New Year's Eve

Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Cary Elwes, Jessica Biel, Katherine Heigl, Hilary Swank, Ashton Kutcher, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, Seth Meyers, Common, Carla Gugino, Sarah Paulson, Til Schweiger, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Lea Michele, Ludacris, Hector Elizondo, Alyssa Milano, Matthew Broderick, John Lithgow, Larry Miller, James Belushi, Penny Marshall, Ryan Seacrest
Directed by: Garry Marshall
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Romance
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: A group of people in New York City celebrate New Year's Eve in different ways.

Review:

Tim: So, I didn't really enjoy Valentine's Day all that much. Garry Marshall certainly assembled a huge, impressive cast, but I felt like the film was a bit too cliched to be very good. Marshall directs a quasi-sequel here, with New Year's Eve. The idea is the same, the holiday is different. Once again, the cast is crazy good (perhaps even better than Valentine's Day), but this film suffers from many of the same flaws. As a whole, I felt like this film was equally as good as the first film (and maybe just a little bit better).

When you put together a cast this extensive (and look at the cast list- it is stunning), you always run the risk of not giving everyone enough screen time. That happens here, as some actors get short-changed, and others are just so good that you wish they could be on screen more. While it's less of a problem here than in Valentine's Day, it still happens.

With a movie like this, it really is all about the cast, so we'll spend a lot of time there. Perhaps the best storyline in the entire film involves Michelle Pfeiffer and Zac Efron. Pfeiffer plays a woman who never really achieved any of her New Year's resolutions, and hires Efron to help her go through her list in one day. I thought Pfeiffer did such a great job in her role. However, I was most impressed with Efron. I would not say I am a fan of Efron in any way, but he impressed me here. He brings so much youthful energy and passion to his role- it was fun to watch him on screen. He interacts well with Pfeiffer, and I liked him quite a bit- that surprised me.

Robert De Niro is criminally underutilized in this film. I really do not understand why he makes movies like this. Maybe he needs the money, but he is wasted in this film. He has a nice moment or two with Halle Berry, but Berry only has a few moments in the film. She has a nice scene near the end, but that felt a little to pandering to me, though. I really like Cary Elwes, but if you blink you'd miss him. I thought Jessica Beil and Seth Meyers had one of the least interesting stories. Both of them gave poor, forced performances, and I never believed them as a couple. Til Schweiger didn't do much for me, either. Their story was supposed to be so funny, but it just fell flat to me.

Hilary Swank was pretty good. She is a talented actress, and she does get a good deal of screen time to work with. I thought Katherine Heigl gave a weak performance. She forced it too much and I just did not believe her in the role. It doesn't help that she has to play opposite Jon Bon Jovi, who is not an actor (and that shows). Ashton Kutcher and Lea Michele have a few nice scenes together, but there's also a number of scenes that felt very cheesy to me. I really don't like Sarah Jessica Parker, but she did work well with Abigail Breslin, and I found myself enjoying their storyline more than I expected to. Josh Duhamel gives a good performance, and his story features some of the most intriguing aspects fo the film. There are still quite a few actors I haven't mentioned yet, but honestly, their roles are too small to make a difference. The cast isn't used to their full potential, but it is incredibly impressive regardless.

When you have a movie like this, it's hard to maintain consistency throughout each of the storylines. You have some that create powerful emotional moments. You have others that are boring, silly, or incredibly cheesy. The dialogue is often terrible. There were so many moments throughout the film that just made me cringe. Here is an example. Someone tells Swank that to fix the New Year's ball, they have to get Kominsky. Swank replies, "You mean THE Kominsky?" This is just lazy, awful writing. No one would ever say that in real life. Of course they are talking about the same person. How many Kominskys who work on giant lighted balls are there? The line was written that way to let the audience know this Kominsky was an important person (and probably would be played by someone recognizable). It's one example of the weak, stupid dialogue that really hurts this movie.

Now, after not really enjoying Valentine's Day all that much, I expected that I would like this movie even less. I suppose Garry Marshall deserves credit for at least creating a quasi-sequel that is just as good (if not a little better) than the original film (although, to be honest, the bar was not set particularly high). Still, while this isn't a good movie, there are at least a few good elements to it. I thought it was an average, run-of-the-mill film. I will say that despite the fun of seeing a massive cast like this in the same film, I hope this is the last holiday related film in this series.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Valentine's Day