Rough Night – Film Review

Rough Night is co-written and directed by Lucia Aniello. The film loosely borrows their plot from the 90’s movie Very Bad Things, the Christian Slater flick where a prostitute is killed at a bachelor party, The Hangover; for obvious reasons, and Bridesmaids for melding in the antics and hilarity of women prepping themselves for their friend’s wedding. It takes all these plots and tries really hard to be funny.

The film centers on bride-to-be Jess (Scarlett Johansson) and her group of old college friends who band together to throw her the bachelorette party weekend of her dreams. The crew heads to Miami to let their hair down and help Jess get crazy. Alice (Jillian Bell), is the trip planner and considers herself to be Jess’ bestie. Then there’s Frankie (Ilana Glazer), the token lesbian and activist who’s on house arrest and Blair (Zoe Kravitz), the Posh Spice of the group with a sleek bob haircut and tailored outfits. Blair used to date Frankie; and is now in the middle of divorcing her son’s father. Lastly, there is Pippa (Kate McKinnon) Jess’ friend from Australia, who is a bit kooky with a bohemian flair to her.

Now that we got the characters straight, the film goes where we expect it to go, crazy night out. The crew takes a ton of shots, wears the typical pink bachelorette sashes around town, and does a ton of cocaine like they are reliving their college years. At the end of the night they decide to order pizza and a stripper. One thing leads to another and the stripper ends up dead. Simultaneously, Jess’ fiancée Peter (Paul W. Downs) is having his own bachelor weekend with his pals, and it’s full of wine tasting and talking about their feelings.

I feel like this movie had so much potential to be absolutely amazing and funny, comedy of the year, but instead it just fell lackluster and overdone. It’s a big mash of craziness. I absolutely love the majority of these actresses, Glazer is hilarious, Bell is so funny in the way that she says her lines with dead pan sincerity, and McKinnon delivers every single time. Unfortunately, the plot fell short and left us wanting something a little more original.

The best part of the film were the cameos by Demi Moore and Ty Burrell, you have to see it to believe it, they were comical to say the least. I feel like this movie would be fun to see with girlfriends for a night out, actually, more like a Netflix night-in. I don’t think anyone needs to rush out the door to see this one.

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Zoë Kravitz, Ilana Glazer, Kate McKinnon, Paul W. Downs, Ryan Cooper, Ty Burrell

Directed by: Lucia Aniello

Written by: Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs

MPAA rating: R

Running time: 101 minutes

Rating: 3