Best Night Ever Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Best Night Ever Blu-ray Movie Review

Nasty as They Wanna Be

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 22, 2014

Few writer/directors are both as successful and as reviled as the team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the barrel-scraping auteurs responsible for Meet the Spartans and The Starving Games, among others. Their films have taken in over a billion dollars at the box office, but professional critics have united in pronouncing them a blight on the cinematic landscape. Condemnations in the key of "scourge", "charlatans", "comic terrorists" and "symbols of Western civilization's decline" are commonly applied. The mere announcement of their latest effort, Best Night Ever, elicited appellations of a similar but less articulate nature in the Blu-ray.com forum. One poster even called for their assassination, while a more temperate voice suggested that "cinephiles like ourselves" could afford to tolerate their existence, even though it was "painful" to do so.

All of this started me thinking about caste systems, which exist everywhere, and not just in societies formally organized around them. Among film fans, there are always certain filmmakers whose mere mention prompts instant scoffing by those who want to identify themselves as members of the cognoscenti. Uwe Boll occupied that slot for many years, and Ed Wood held a permanent place of honor until Tim Burton and Johnny Depp rescued him with their 1994 film. Right now, though, bashing Friedberg/Seltzer is an effortless way to advertise your cinematic taste, even if you wouldn't know the difference between Howard Hawks and Fritz Lang. One doesn't even have to see a Friedberg/Seltzer movie to judge it, since all they do is crank out cheap parodies of other movies, right?

Wrong. Best Night Ever isn't a parody. It's a comedy about a bachelorette party gone wrong, obviously influenced by The Hangover trilogy and Bridesmaids, but shot as if it were a video diary by one of the bachelorettes. This puts the film squarely in the style of the YouTube generation that has been the mainstay of Friedberg/Seltzer's audience. For that matter, it brings them one step closer to those internet "cinephiles" who often post YouTube clips on forums like these.

Best Night Ever takes the form of a video diary kept by Zoe (Eddie Ritchard, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark), who is the best friend of bride-to-be Claire (Desiree Hall, Teen Wolf). Zoe wants to preserve the bacholerette party organized by Claire's older married sister, Leslie (Samantha Colburn, Shirin in Love) so that they'll all have something to remember when they're old and gray. The diary and the film begin in the car being driven by the fourth member of the group, Janet (Crista Flanagan, who had a famous incident with a John Deere mower in Mad Men). Janet is Claire's dog groomer, and for her this outing is a longed-for opportunity to cut loose, because she recently gave birth to twins. Zoe just broke up with her boyfriend, making her the only member of the group who is free to indulge in a casual fling (at least in theory).

Leslie, whose husband is rich, has arranged a luxurious weekend with a penthouse suite at one of Vegas' top resorts, with concert tickets to see Celine Dion, spa treatments and the works. But a snag separates the quartet from their hotel reservation, and a shoe convention has monopolized the rest of the hotel. Taking charge of the group, Janet books them into a fleabag on the outskirts of town, where hookers and frat boys seem to be the main clientele. Scanning the room with a blacklight reveals things the ladies would probably be better off not knowing.

The evening goes downhill from there, especially after Claire receives a "butt-dialed" call from her fiancé and hears things in the background that suggest his bachelor party is much wilder than he let on. Throwing all restraint aside, Claire decides to go wild herself, which turns out to be a dangerous move with this group. Janet's bad judgment has already been revealed in her selection of hotels. Both Leslie and Zoe are sitting on secrets that any responsible sister or friend would have shared before departing for an adventure in Sin City. Like all toxic secrets, they will burst out at the worst possible moment.

Just because Friedberg/Seltzer are doing original material for the first time doesn't mean the team has suddenly acquired good taste. Their humor is as crass as ever. Though it may be hard to believe, Best Night Ever is their first R-rated movie, and they take full advantage of the freedom. Language is unrestrained, and there isn't a bodily excretion, including breast milk, that doesn't factor into a routine at some point, as pills get popped and drinks are swilled. (But no cocaine; the attempt to secure it leads to some of the group's worst troubles.) Several scenes feature full frontal nudity, both male and female, though none of it involves any of the four leads. A girl's gotta have her standards.

Some of the bits are funny, some are cringe-worthy, and some are jaw-dropping, in the sense of "I can't believe that just happened!" But many of the best moments are G- or PG-rated throwaways, especially scenes of the ladies interacting with Vegas crowds in largely unscripted encounters involving bachelorette hijinks. Much of this footage was shot on the run and without permits, and the reactions are spontaneous. (Presumably some PA went back and got signed releases after the fact.)

Are there injuries? Minor. Property damage? Of course. Stupid behavior? That's what it's all about. There's a scene near the end of the film where the ladies are all sitting together battered and bruised, wearing the battle scars from their night out, still recording Zoe's video diary. But they're also laughing: at themselves, their stupidity and the chaos of life in general. They've shared something unique and indelible, and as intertitles flash their futures across the screen, the film's title seems strangely apt. Each of them will no doubt have better nights in the future, but this is certainly the best night they could ever have shared.

Best Night Ever Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Best Night Ever was shot by Friedberg/Seltzer's usual cinematographer, Shawn Maurer (who also has other credits to his name, e.g. Black Dynamite ). To create the film's homemade video style, Maurer employed a variety of digital cameras, including the Canon AX10, the Panasonic GH2, the GoPro system and the Sony EX3. The four main cast members frequently served as operators, and editor Peck Prior (who also cut Bridesmaids ) had to construct sequences out of various angles to sustain the illusion that the whole thing had been recorded by Zoe's iPhone.

The image on Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray looks far superior to the usual presentation of films made according to the "found video" aesthetic. It no doubt helps that every location in Las Vegas is brightly lit, so that the only sequence with a deliberate "night vision" style occurs in a dumpster (don't ask). And since iPhone cameras are generally top quality, no one seems to have felt the need to degrade the image to sustain the illusion of a video diary. Except in shots that are jerky or breaking up because the person holding the camera is running or falling, the image is generally sharp, and detail is exceptionally good, just slightly less than one would expect from a professional digital capture. Faces in crowds, the sights and sounds of Vegas and the increasingly disheveled state of the four leads are easy to spot. The color reproduction is also impressive; the filmmakers made the correct decision not to intensify the palette in post-production to bring out the glitz of Vegas, but to leave the hues at the level where an iPhone would be likely to record them. The blacks are somewhat underwhelming, but that is consistent with the source and its style.

The average bitrate of 23.84 Mbps is a good compromise for this digital film, which has a lot of crazy motion and intentionally "unpredictable" breakup. Scenes like the lengthy sing-a-long (you'll know it when you see it) probably allowed the compressionist to conserve bits for more demanding sequences like the gelatin wrestling.

Best Night Ever Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Consistent with its "video diary" aesthetic, the film's 5.1 soundtrack, presented in lossless DTS-HD MA, is largely front-oriented with little use of the surround channels. They are used primarily to open up the sound of the musical selections, which are all source-based. There is no underscoring, but a lot of the music in clubs is loud with good bass extension. Dialogue is clear, and the sound effects, many of which undoubtedly had to be added later, have real impact. (I can't be more specific without spoilers.)

Best Night Ever Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1; 7:13): The scenes aren't separately listed, but it's easy to figure out where they would have fit. Most aren't so much deleted as alternate, including a scene that suggests a version of the ending involving more severe injuries.



• Interviews (1080i; 1:78:1)
• Desiree Hall (2:54)
• Samantha Colburn (3:00)
• Crista Flanagan (2:35)



• AXS TV: A Look at Best Night Ever (1080i; 1.78:1; 2:54): This is the usual brief AXS TV promo, using excerpts from the interviews listed above.



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:22): "The hangover will be the easy part."



• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment: The disc includes trailers for Journey to the West, Alan Partridge, The Last Days on Mars and Big Bad Wolves, as well as a promo for AXS TV. These also play at startup, where they can be skipped with the chapter forward button.



• BD-Live: As of this writing, attempting to access BD-Live gave the message "Check back for updates".

Best Night Ever Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

During its brief and limited theatrical release, Best Night Ever logged a total of thirteen reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, all of them negative, giving it a perfect score of zero. (The audience rating, by contrast, was 65%.) I wonder how it would have fared if had been released under pseudonyms for the writer/directors. There's nothing so cheap or disgusting in Best Night Ever that I haven't seen its equal in the American Pie films, Bridesmaids or any number of other raunch comedies. But mention the names Friedberg/Seltzer, and it's as if everyone has to cross themselves, throw salt over their shoulder and spin around three times. They're so busy warding off the creators that they've missed the film. Yes, Friedberg/Seltzer are schlock filmmakers, and no, Best Night Ever isn't a work of genius, but the film kept my attention and made me laugh—and I give credit where it's due. Not recommended for self-professed "cinephiles". Others may want to take a look.