Jungle
Rough Night

Rough Night

Movie
Director(s): 
Genre: 
In Theatres: 
Jun 16, 2017
Grade:
C
Running Time: 
101 minutes

Bridesmaids is the quintessential bachelorette film just like The Hangover is the quintessential bachelor film. Many films have tried to replicate them but most have failed. Rough Night attempts to follow the same formula and while there are some great laughs in the film, it fails to capture the same magic that Bridesmaids had.

 

After years apart, upcoming bride-to-be Jess (Scarlett Johansson) is reuniting with her old college friends (Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz) and her Australian friend (Kate McKinnon) for her bachelorette party in Miami. Things go from wild to even wilder when a night of drugs and dancing turns to murder after they accidentally kill the stripper. In a panic, they decide to try and hide the body, but things only go downhill from there. It’s a weekend they won’t soon forget but for all the wrong reasons.

 

Rough Night follows the typical format of most bachelorette films; a group of normally chill friends get together and go absolutely crazy with their shenanigans, resulting in major screwups where their true feelings about each other come out into the open that they must then mend before the film ends. The film is entirely predictable and does little to deviate from this path; there’s nothing special about it. That being said, I did find myself laughing at the humor and halfway decent cast.

 

Both Kate McKinnon and Jillian Bell absolutely carry this film. Kate’s Pippa is the odd woman out as she’s the only friend of Jess’s who didn’t go to college with the group. As Jess’s best friend, Bell’s Alice feels threatened by her so there is definite tension throughout the film. McKinnon brings her A-game to all her roles and Rough Night is no different. Everything is outrageous, from the copious amount of penis and sex jokes to the Weekend at Bernie’s style of antics. It’s lowbrow humor, but there are some good jokes to be found.

 

Where the film struggles is with its characters who are not named Pippa or Alice. The character development for Rough Night is practically non-existent so there’s little reason to care about anything that’s going on. Scarlett Johansson is especially bland as Jess, which is a shame because of her leading status. Everyone’s just going through the motions, from one scene to the next.

 

Rough Night may be rough around the edges, but there are still laughs to be had. Unfortunately it’s not the next Bridesmaids, which is so desperately attempts to be. It’s a raunchy, mindless comedy; nothing more, nothing less.

Matt Rodriguez
Review by Matt Rodriguez
Follow him @ Twitter
Friend him @ Facebook