Scarlett Johansson's failed Hangover rip off was bad (Rough Night movie review)
Scarlett Johansson s Hangover rip off is a
disaster
Let me propose a movie to you. Alright, now
hear me out, it s about a group of friends,
huh? one of them is kinda crazy eh? Who go
on a trip to celebrate an upcoming marriage
only to get in over their heads in zany situations?
Sounds like the hang over! Rough Night starring
Scarlett Johansson, yup, just what we were
all thinking.
This 2017 Hangover rip off is well shot, well
directed and lined with a star studded cast
so why does it still sucks?
Quite simply, it isn t funny.
Which is surprising because the cast is great.
Scarlett Johansson, obviously, great actor,
she can make you care about the back story
to a Russian super spy, Jillian Bell is amazing,
she s one of my favourite characters in Workaholics
and absolutely killed it in 22 Jump Street.
But the jokes just consistently fail to deliver,
it s like this whole film had to be insulated
in packing peanuts and bubble wrap, they always
toe that line into the world of dark black
humour but never fully commit to it.
Johansson plays Jess, this politician running
for state senator, and along with her college
best friends, they go to
Jess s bachelorette party. The real plot device
is Alice accidentally killing, who they think
is a stripper, by jumping on him, causing
him to fall, hit his head and dying. 30 minutes
into the movie!
Which brings me to pacing, because the pacing
in this movie sucks, especially for what it
s trying to be. Scenes just drag on for too
long and completely kills any of the humour
left in the bland carcass of a joke.
At the beginning of the movie, when Jess and
her forgettable friends meet up at the airport
they open a bottle of champagne at the terminal,
which sounds exactly like a gun shot, like
exactly like a gunshot. Of course this causes
everyone to freak out, but this one joke is
just stretched out so thin, like the script
is just trying to beat you over the head with
it, telling you it s time to laugh. And it
s literally just jokes like that for 30 minutes
before we get to the dead body scene.
In the Hangover, as silly as it is, the characters
have a pretty compelling reason to do what
they do. Doug is missing, which forces them
to find him and hijinx ensues. Events happen
to them and are mostly out of their control,
it s the other in-universe characters or unfortunate
events that is the impetus for everything
that happens, we empathise with the characters
and the situational comedy they find themselves
in because we don t think it s their own doing,
the jokes are subtle, and blended into the
dialogue.
There s a myriad of reasons why they might
not have been able to pull this off with an
all female cast, most of which is outside
of the confines of a movie review, but some
of it goes back to the commitment issues I
mentioned earlier, see, good comedy comes
from a place where we feel like the person
telling the joke is punching up not down.
They are presented as unattractive, out of
shape and what some people would consider
a beta (god I hate using that term) personality.
Stu is a great example of this, his friends
don t respect him, his girl friend doesn t
respect him, going so far as to have had sex
with another man, and we see the world through
his eyes, like he s in on the joke while simultaneously
being on the receiving end.
In Rough Night, Jess s husband is this effeminate
clingy guy, that drives from Washington DC
to Miami because he s a 6 and she s a 20.
We never feel empowered to laugh at the characters
which is a problem because the comedy in this
is trying to get you to laugh at them. It
would be like if the Hangover consisted solely
of Bradley Cooper, it frankly just doesn t
work when your lead role is never shown as
the butt of a joke, which Rough Night really
does making Jess this untouchable, got her
life together, soon to be, state senator.
This translates to a flaw in the premise as
well, the Hangover sets Alan up to be a bit
of an outsider from the get go, he s established
as being kind of unhinged so him setting up
the movie can be kind of expected, which adds
to the rest of the cast being victims of circumstance,
When the ladies in Rough Night accidentally
kill this guy and try to dump the body all
of them are just cool with it, it s through
their collective will that they are caught
up in a pile of shit of their own doing, which
is more frustrating than anything.
I think you know how this movie ends, everyone
lives happily ever after. The only problem
with that is, they got away with murder. In
the Hangover there is a sense of cathartic
relief, they find Doug, Stu flips out on his
horrible girl friend and all is well at the
wedding. In Rough Night they just get off
Scott free because the dude they killed turned
out to be a jewel thief, Jess has her wedding
in Miami, while the rest of the cast get hit
on by various men, including Bo Burnham. Even
at the end, it s like the script just refuses
to make a joke at the cast s expense, they
re always shown to be on a pedestal.
All in all, Rough Night is an easy but boring
watch, they had all the right makings of a
good adult comedy, but failed or were scared
to go all the way with it. A Rough Night is
definitely a rough watch, and not really worth
your time even if you are enticed by a great
cast, a cast that couldn t save themselves
from this boring, bland, script.
As always, if you enjoyed this video consider
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more content like this, if you have any suggestions
of movies I should watch, good or bad, I m
always open to them. Thanks for listening
to my rant.
