New Year's Eve (2011)

So with Christmas gone, what do have to look forward to now? Well, the New Year of course! And what better film to review for New Year’s then...’New Year’s Eve’?

Featuring an all star cast including Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Zac Efron, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Alyssa Milano, Seth Myers, Ashton Kutcher, Hilary Swank, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Lea Michele, Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, Common, Hector Elizondo, Til Schweiger, Mathew Broderick, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, the Joker, Batman, Bane, Rudolph, Donner, Blitzen, Cupid, Thor, Spiderman, Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes...okay, Han Solo onwards don’t appear in this film, but it eventually becomes easier to list who isn’t in this film. Much like director Garry Marshall’s last film ‘Valentine’s Day’.

And there lies the major problem in this film; there’s too many cast members and, therefore, too many characters. It also falls into the same problem as ‘Contagion’ because of this; because of there being so many characters, we have so many different plots. So, here’s pur list of plots for this film:

1.      Claire Morgan (Hilary Swank) is put in charge of the ball drop for New Year’s, enlisting the help of her cop buddy Brandon (Ludacris). On the night, the ball breaks down and they have to bring in Kominsky, some sort of...electrician messiah.

2.      Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer) is almost run over and comprises a bucket list, enlisting deliveryman Paul’s (Zac Efron) help.

3.      Kim (Sarah Jessica Parker) plans to stay in with her daughter Hailey (Abigail Breslin), but Hailey sneaks out to celebrate with her friends and boyfriend.

4.      Randy, who hates New Year’s, gets trapped in an elevator with Elise (Lea Michele), who is a backup singer for;

5.      Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi), who is trying to win back the heart of jilted ex Laura (Katherine Heigl).

6.      A terminally ill cancer patient (Robert De Niro) wants to go to the roof of the hospital to see the ball drop before he dies, but Nurse Aimee (Halle Berry) and Nurse Mindy (Alyssa Milano) keep him company.

7.      Griffin (Seth Myers) and pregnant Tess (Jessica Biel) compete with another pregnant woman (Sarah Pulson) and her husband (Til Schweiger)

8.      Sam (Josh Duhamel) is to deliver a speech, but has to make his way to the city after he crashes his car. He also plans to meet up with a woman who he met last New Year’s, but she left a note telling him to return that year if he’s serious.

And guess what? Like ‘Contagion’ the flow of the film keeps being broken up by the constant scene changes, some of which were there simply to remind the audience that the characters were still there. Seriously I remember five scenes, at least, that only lasted five seconds before it immediately jumped to another character. Seriously, when a film is trying to do multiple plots, three is pretty much the best choice; plenty of differentiation and plenty of time to go deeper into that plot. Here, they keep switching scenes so much which makes the viewer frustrated, just wanting the film to resolve side plot number seventeen finally.

 

And, because of this, there’s no plot. It’s trying to do ‘Lost in Translation’, but the thing is, that was good. Here, the film just drags along with no particular aim in sight. I did feel it had potential, but it lacked that kind of sparkle, it was being held back. There were some pretty funny scenes though.

Strangely enough though, I actually found myself liking these characters and their plot points. Why? I have no clue. It certainly wasn’t the acting, with a majority of the cast, with the exception of Bon Jovi, Kutcher, De Niro and Duhamel, looked like they couldn’t be bothered with what they were doing. Especially Sarah Jessica Parker, Halle Berry and Ludacris, they gave the most awful performances I had ever seen.

And it certainly wasn’t the characters themselves. Let’s take Paul for instance, he says he’ll help Ingrid only because she said she’ll give exclusive tickets to some rubbish. Then at one point he’s on the phone saying Ingrid was effectively crazy, apparently not being aware that his voice is ECHOING IN THE GIANT ROOM.

And apparently, Paul and Kim are siblings. With an age gap of 22. You know, I know it can happen, but what are you smoking if you think you can get me to believe that Zac Efron and Sarah Jessica Parker are siblings in this. Kim also makes a big deal of celebrating New Year’s with her daughter, but then it turns out that she is the one who is going to meet up with Sam. If you were meeting up with Sam at midnight, why did you make a big deal of spending New Year’s with your daughter?!

Then there’s the battle of who can get the first New Year’s Eve baby, guess what? I don’t care! Seeing these people squabble over something so minor is just awful to watch. Well, I say awful, it’s $25grand. Why on Earth is the hospital doing this? Even members of staff say it’s disgusting!

Then there’s the love development between Randy and Elise, which went from “I hate you” to “I love you” in the space of a couple of hours. Okay, it’s a long time they spent together, but I still found it hard that they fell that much in love with each other in such a short amount of time. And when Elise does some singing, it was at the exact same time that Bon Jovi was singing. Now, Bon Jovi’s performance at this time I could believe, since he was surrounded with equipment for him to sing with. Elise then gives us a performance which was obviously done in a studio, which was laughable. I’m sure Michele can sing, she is from ‘Glee’ afterall, but it just sounded like she was dubbed by a completely different singer. And she has the luckiest career progression EVER. From backup singer to replacing Bon Jovi in ONE NIGHT!

 

So yeah, I have my flaws with this film. Is it a bad film? Oh yes, but do I like it? Surprisingly yes. I found the characters interesting and their mini plots as equally appealing. I suppose it’s because I went into this with really low expectations, and that normally results in a film being more enjoyable.

But yeah, in all honesty the characters are bland, the acting is second-rate, especially for such an ensemble cast, half the scenes are infuriatingly bad and the plot is nonexistent, but I didn’t find it as bad as people say it is. You may like it, but it’s highly unlikely.