Mike and Dave may not be for critics, but it is for those who want to laugh

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is the perfect kind of movie to be panned by critics who are way too uptight to be caught approving of such low-brow taste.

That said, it's also the perfect entertainment to kill a couple of rainy late-afternoon hours in Johnstown, New York.

Zak Efron keeps up his muscle-assisted winning streak after Neighbors (like this movie, written by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien) as a likable but self-admittedly dumb brother to slightly-more-annoying but still funny Adam Devine, who had a semi-funny 21-episode run on Modern Family.

Aubrey Plaza (Safety Not Guaranteed and Parks and Recreation) is always captivating. She and Anna Kendrick begin the movie as sleazeballs hoping to connive their way into a trip to Hawaii with the brothers, who have been forced by their parents to take nice dates in order to keep them from prowling the wedding for girls.

The girls turn likable, watchable, and funny after becoming nice. The movie has a surprising amount of laughs throughout, including an uproarious massage scene, an ATV ride in Jurassic Park, and a wedding speech/songs by the brothers at the end.

Perhaps what's most remarkable of all is that Mike and Dave is based on a true story about two brothers going to a wedding in Saratoga, New York who truly took out a Craigslist ad that went viral with hundreds of girls responding.

***1/2 out of ***** stars

Aubrey Plaza Film Career in Fits and Starts with The To Do List

Aubrey Plaza is one of the main reasons I have continued watching Parks and Recreation all these years. She's now making the leap to movies and it seemed like the first place I should start is The To Do List, which got fairly positive reviews.

She plays Brandy Clarke, a high-school valedictorian who is inexperienced in many ways. Based on all the things her more experienced sister and mother tell her, she creates a to-do list of sex moves to perform during the summer before college, culminating in going all the way with cheeseball hottie and lifeguard rocker Rusty Waters, played pretty hilariously by Scott Porter of Jason Street fame in TV's Friday Night Lights. Her conservative, Rush Limbaugh-leaning judge dad is also pretty funny, although nowhere near the league of Ted Knight's high-bar-setting Judge Smails in Caddyshack.

Despite the all-star cast, including Bill Hader, Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Connie Britton, and Andy Samburg, not many laughs stick, and some bits, like the Beaches song and Caddyshack poop-in-the-pool take-offs, are plain painful to watch.

Plaza's movie career is starting in fits and starts. Safety Not Guaranteed was good but not great. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was pretty average, and I don't think I can even consider watching Life After Beth.

Get it together April Ludgate. Parks and Recreation is about to end.

**1/2 out of ***** stars