Best Buddy Games You Should Have To Watch In 2021
Buddy Games is a 2019 American comedy film written by Josh Duhamel, Bob Schwartz, and Jude Weng and directed by Josh Duhamel in his solo directorial debut.
Author:Elisa MuellerReviewer:James PierceNov 14, 202110.1K Shares242.4K Views
Buddy Games is a 2019 American comedy film written by Josh Duhamel, Bob Schwartz, and Jude Weng and directed by Josh Duhamel in his solo directorial debut. The film, which was produced by Duhamel, Michael J. Luisi, and Weng, follows a group of six friends who reconnect after a five-year break to take part in a series of dares and games in order to assist one of their own overcome depression while also having a chance to win $150,000. Duhamel, Dax Shepard, Olivia Munn, Kevin Dillon, and Neal McDonough are among the cast members.
The agreement with WWE Studios was first revealed in June 2017, with the cast joining soon after and shooting starting two months later in Vancouver. The film had its global debut at the Mammoth Film Festival in 2019, and Saban Films bought the US distribution rights in July 2020. The film got generally poor reviews from reviewers, with the storyline, director, and characters receiving the brunt of the criticism.
Buddy Games Movie Subject
Buddy Games is about the unbreakable bond of everlasting friendship, yet one might be excused for mistaking it for the long-term effects of psychological anguish and physical assault. To clarify, the film follows a group of ostensible friends who compete on a daily basis in a series of humiliating and debilitating activities.
After a few years apart, which seems to have been the greatest thing for all of them, they reunite for one last spectacular. To put it another way, Josh Duhamel's directorial debut is a prolonged act of retreat in almost every aspect, beginning with a terrible competition and a slew of poor choices. The end effect is irritating, aggravating, and frustrating.
Every year, Bob (Josh Duhamel) and his pals get together to play the BUDDY GAMES, a series of ridiculous tasks in which the winner has crowned the champion. After an accident leads to a split and a five-year hiatus from the games, Bob arranges a reunion, raising the stakes to $150,000 for the winner.
Buddy Games Cast
Buddy Games - Movie Review
Josh Duhamel
Joshua David Duhamel is an American actor and former model. He made his acting debut as Leo du Pres on the ABC daytime serial opera All My Children, and subsequently featured as Danny McCoy on NBC's Las Vegas, after doing numerous modeling jobs.
Olivia Munn
Lisa Olivia Munn (born July 3, 1980) is an actress and former television personality from the United States. Munn moved to Los Angeles after working at a news station in Tulsa, where she started her professional career as a television presenter for the gaming network G4, mainly on the show Attack of the Show! from 2006 until 2010.
She was also a reporter on Jon Stewart's Daily Show from 2010 to 2011. Munn is well recognized for her role as Sloan Sabbith in Aaron Sorkin's HBO political drama series The Newsroom (2012–2014). She was featured in all three seasons of the show.
James Roday Rodriguez
James Roday Rodriguez (born April 4, 1976) is an actor, director, and screenwriter from the United States. He is best known for his role as Shawn Spencer, a hyper-observant consulting detective and phony psychic on the USA Network sitcom Psych. In 2018, he starred in the film A Million Little Things, which was released in theaters.
Kevin Dillon
Kevin Brady Dillon (born August 19, 1965) is an actor from the United States. He is most known for his roles as Johnny "Drama" Chase on HBO's Entourage, Bunny in Platoon, and John Densmore in The Doors. For his role in Entourage, he was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.
Dan Bakkedahl
Dan Bakkedahl (born November 18, 1969) is an improvised comedian and actor from the United States. He is most known for his roles as Tim Hughes on Life in Pieces on CBS, Congressman Roger Furlong on HBO's Veep, and Steve Nugent on FX's Legit.
Sheamus
Stephen Farrelly (born January 28, 1978) is an Irish actor and professional wrestler. He is now contracted to WWE and competes under the ring name Sheamus on the Raw brand.
He is the first Irish global champion in WWE history, as well as the three-time United States Champion and a five-time tag team champion with Cesaro (four Raw and one SmackDown). He also won the 2010 King of the Ring tournament, the 2012 Royal Rumble match, and the 2015 Money in the Bank ladder match, becoming just the second wrestler (after Edge) to accomplish all three feats.
Dax Shepard
Dax Randall Shepard (born January 2, 1975) is an actor, comedian, writer, director, and podcast presenter from the United States. He's been hosting Armchair Expert, a podcast that asks celebrities, journalists, and academics about their lives, since 2018.
Nick Swardson
Swardson, Nicholas Roger (born October 9, 1976) is an actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, and producer from the United States. He is most known for his recurrent role as Terry Bernadino in the comedy series Reno 911!, as well as his work with Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions and Nick Swardson's Pretend Time.
Neal McDonough
Nicholas Roger Swardson (born October 9, 1976) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He is most known for his recurring role as Terry Bernadino on Reno 911!, as well as his work with Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions and Nick Swardson's Pretend Time.
Jensen Ackles
Jensen Ross Ackles (born March 1, 1978) is an actor, singer, producer, and director from the United States. He is most known for his role as Dean Winchester in The CW's horror-fantasy series Supernatural, although he has also featured in programs such as Days of Our Lives as Eric Brady (for which he received multiple Daytime Emmy Award nominations), Dark Angel as Alec/X5-494, and Smallville as Jason Teague.
He also supplied the voices of Jason Todd in the animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood and of Batman in the animated version of Batman: The Long Halloween. He also acted as the protagonist in the box office hit My Bloody Valentine 3D.
Buddy Games-Film Review
This is a sometimes hilarious stupid picture produced for guys that feels a lot like the type of film Adam Sandler produces or the kind David Spade stars in. It's full of men doing manly things like whacking each other in the testicles or making each other drink surreptitiously loaded drinks. It's a bloke thing.
Josh Duhamel, a likable actor, makes his directorial debut with this comedy, in which he also co-wrote the screenplay and acts. He tells us in the film's press notes that he's always wanted to direct and that creating a script felt like a logical place to start.
The issue is that he appeared to believe the best approach was to examine all of the Jackass and Hangover films, as well as the 2018 comedy Tag, and take the worst aspects from each. The upshot is another paean to stalled male youth, which should be required viewing at convents to keep nuns from considering abandoning their chastity vows.
Duhamel portrays Bob, nicknamed "The Bobfather," who leads his similarly immature pals through the titular exercises. The plot starts with the above-mentioned tragic event, which was performed on Shelly (Dan Bakkedahl) by one of the characters.
Cut to five years later, when Bob has a lovely girlfriend (a shamefully wasted Olivia Munn) with whom he exchanges obscene double entendres in front of his old parents. He's also very wealthy, which allows him to reinstate the buddy games at Shelly's mother's request, as she believes it's the only way to help her son recover from his suicidal despair.
Among the bawdy and sometimes violent antics, there aren't many laughs, and the characters are all either completely annoying or hardly defined. This wouldn't be a problem if the games themselves were funny, but Duhamel and his two co-screenwriters (yep, it took three to come up with this) seem to have exhausted the testicle joke. Perhaps the one with semen-laced Pina Coladas.
It's an understatement to suggest that the performers, some of whom have done excellent comedic work in the past, don't stand out here. Even if you walk away wishing he hadn't, Bakkedahl, who has been funny in cleverly crafted television comedies like Veep and Life in Pieces, gives an indisputably vanity-free, no-holds-barred performance.
In Buddy Games, Shelly (Dan Bakkedahl), Bob (Josh Duhamel), Zane (James Roday), Doc (Kevin Dillon), Durfy (Dax Shepard), and Bender (Nick Swardson) are shown from left to right. Ricardo Hubbs is the photographer for this image.
The old friends reunite, but much has happened in the five years since they last saw each other. Doc is bored, Durfy has gone to California after receiving too many comments on his appearance and is pursuing his Hollywood aspirations, Zane has a secret, and Bender has blown through inheritance and is now living in his van. It seems that they all need to renew their connections and claw back some of their younger selves' enthusiasm. Many of the competitive rounds envisioned for these games and this video are entertaining, reminiscent of the sorts of big-kid activities you would enjoy playing with your friends.
You get into quad bikes and giant balls and roll across obstacle courses. Some are based on Dumb and Dumber antics, such as a dare in a pub after each guy has consumed a bottle of laxative to get a lady to dance with them before the laxative kicks in.
Bender and Shelly, the shooter and the shot, have the two strongest character arcs in Duhamel's screenplay, and they have a lot of relationships to rebuild and a lot of healing to accomplish. Except that none of them is very pleasant, to begin with, and they aren't thereafter. Swardson and Bakkedahl, who play them, give off a Buffalo Bill feel. The Silence of the Lambs (from The Silence of the Lambs).
Like his picture, Duhamel's screenplay is nearly good enough, but not quite. There are lots of enjoyable moments, with some characters that you connect to and others that are underdeveloped or one-dimensional. It's as if Dillon's character didn't exist at all.
Buddy Games - Movie Review
Elisa Mueller
Author
James Pierce
Reviewer
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