New Year's Eve Movie Blurb by Shale December 9, 2011 There is a lot of comparing this movie to last year's Valentine's Day. http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=392911&highlight=Valentine's&f=295 Not a coincidence with Gary Marshall directing both movies that were written by Katherine Fugate and at least four actors in both (Jessica Biel, Ashton Kutcher, Hector Elizondo and a kid, Sam Marshall). Sorta could be considered a sequel. And like Valentine's Day this is one of those movies with a large cast of known actors, (Michele Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert DeNiro, Halle Berry, Jessical Biel, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Sofia Vargara, Ashton Kutcher, Josh Duhamel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Hector Elizondo) with some like Matthew Broderick and James Belushi just making a cameo appearance. It seems a bit slower in the setup than Valentine's Day, but eventually we get around to see who all the players are and eventually, some of the separate vignettes turn out to be connected. The movie centers around the ball dropping at Times Square in NYC which Claire Morgan (Hilary Swank) is in charge of (Ya know it has to get stuck). While this is going on, bike courier Paul (Zac Efron) delivers some tickets to a distraught Ingrid (Michele Pfeiffer) and they get involved in her fulfilling a bucket list of New Year's tasks. Across town Stan (Robert DeNiro), a man with regrets is dying in a hospital and being cared for by Aimee (Halle Berry) a kind nurse. While Randy (Ashton Kutcher) a guy who hates the New Year hoopla gets stuck in his apartment elevator with Elise (Lea Michele) who is a backup singer in Jensen's band. Oh yes, there is Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi) who has some bad history with Laura (Katherine Heigl) the caterer of an event where he is playing. Well, there are just too many stories going on here to cover all of them. Needless to say they all get resolved within the two hours (That's what you want in this kind of movie). It is a light movie that I enjoyed, maybe not as much as Valentine's Day, which I am going to watch soon just to see how they compare. Some of the funniest scenes come as outtakes and gags in the end credits.
in my view, worst movie of the year. a roll call of celebrities who all seem to be here simply to pick up a check, a turgid script, irritating characters, mawkish sentimentality and a dull conceit (the ball dropping in times square, oh, it'd be so terrible if that didn't happen as THE WORLD IS WATCHING. seriously? i didn't even know that was a thing, neither did anyone else i asked.) in much the same way as "love actually" a load of seemingly unconnected stories designed to give a snapshot of one particular event, yet at least love actually had one storyline that actually made me willing to sit through the other seven to see how it turned out. i'm no enemy of overt sentimentality (Frank Capra is my GOD) but i found this really too much to bear, especially given the cynical undertones of the whole thing (more celebrities= garunteed return on investment.) robert de niro really seems to have given up, its such a shame. less than 1 star.
^I know I'm late to this, but I enjoyed it tremendously. I understand how opinions can vary and can definitely see how someone might not appreciate the movie as much as someone else, but I don't understand the seemingly confused lack of awareness of just what the ball drop is all about in the above post. If the ball got stuck in real life, of course it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would still tarnish the sentamentality of just what the occasion stands for in the first place. Anyway, I did enjoy the warm gooeyness this film provided by the bucketload.
Hated it, hated 'Valentines Day' hate it that Americans tried to do their own version of 'Love Actually'. Just leave it alone, please!
