It’s Dec. 31 and we follow the stories of Robert De Niro as a terminally ill man; Halle Berry as his kindly nurse. Then there’s odd couple Michelle Pfeiffer and Zac Efron, anxiety-ridden Hillary Swank, ex-lovers Katherine Heigl and Jon Bon Jovi and even Ryan Seacrest pops up playing – who else? – himself. Have we left anyone out? Probably. There are more stars here than in the heavens, but rest assured, by the end of the movie, stories have woven together and no hearts are broken.
Ratings
- Richard: 1⁄2
- Mark: *
Richard: Mark, this mishmash of easy sentiment, romance, illness, musical numbers and product placement flip-flops from story to story so often, it’s like a five-year-old grabbed the remote and is wildly channel surfing. It’s not so much a movie as it is a cavalcade of familiar names in situations geared to make you understand why everybody hates Dec. 31. Am I being too cynical?
Mark Breslin: Oh, Richard, what’s the matter with you? You mean you don’t like shoddy writing, implausible plot lines, cameos masquerading as script development, and a general tone of emotional manipulation? The movie screams “BOGUS” from the opening “inspiring” shots of the Statue of Liberty to the hack credit roll outtakes.
You know what’s odd? I kind of liked Valentine’s Day, the earlier, funnier, more touching version of this Garry Marshall shmaltzfest. Here’s a challenge: did you find anything to like?
RC: Well… let me see. I thought Zac Efron was passably charming and a couple of the outtakes at the end are funnier than anything contained in the actual movie. But there are Walmart commercials with more real emotion than director Gary Marshall manages to bring to this manipulative mess.
MB: And I didn’t mind the scenes between Ashton Kutcher and Lea Michele. Trapped in an elevator, at least the movie slows down long enough for a few real moments to break through. And Larry Miller was funny as the tow truck operator.
But back to the travesties: Russell Peters hiding behind an accent he swore he’d never do; Michelle Pfeiffer’s stupid bucket list; Robert DeNiro’s bathetic hospital scenes; but the worst was Hilary Swank’s “love” speech to the assembled Times Square multitude.
I’ve lived in New York, and believe me, the crowd wouldn’t have applauded politely – they would have hurled obscenities at her. Which would have been a much better scene!
RC: It certainly is a New York-centric flick. Even NYC mayor Bloomberg gets into the action.
By the time he kicks off the New Year’s Eve countdown with the words, “Let’s drop the ball,” its already abundantly clear that Garry Marshall already dropped the ball with this movie.
MB: Very funny, Richard!
I think a better version of the movie would have been scenes of Garry Marshall convincing all those Hollywood stars to work for a fraction of their rate card.
