Parents' Guide to

Rough Night

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Mature, over-the-top comedy is too dark to be truly funny.

Movie R 2017 97 minutes
Rough Night Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 17+

Based on 10 parent reviews

age 13+

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
age 17+

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (10):
Kids say (11):

To steal a quip from Roger Ebert (writing about 1998's more-than-superficially similar Very Bad Things), "this isn't a bad movie, just a reprehensible one." Rough Night wants you to laugh at things that are very much not funny (the deaths of three people), as well as things that used to be funny -- we've seen enough women acting up in films by now that the sight of them, say, snorting coke in a bathroom stall is no longer hilarious. Jokes about tampons: No longer funny. Gags that involve a chubby character accidentally bowling someone over: No longer funny. An extended sequence that involves a man "sad astronaut"-ing on a road trip (wearing adult diapers so that he won't have to make bathroom stops): Very very much no longer funny. Particularly since said man inexplicably wears nothing but the diapers in the car -- he wouldn't put on pants over them? No? Pants do fit over diapers. And was there a reason why he and his friends bought seven boxes (!) of diapers at the drugstore? Just how much was he planning to pee?

It's all a shame, because the actors are all strong, and the behind-the-scenes folks are truly talented: writer/director Lucia Aniello and co-writer Paul W. Downs (who also plays Peter) are two of the powers-that-be behind Broad City. How is it that these fresh, funny folks have created this over-the-top mishmash of cliches from other, better movies (chiefly Bridesmaids and The Hangover)? What went wrong? And how can we keep whatever happened from happening again? Because this misbegotten movie isn't just largely unfunny; it's almost depressing.

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