New Year's Eve - Hilary, Bobby, Zac and co ring out the same old same old

Romance blossoms, reconciliations occur and resolutions are made and fulfilled as midnight approaches on New Year's Eve in New York in this star-studded ensemble comedy-drama.

Robert De Niro is the dying hospital patient hoping to see Times Square’s famed Ball Drop one last time and Hilary Swank is his estranged daughter, who just happens to be in charge of the event. Rock star Jon Bon Jovi wants to win over angry ex-girlfriend Katherine Heigl. Ashton Kutcher’s slacker gets stuck in a lift with backup singer Lea Michele. Cycle courier Zac Efron helps mousy record-company worker Michele Pfeiffer tick off the items in her list of unfulfilled dreams.

And so on and on. The stories are cheesy, all the stars overact and the direction (from Garry Marshall, maker of previous ‘date’ movie, Valentine’s Day) is disgracefully slack, but if you’re watching in a spirit of holiday goodwill then its fuzzy warm-heartedness is passably entertaining.

 

Released on Blu-ray, DVD & Triple-Play  by Warner Home Video on Monday 3rd December.

Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.