Regardless of the fact that Bachelorette was an off-Broadway play and a hot script well before Bridesmaids came out, the comparison is unfortunately unavoidable. Every single review seemed to be primarily hoping to contrast the two. Bachelorette is a good or bad movie insomuch that it’s funnier or darker or more genuine or less genuine or grosser than Bridesmaids. Overall the reviews are split on the subject, resulting in a 49 on Metacritic and 50 on Rotten Tomatoes.
On one hand you had people like the Miami Herald claim: “The film is…less bloated than Bridesmaids — a comedy is always more nimble at 90 minutes than two hours — and it’s less maudlin, too.” NPR took it a step further: “The picture is less self-congratulatory than the movie to which it will inevitably be compared, Bridesmaids…instead of telegraphing its ‘Girls can be raunchy, too!’ message every minute, Bachelorette simply allows its characters’ ids to run naked and free.” The critics who liked the movie liked that it was pure, unadulterated grossness. It had no pretense of being anything but a big broad hard-R comedy.
Though most critics enjoyed parts – like the cast and a scene in which Lizzy Caplan’s character espouses on the art of blowjobs, which Rolling Stone called “time-capsule worthy” – the people who didn’t like it really wished it was Bridesmaids.
Where Bridesmaids had real heart, this movie is absolutely empty at its core. And while we don’t need realism in a broad comedy, a little plausibility would be nice.
Unfortunately, Bachelorette has nowhere near the heart or humanity of that 2011 hit, despite cramming twice the crude humor into a much smaller package.
It isn’t what you’d call fun — it’s not Bridesmaids 2.
And so on.
It’s unfortunate that these movies are linked but they are. If you thought Bridesmaids was too long and its shitting scenes were too commonplace, then Bachelorette might be your jam. Especially if you like a whole bunch of cocaine in your jam.
