Rough Night

If you’ve ever wished for a movie where the comedy is as unpredictable as the plot, Rough Night (released as Girls Night Out in some countries) might just tick the box for you.

Scarlett Johansson heads a lineup of undeniably talented actresses but despite the ensemble Rough Night is, to put it bluntly, a rough watch.

It is pitched as a black comedy that starts in 2006 with four besties in college. Swearing to be in each other's lives forever, it then quickly skips ten years ahead.

But before we delve into whether it's worth watching or not, let's find out what it is all about…

What Is Rough Night About?

As mentioned above, the film is set in 2016 and a lot has changed for the friends.

Jess Thayer (Scarlett Johansson) is running for Senate and engaged to Peter. Her best friend Alice has decided to throw her a bachelorette party in Miami, getting the old pals back together.

They are soon joined by Jess's Aussie friend, Pippa, played by Kate McKinnon. So the girls rock up to their Miami pad for a party but first are introduced to neighbours Lea and Pietro (Demi Moore and Ty Burrell) who are decidedly overly sexualised and creepy.

With the introductions out of the way, the girls head out for a night on the town. So far so good. Then one of them scores some coke and soon all five girls are dancing on tables and basically off their heads.

When they get back to the apartment they are joined by a guy they assume is a male stripper. But when he is accidentally killed (within minutes of arriving), the night soon turns very grim as the girls try to figure out what to do with the body.

Through a haze of crazy drug-induced antics, the women must figure out who to get themselves out of this very dicey situation. So can they?

Rough Night Official Trailer

Is Rough Night Worth Watching?

This is supposed to be a comedy about a wild bachelorette weekend, a sort of female Hangover if you like. But one that takes a ‘hilariously dark turn'. It isn't.

It starts off well enough even if all the characters are cookie-cutter cliches of a generic ‘group of friends'. Each has a lane and for the entire duration of the film, they stay in it.

With few funny moments, the jokes are shoe-horned into the script to bring a bit of lightness to the situation but they just fall flat. I mean seriously, almost none of them land!

And, despite being billed as a dark comedy Rough Night is neither funny enough nor dark enough to be either and just ends up being a scattered comedy with no direction.

Overall, the comedic talent of the cast is utterly wasted in this movie, especially Jillian Bell (Brittany Runs A Marathon). There are simply too many missed opportunities for the cast to really flex their comedy chops and the script lacks a level of cleverness that would have made it a really solid and entertaining movie.

It's the kind of film that if you skipped through half of it you would miss nothing.

There are far better ‘friends' movies out there such as Desperados, Bad Moms, Wine Country, Bridesmaids etc…

Rough Night Movie Cast

Scarlett Johansson as Jess Thayer

Jillian Bell as Alice who thinks she's Jess's best friend

Kate McKinnon as Pippa/Kiwi, who is still trying to make it as a singer-songwriter

Ilana Glazer as Frankie

Zoë Kravitz as Blair

Paul W. Downs as Peter, Jess's fiancee

Demi Moore as Lea, who lives next door

Ty Burrell as Pietro, married to Lea

Ryan Cooper as Jay, the fake stripper

Colton Haynes as Scotty McBody, the real stripper

Dean Winters as Detective Frazier

Enrique Murciano as Detective Ruiz

Bo Burnham as Tobey

Eric André as Jake