her losing her virginity to Rusty.  There's also Brandy's summer job at a pool, run by stoner Willy (Bill Hader) and working with Rusty and Cameron.  There's Brandy's older, obnoxious, sexually experienced older sister Amber (Rachel Bilson), her conservative father Judge Klark (Clark Gregg) and far more liberal mother (Connie Britton).  There are numerous cameos by talented comedic actors, including Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Andy Samberg, Donald Glover, and Jack McBrayer.  There are Brandy's numerous sexual experiments, a prank duel with a stuffy rival pool, and fights between Brandy and her friends.

Did I mention that this movie is set in the early 1990s?  The soundtrack could be a greatest hits collection of songs from the 1990s, characters talk about watching Beaches on VHS, and there's plenty of grunge and Pearl Jam music.

It's hard to know what to make of The To Do List.  This isn't a parody along the lines of Not Another Teen Movie, but it does revel in so many cliches of the teen movie that is comes quite close to parody.  Aubrey Plaza is nicely weird and uptight as the lead, but the cliches are hard to ignore and get tiresome after a short while.  There are some funny moments, but overall The To Do List is a bit disappointing.  (The DVD has several extras, including deleted scenes, commentary, and thoughts from director Maggie Carey.)

Overall grade: C-
Reviewed by James Lynch

LIFE AFTER BETH dvd

Young romance can be tough to navigate -- especially when one of them is undead.  Life after Beth takes on the tribulations of a rocky relationship, tossing in zombies just for fun.

When we meet Zach (Dane DeHaan), he's in mourning.  His girlfriend Beth Slocum (Aubrey Plaza) had been hiking alone when Zach didn't want to go with her, and she got bitten by a snake and died.  Zack's gloom isn't helped by his parents or militaristic brother Kyle (Matthew Gray Gubler), so he spends more and more time hanging out with Beth's parents.  Geenie Slocum (Molly Shannon) is generally positive, while Maury Slocum (John C. Reilly) plays chess and shared weed with Zach.  When Zach confides that he and Beth were having problems, Maury advises him to focus on the good, not the ending.

Zach is surprised when Maury and Geenie stop taking his calls.  Investigating, Zach is more surprised to find... Beth!  At first Zach assumes that her family faked her death, but the truth is stranger:A few days after her funeral, Beth dug her way out of her grave and returned home.  Zach is concerned that Beth might be a zombie, but Maury is thrilled that she's been resurrected ("Like Jesus!") and wants to keep her hidden,

Eventually Zach comes around, seeing this as a chance to do everything with Beth that he didn't do before.  Soon, he's trying to get her out of the house, while Maury is becoming the overprotective dad who only wants his daughter doing things at night.  As for Beth, she's changing: She forgets a lot of things, she gets jealous and violent, and she's super-strong and impervious to pain.  Soon Zach starts experiencing the same problems he and Beth had before -- plus wondering if she's going to eat him.  Also, other people start turning up and acting like Beth...

Life after Beth is an interesting little idea that isn't really explored.  While Aubrey Plaza is suitably weird as the ex-girlfriend whose return is full of pitfalls, the movie starts too slowly and Dane DeHaan isn't that funny.  John C. Reilly does a good turn as the overprotective father, but Molly Shannon doesn't have much to do.  There are some funny moments through the later parts of the movie, but it doesn't go beyond the basic joke of what it's like to be dating a zombie.  I liked Life after Beth sometimes, but it doesn't come close to Shaun of the Dead as a brilliant zombie comedy.  (Dvd extras include deleted scenes and commentary.)

Overall grade: C+
Reviewed by James Lynch