Rough Night

Let's be honest here...Rough Night is probably the most unoriginal idea to hit theaters this summer. It has the storyline of Peter Berg's 1998 film Very Bad Things with a Weekend at Bernie's twist. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon and Zoe Kravitz, the film's star power seems to have no shortage but the film's screenplay doesn't know what it wants to be. There are far too few thrills to classify it a thriller and, as far comedy is concerned, it is severely lacking. So we're given this cookie-cutter film that does its job (more or less).

The film opens Hangover style, it introduces us to the gang of girls as they make their way to the bachelorette weekend to end all bachelorette weekends. Scarlett Johasson plays the bride to be while her bridesmaids are either overly sexual or prudes. There is not much of an in-between. No character felt real. They all felt like they were written specific to this event and that really didn't bode well with me. In a situational comedy like this, it helps to have a character we can relate to. This film really doesn't have a relateable character, just mere pawns in the film's game. The story itself moves pretty well through it's self proclaimed rough night but doesn't really latch on to you as a viewer. You're pretty much there to watch the ride...nothing else.

The cast here is probably the best part of the film. Between the gravitas Johansson brings to the screen and the intrigue of Zoe Kravitz and the off the wall banter from Kate McKinnon, it would be a lie if I said they weren't at least fun to watch. The problem the film has is its dialog. If the film's goal wasn't to promote feminism and a pro-female image, I'd say it is passable. But the film portrays women either as sex-crazed drunkards or uptight prudes and coming off of Wonder Woman, this film seems like a slap in the face. Maybe it is poor timing or maybe it is true, only time will tell.

Overall, the film isn't horrible. It features good performances from Kate McKinnon and Scarlett Johansson and makes the best of its boderline terrible script. It sustains its 101 minute runtime and fills them with countless penis jokes (Jillian Bell relies on them annoyingly too much) and features some decent moments of situational comedy that could have landed way better but they still land nonetheless. Either way, it is a passable film but not one that I'd recommend spending money to see in the theater.

Much better than Charlie's angels, and that got higher reviews. Think perhaps most of the low reviews on here are from the same people who didn't appreciate the all female 'ghostbusters'.

There are loads of negative reviews on this film so I'm here to give a slightly more positive one.

I enjoyed this film. I thought it was funny, entertaining, and the plot was not too predictable. Also, the acting was very impressive.

I watched this on a saturday night, and it made my evening very enjoyable. It's not supposed to be an intellectually challenging film, it's supposed to make you laugh. And it made me laugh a lot. The jokes were well played out, and the main characters were phenomenally acted, and sure- some of the jokes were immature and childish but that was part of the charm of this movie.

Based off of all of the other reviews I had read before watching I was expecting a really mundane film and it wasn't. The plot line was interesting, and even though there were one or two serious scenes I was still very much hooked on what was going on.

This film made me properly laugh out loud, and I really did enjoy it. Sure it wasn't incredible cinematography, and it didn't leave me thinking about the meaning of existence like many of Johanssons more notable films, but it was very enjoyable, and I would watch it again with friends. In fact, this film for me was even with how much I enjoyed bridesmaids, and maybe it's because I love Kate McKinnon and Scarlett Johansson, but I still think that despite the negative reviews this film deserves more love as the laid back comedy it is.

This was pretty stupid wasn't as good as the hangover & to me it wasn't all that good...if you seen one you seen them all...super impractical & if you seen 1 you seen them all. Can't believe Scarlett J. Starred in this crap lol There were so many parts that was just super idiotic & not funny....only a couple of parts that were a little funny...super cheesy in general...if there is nothing else to watch sure but I would hate to know I spent money to watch it

I love TV show Broad City and was looking forward to this because two of the creatives behind that show paired up to give us Rough Night. The generic title (a switch from Move that Body which was much more suitable) should have warned me. Rough Night is forgettable and not really that funny.

The movie starts out in 2006 where a group of 4 friends get drunk at Halloween, win a beer pong competition and vow to stay friends forever. Fast forward 10 years and the group is reuniting for Jess's (Scarlett Johansson, bland, bland, bland, comedy is NOT her forte) bachelorette weekend at a fancy house in Miami. They party, snort coke, are joined with Jess's Australian friend Pippa (Kate McKinnon in a role that MUST have been written for Rebel Wilson. Surely?). Her friends decide to get Jess a stripper and here is when things go wrong: high on coke they accidentally end up killing the stripper and things quickly spiral out of control as they first try to do the responsible thing of calling the police and then move on to hiding the body.

There was minor protests before the film being released about the movie making a punchline of killing sex workers but the film could have overcome this and he gruesome premise if not for a few things. First of all the women lack friendship chemistry. I don't believe any of these women were ever friends even if a big part of it is that they are supposed to have drifted apart. Second the casting is all awful. Scarlett is not a comedy actress and neither is Zoe Kravitz and it shows. Without being backed up by her hilariously crafted Broad City alter ego Ilana Glazer comes across as simply annoying. Kate McKinnon and Jillian Bell are probably the best with their characters but neither one is given much to do. McKinnon just leans hard into her accent and Bell is saddled with a "loser desperate friend who can't take a hint". The third thing is that the movie never quite finds it's tone. It struggles between "woke" dialogue for characters who are actually just mean and instead of simply leaning into the fact that these women are awful and allowing them to get even more absurdly awful it's way too protective of the characters and keeps trying to redeem them by making them "nice" people. It's both incredibly boring and keeps the movie from really flying.

Still, Rough Night isn't a total write off. There are enough funny lines and a subplot (involving Jess's fiancé who the movie allows to get into REALLY ridiculous shenanigans) to be watchable. Just wish that the script would have let the ladies turn loose too.