Rough Night (or as it was released in some countries Girls’ Night Out) is a 2017 American comedy film that was directed by Lucia Aniello (in her feature debut) and written by Aniello and Paul W. Downs. The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Zoe Kravitz, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, Paul W. Downs, Ty Bureell, and Demi Moore, and follows a bachelorette party that goes wrong after a male stripper dies.
Originally scheduled to be released on June 23, 2017, Rough Night was moved up a week and was released on June 16, 2017. The film ended up grossing $22.1 million in the United States and Canada and $25.2 million other territories for a worldwide total of $47.3 million against its production budget of $20 million. In North America, the film was released alongside All Eyes On Me, 47 Meters Down, and Cars 3, and was initially projected to gross $10-14 million from the 3,162 theaters that played it during its opening weekend. However, after making just $3.4 million on its first day (including $700,000 from Thursday night previews), weekend projections were readjusted to $9 million. It ended up debuting to $8 million and finishing seventh at the box office. In its second weekend, Rough Night had grossed $4.7 million (a drop of just 40%) and finished eighth at the box office.
The Film Itself (3/5):
I went into Rough Night with zero expectations and completely blind outside of the information that’s available from the synopsis on IMDB and ended up ultimately being glad that I didn’t pay full price for this movie. Presented in a similar manner of the films of the Hangover trilogy, we are given a look into the potential craziness that can happen at bachelorette parties with a slight attempt at humor. Overall, the film wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that great. Personally speaking, I’m really not the biggest fan of Jillian Bell and her performances; and she has a decent amount of attempted jokes that were pretty bad with only a couple that were even chuckle worthy.
Picture Quality (4.5/5):
Presented in 1080p, Rough Night looked absolutely beautiful as it played out across my living room television. Offering a really clean and clear look into the glorious lights of the clubs in downtown Miami as Scarlett Johansson’s character and her crew make their way along the boardwalk. The overall colorization of the movie was cleanly done, bright and really offered a nice clean look into everything that happened within the story. One part that really stood out visually were the whites and overall cleanliness of the hotel room that they shared. These particular scenes were considerably bright and clean and I found them to be really appealing to the eye.
Audio Quality (4.5/5):
Packaged with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track, Rough Night does everything that it can within its power to offer an all out immersive experience for its viewers. Doing a really nice job at placing the audience in the middle of everything with its use of the rear and surround channels, my wife and I were able to completely hear everything as it was happening without having to adjust the volume levels on our receiver whatsoever. The only part of the audio track that really stood out was that of those scenes that took place with hip-hop music in the background as the bass track really made my living room floor shake.
The Packaging (2.5/5):
Rough Night comes packaged in your standard single disc Blu-ray amaray case. Within that case is the standard Blu-ray copy of the film, the disc featuring no artwork that’s relative to the film whatsoever outside of the standard release text. There are no DVD copies included with the film, however a digital copy redemption pamphlet was included. A slipcover has been provided with this release during its initial pressing. Unfortunately, my copy does not include a slipcover as this was purchased second-hand at Family Video.
Special Features (2.5/5):
There are decent number of additional items that have been provided on the Blu-ray release of Rough Night. However, the included special features aren’t very fruitful by any means and offer an extremely limited look into the film and the work that went into its production. There should have been at least a feature audio commentary included, or even some behind the scenes footage in a “day with the cast” style that have been seen on other movies, and much, much less additional attempts at comedy.
- Deleted Scenes
- Scandalous Sing-Along
- Naughty Neighbor Diaries
- Gag Reel
- Improv-o-rama
- Killer Cast
- The Dynamic Duo: Lucia & Paul
- Playing Dead
- Do A Little Dance
- Theatrical Previews
Technical Specs:
Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French (Canada): DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Portuguese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English, English SDH, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Final Thoughts:
Overall, Rough Night wasn’t a horrible experience, however it really wasn’t all that great. This movie is pretty much a re-hashing of the films of the Hangover trilogy; but, with a completely different series of events that unfold as the primary cast party in celebration. The attempts at humor really weren’t the greatest. Sure, there were a couple of items that made my wife and I laugh a little bit, but most other attempts were really bad. The overall picture quality of the film was nicely done, as well as its immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The additional content that’s been provided was mostly not needed, especially the various attempts at additional humor from the cast. The special features really don’t offer much in terms of the work that went into the film. If you’re considering grabbing this film for your collection, I can’t really recommend it all that much. But, if you do decide that you’re going to grab it for your collection, I can only recommend grabbing it from a retailer like Family Video or maybe finding it at the Pawn Shop for a price that’s significantly less than retail. Right now, Family Video online is only offering the DVD, but they may have it available in one of their physical locations.
Andrew reviewed the 4K UHD release of this film back in September. If you’d like to hear his thoughts, you can check them out here.