Rough Night (2 Stars)

You need three things to make a bachlorette party (called a hen party in England) successful: Kate McKinnon, cocaine and a male stripper. Actually, forget the cocaine, because if you have Kate McKinnon, who needs drugs? And come to think about it, who cares about the stripper, because Kate McKinnon is so funny that nobody will be looking at him.

At college Jess, Alice, Frankie and Blair were inseparable. But college doesn't last forever. Ten years later they've gone different ways. Jess is campaigning to become a state senator, Alice is a junior school teacher, Frankie is a political activist and Blair is a wealthy real estate agent. They meet again for Jess's bachlorette party in Miami. Jess also invites her new best friend Pippa, who is accepted by the other girls after a few drinks.

After partying in the clubs they go back to their rented beach apartment to celebrate in private. They get high and they phone for a stripper. The performance comes to a swift end when Alice jumps on his lap, the chair falls over, he bangs his head and dies.

It was just an accident, so the girls could have called the police, but that's not what they do. Jess is high on cocaine, so she's worried that it will harm her election campaign. The girls decide to get rid of the body, which isn't as easy as it seems.

What does the film have in its favour? – Kate McKinnon.

What does the film have against it? – everything else.

I love Kate as an actress, and she does the best she can with the film's dull script. Scarlett Johansson is a wonderful actress, but she has no talent as a comedienne. The film is trying its hardest to be funny, but it fails.

Even worse is that there's a serious interlude that starts after 75 minutes, where Tess confesses that she hasn't thought about her friends enough. In itself this would have been a welcome diversion in the middle of the unfunny comedy, but so late in the film? It's totally out of place, and it makes a bad film worse.

The film was moderately successful at the box office, possibly because of the actresses in the cast, possibly because of the romantic subject matter. I doubt many people enjoyed it in the cinema.

Success Rate:  + 0.4

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