New Year's Eve
Published 2014-01-02
Film info
- Title New Year's Eve
- Director Garry Marshall
- Year 2011
- Run time 1hr 58m
- Genres Romance, Comedy
- Tagline The one night anything is possible
- Cast Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Biel, Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Katherine Heigl, Abigail Breslin, Sarah Paulson, Héctor Elizondo
Director/producer Garry Marshall is joined by a stellar ensemble cast to ring in the 2011 holiday season with the romantic comedy 'New Year's Eve.' The film celebrates love, hope, forgiveness, second chances and fresh starts, with intertwining stories told amidst the pulse and promise of New York City on the most dazzling night of the year.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:51 | These films are like those people that just name drop all the time. |
| 4:15 | Can't believe there's a reward for giving birth to the first baby of a new year. What a random thing! |
| 5:54 | "It's not a kick, it's a core tenet of my being." |
| 7:48 | That's my kind of wedding! |
| 11:34 | "It's like Facebook... but real!" |
| 15:11 | The magical confetti is just some guys throwing stuff off the roof, how old school. |
| 20:42 | I'm gonna bet a billion dollars, Halle Berry takes him up on the roof. |
| 26:54 | I wonder if they got to mess about with the actual ball. |
| 30:30 | Ava is the best. She needs a spin-off. |
| 39:22 | I didn't think charm schools were a real thing. |
| 45:58 | The ball is not as big as I thought it would be. |
| 47:52 | What is that amazing mini city she is walking through? I want to go there! |
| 48:57 | "You can't move midnight." |
| 56:37 | Rolling news: "The ball is still in a state of stuck." |
| 1:02:17 | The whole thing about meeting her last year and then again this year is just so weird. But deffo romantic. |
| 1:08:09 | Lea Michele is singing. Shock horror. |
| 1:12:37 | I need this kind of help with my life list! |
| 1:24:30 | "We girls, we have a handbook." As if. |
| 1:31:00 | That may be the first time we've seen a clock. |
| 1:32:41 | Dessert in parachutes is about as genius as it gets. |
| 1:43:06 | Is it wrong that I quite like Piper's mum? |
| 1:48:03 | Bonus Robert Downey Jr in a Sherlock poster. |
Thoughts
One of those films in the Love Actually strain, and one of those that I have to be in exactly the right mood for. New Year's Day was the perfect time, because my brain was too fried for Sherlock, but just about right for nonsensical romancey stuff.
Surprisingly, I really quite liked this. It took me a while to grow fond of Love Actually, and now I am, these American versions are harder to like. The Valentine's Day one didn't go down well with me at all.
This felt a little more cynical than other attempts, and the stories were slightly more disparate than they should have been, BUT I liked it. I made all these predictions about how obvious the stories were, and I barely got any of them right.
The sous chef and the courier were both brilliant characters, and guessing who was going to turn up at the end was also quite fun. It wasn't the greatest film ever, but it was more entertaining than I thought it would be!
Rating: 4 / 5
Revisited - Dec 2015
Watched this on New Year's Eve, as I suppose one should! I liked it a lot more the second time round, although much of what I said above still stands. The characters seemed more disparate and their relationships shoe-horned in, as opposed to something like Love Actually, where it all feels a lot more naturally interlinked.
Since discovering my inner emotional self, I did end up with a few tears in my eyes - mostly when Abigail Breslin's character turned around and her mum was right there for her, and of course when Zac Efron decided to come back at the end. I really love their story, it could almost make a whole film in itself. Spin off!
Rating: 4 / 5