The Night Before | Film review - Gross-out trio's festive scrapes are crass, mawkish and annoyingly smug | Movie Talk | What's on TV

The Night Before Seth Rogen Anthony Mackie Joseph Gordon-Levitt.jpg

(Image credit: SARAH SHATZ)

A Christmas Carol for stoners, this raunchy seasonal comedy stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie as a trio of childhood friends who have decided to call time on their tradition of riotous Christmas Eve reunions. Before they do so, however, they are determined to enjoy one last drug-fuelled night of high jinks and to locate a fabled party known as the Nutcracker Ball.

Along the way, they get into typical gross-out scrapes and have a series of run-ins with Michael Shannon’s bug-eyed pot dealer (the best thing in the movie). Like some of co-producer Rogen’s other recent movies, The Night Before strives to combine slapstick tomfoolery with sober life lessons but ends up being crass, mawkish and annoyingly smug.

Certificate 15. Runtime 97 mins. Director Jonathan Levine

The Night Before is available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD from 28th March from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As1zja2shsA

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.