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New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve Review
2.5/4 stars
Occasionally, when my cupboards are a little bare and I haven’t had the chance to get to the grocery store, I will rummage through my refrigerator and try to come up with a creative masterpiece to put in front of my family for dinner. That’s kind of the premise behind the movie “New Year’s Eve”, the latest concoction of director Gary Marshall. I’m not saying it’s unfit for consumption, but the chance of anyone wanting seconds is going to be rather small.
THE GOOD: If you happened to catch Mr. Marshall’s production of “Valentine’s Day” from last year, you may be aware that there seems to be a trend happening here: Place as many big name stars in one film and name it after a beloved Holiday. That pretty much sums up both of the plot lines, because, there really ISN’T any. And I suppose that when you have people like Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Josh Duhamel, Hilary Swank, Jon Bon Jovi, Jessica Biel, Zac Efron, and Sarah Jessica Parker (and that is just naming a FEW of the beautiful faces that parade by on the screen) agreeing to be part of your creation, you can fool yourself into thinking that an actual plot is unnecessary. Okay, okay, there was a plot. Well, more than one actually. And therein lies one of the major downfalls of this film, which I will of course go into detail about in the next section. As the title of this section implies, we will stick with discussing the high points of the movie. First, let me assure you that there ARE some great comedic lines, and a very nice unexpected central story line that belongs to an almost unrecognizable Michelle Pfeiffer, and Zac Effron, who has come a long way from his days of High School Musical. Halle Berry does a wonderful job of portraying a nurse whose sweetheart is overseas in the military, and of course, being the fan of 80’s hair bands that I am, any movie with Jon Bon Jovi earns a few extra points as well. Kudos to the writers for having Jon play a rock star who goes by his last name—Jensen. Where did they come up with such a unique and charming idea? In any case, he played the part with ease, and as an added benefit, we all get to hear him sing a couple tunes.
THE BAD: This is where I get to tell you and Mr. Marshall what I didn’t like about this movie----TOO. MANY. PEOPLE. Look, I appreciate the idea of being able to see so many stars in one long procession. The cast reads like a talent agent’s dream Christmas card list. But the problem with having so many big names is that NONE of them get to truly shine. I would seriously be surprised if any of them had their own trailers during the filming. Their on screen time was so limited they probably just shared the locker room of a local NYC health club. Instead of having their meals catered, I imagine a gofer just handing them all a plastic baggy with trail mix. You get what I’m saying: A lot of people, not a lot of time in front of the camera. And it’s really a shame because some of the story lines deserved to be bigger. I would have thoroughly enjoyed understanding what caused Michelle Pfieffer’s character to be so worn down that she resorts to asking a hot bike messenger half her age to help her achieve her bucket list before the year is over. On the flip side, there were story lines that could have dropped out COMPLETELY and no one would have missed them….I’m talking to YOU Josh Duhamel and Ryan Seacrest. I was so bored by a couple of the plots that it was almost painful for me to sit still and not let out a whimper.
THE UGLY: I would like to believe that Michelle Pfieffer’s character was given the once over by a makeup artist to look as haggard as she did because , wow, I honestly didn’t realize it was her for the first 20 minutes of the movie. But the true “Yikes!” award goes to Cary Elwes as the caring doctor. You will remember him as sweet Wesley from the Princess Bride, but Wesley looks to be a little worse for the wear now. It’s difficult watching our beloved favorite actors get older—mostly because that means we probably don’t look as good as we used to either.
Overall, ‘New Years Eve’ is a nice mindless way to spend an evening with friends or a significant other. It’s kind of like having leftovers---you won’t be raving about it afterwards, but it served it’s purpose.
The Trophy Wife gives this movie 3 trophies.
New Year’s Eve has a running time of 1 hr and 57 minutes and is rated PG13 for for language, including some sexual references (F word used once)
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