NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Weekend at Bernie's" meets "Bridesmaids" in the raunchy comedy "Rough Night" (Columbia). The result is pure dreck.

Political candidate and bride-to-be Jess Thayer (Scarlett Johansson) joins her four best friends -- Aussie ditz Pippa (Kate McKinnon), overeager misfit Alice (Jillian Bell), social justice warrior Frankie (Ilana Glazer) and self-satisfied rich lady Blair (Zoe Kravitz) -- for a wild bachelorette weekend in Miami.

After doing shots and snorting cocaine, they summon a stripper (Ryan Cooper) to the house they've been loaned. But the fun comes to a screeching halt when Alice, who could afford to go on a diet, accidentally kills burlesque boy by impulsively jumping into his lap, overturning his chair and smashing the back of his head into the corner of a stone hearth.

As the quintet scrambles to hide the evidence, fearing -- for barely tenable reasons -- that the police will not believe their story, director and co-writer Lucia Aniello's film runs the gamut of smut. Early on, the script (on which Aniello collaborated with Paul W. Downs, who also plays Jess' nice-guy fiance, Peter) winsomely tips us off to the fact that, back in college, Frankie and Blair were lovers.

Later the screenplay introduces us to Lea and Pietro (Demi Moore and Ty Burrell), the randy swingers who live next door. Plot developments find Blair forced into an encounter with this duo while Peter, who knows that Jess is in some kind of trouble, dons diapers and chugs Red Bull for a marathon drive to Florida to save the day.

Along the way to the supposedly friendship-affirming conclusion, such inherently hilarious subjects as contraception, venereal disease and personal hygiene are milked for laughs. And, as Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman discovered all those years ago in the first movie referred to above, there's really no sight gag funnier than propping up a corpse.

The film contains strong sexual content, including aberrant behavior, nudity and a benign view of homosexual acts, cohabitation, drug use, some gory images, constant vulgar humor, several uses of profanity and pervasive rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.

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CAPSULE REVIEW

"Rough Night" (Columbia)

Raunchy comedy in which a bride-to-be (Scarlett Johansson) and four of her best friends (most prominently Jillian Bell and Kate McKinnon) find their wild bachelorette weekend in Miami marred by the accidental death of the stripper (Ryan Cooper) they hired to add to the fun of getting drunk and high. From the randy swingers next door (Demi Moore and Ty Burrell) to the lesbian relationship in the past of the fiancee's two other pals (Ilana Glazer and Zoe Kravitz), director and co-writer Lucia Aniello's film runs the gamut of smut as the quintet scrambles to hide the evidence, fearing -- for barely tenable reasons -- that the police will not believe their story. Pure dreck. Strong sexual content, including aberrant behavior, nudity and a benign view of homosexual acts, cohabitation, drug use, some gory images, constant vulgar humor, several uses of profanity, pervasive rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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CLASSIFICATION

"Rough Night" (Columbia) -- Catholic News Service classification, O -- morally offensive. Motion Picture Association of America rating, R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.