BEST NIGHT EVER Review

Release Date: January 31, 2014 (Limited) December 26, 2013 (VOD)
Directors: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
MPAA Rating: R
Film Pulse Score: 2.5/10

Directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are previously known for their spoof movies such as The Starving Games, Vampires Suck, and Meet the Spartans, but they’ve attempted to branch off into a straight up comedy with their latest, Best Night Ever.  Unfortunately, like their goof spoofs, there’s little originality or humor here, and the end result is an unfunny and poorly crafted found footage version of The Hangover.

The film revolves around a group of friends heading to Las Vegas for an epic bachelorette party that none of them will soon forget.  The night beings innocently enough with a trip to the strip club, but after getting kicked out for touching a penis, the four girls get robbed and find themselves without any cash, IDs, or a way home.  Instead of having a panic attack and calling for help like a normal person would do, they decide to party even harder and things spiral completely out of control.

There’s plenty of full frontal nudity and cheap attempts at humor, but nothing really works on a narrative level.  The characters are one dimensional and unlikable, and the situations they get themselves into are wild, but disjointed and not uproariously funny like the filmmakers clearly intended.

Everything felt like it was borrowing from something else, be it The Hangover, Bridesmaids, Project X or even Spring Breakers, which resulted in a stale tone from beginning to end.  Having a large naked African American woman chase the girls down a hotel hallway may be shocking or funny to some, but for most it’ll just feel cheap and uninspired.

The found footage mechanic was also a lazy and uninteresting gimmick that didn’t add anything to the film what so ever.  Like so many other poorly crafted films using this style, Best Night Ever was plagued with technical incongruences that continuously interrupted my suspension of disbelief.  While I sincerely hope this is one of the last films to ever be shot in this style, I’m afraid that won’t be the case.

Many of the situational gags felt completely shoehorned into the film, and were absolutely ludicrous.  After they lose all their money, one of the girls decides to enter into a Jello wrestling contest, which they were able to find with no problem.  The fight results in the girls being kicked out of an ambulance, with the girl who was wrestling completely covered in blood with no clothes on.  The next sequence was an extended montage of them partying it up with seemingly no injuries or money issues.  Even if they somehow navigated their way back to the hotel with the $300 they won for participating in the event, it’s still incredibly hard to swallow.

Best Night Ever is a poorly thrown together comedy that contains almost no laughs and even less originality.  If you’re in the market to see a bunch of girls put on colored ski masks a la Spring Breakers and pee and poop on a guy’s face, then maybe this is for you.  Anyone else looking for a good time with a comedy it’s probably best to just rewatch the movies this one is ripping off.