The 10 Best Bachelor Party Movies
From How to Murder Your Wife to The Hangover, these are the best films about the night before the big day.
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The bachelor party—the one last night out or weekend away with the boys before you're a married man—is supposed to celebrate friendship, good memories, and the end of the bachelor lifestyle before the wedding. It's a tradition that dates back to the 5th century BC, and the Spartan night of toasts and lavish meals has (as movies will have you believe), evolved into a night of disaster that starts out fun and ends by almost ruining your life.
Strippers, heavy drinking, a trip to Vegas, a collapse of emotions, constant danger—these are the new bachelor party traditions, and the movies have found every way imaginable for them to go horribly and hilariously wrong. Though it feels as if the massively successful The Hangover trilogy both started and ended the genre, there's a good amount of '80s Tom Hanks romps, excuses for Paul Giamatti to get red in the face, and even '60s Jack Lemmon slapstick comedies devoted to the big event.
Below, we've found the 10 best bachelor party films to learn what not to do before you or your best bud ties the knot.
Bachelor Party
An early bright spot in a career that would go on to be full of them, here Tom Hanks stars as the unassuming Rick, a betrothed who, the night before his wedding, is taken out for one last wild night with his friends.
Last Vegas
Three old friends (Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, and Morgan Freeman), travel to Las Vegas to celebrate their pal (Kevin Kline) who is the last of the four to get married. Upon arrival, though, they quickly realize that their decades spent apart, and Sin City, have aged greatly.
Sideways
Though remembered as the wine movie that killed Merlot sales, Sideways's messy, drunken road trip through the Santa Ynez Valley takes place right before Thomas Haden Church's character is about to be married. One final romp through the grapevines.
American Wedding
The third entry in the American Pie series, Wedding sees its stars—Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan)—as they are finally getting married. But the big night can't occur before Stifler's bachelor party of sexual escapades and obnoxious behavior has its due.
The Hangover
The massive success of The Hangover not only juiced up the careers of Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, and Bradley Cooper, but gave guys getting tired of quoting Anchorman a new favorite movie. After a drug-induced wild night in Vegas involving tigers, Mike Tyson, and a sunglass-wearing baby, the three must find their now-missing friend before his wedding day.
The Hangover Part II
The gang gets back together for another crazy bachelor party in the sequel, this time changing the location to Bangkok, the celebrity cameo to Ken Jeong, and the baby to a chain-smoking monkey. Arguably the better title, the film was marketed as Very Bad Trip 2 throughout most of Europe.
Very Bad Things
Very Bad Things is a dangerous and dirty film starring Jon Favreau, Cameron Diaz, and Christian Slater, about a stripper who is accidentally murdered and buried in the desert. Can the bachelor party group live with the guilt, or will it haunt them forever?
The Best Man
In this 1999 romantic comedy, directed by Spike Lee's cousin Malcolm D. Lee and starring Taye Diggs and Nia Long, a novelist's upcoming book that reveals deep secrets of the man he just agreed to be the best man for gets passed around.
How to Murder Your Wife
After accidentally marrying the woman who steps out of a big cake at a bachelor party (it makes more sense when you see it!), cartoonist Stanley Ford (Jack Lemmon) concocts a scheme within the pages of his newspaper comic of how to kill his wife and get back to his life as a bachelor.
Rough Night
Why let the boy have all the fun? Rough Night's ensemble cast of Scarlett Johansson, Jillian Bell, Kate McKinnon, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz proved that under the same circumstances, women go all out in the name of hilarity just as well.
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