Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Python Hyena New Year's Eve (2011): Dir: Garry Marshall / Cast: Hilary Swank, Katherine Heigl, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro: Embarrassing followup to Valentine's Day, which was an okay film in itself, but this garbage is unbearable at best. We have several stupid subplots including a contrived encounter in a stalled elevator where idiotic romantic suggestions are made. Hilary Swank is assigned to host the dropping of the ball in New York. For an actress who has won two Oscars, this is a sure way to drop the ball to crush your own career. Katherine Heigl plays a chef whose musician ex-boyfriend is back in town to attempt to reconnect and nobody gives a sh*t. The dumbest subplot involves two pregnant women who, along with their husbands, are in a race to see who can give birth first so to win a large amount of cash. Watching this unfold made me wonder if people during pregnancy really act this pitiful. Michelle Pfeiffer is also giving a less than thrilling appearance as a woman who quits her job and seeks help from a young man in making all of her new year's resolutions come true. One of those resolutions should be to fire her agent after taking part in this orgy of shame. Robert De Niro plays someone in a hospital whose big wish is to watch the whole New Year's fiasco. Garry Marshall had greater success with Valentine's Day but here he is totally off the radar. While the film is well made technically, it is so embarrassing that one could only hope that one's new year's resolution would be to drop that big ball upon this pathetic excuse for a romantic ensemble. Score: 2 / 10

rooprect "New Year's Eve" (2011) is the 2nd film in director Gary Marshall's holiday series, the others being "Valentine's Day" (2010) and the upcoming "Mother's Day" (2016). All of these films share the same basic formula of 4 or 5 seemingly unrelated stories that ultimately converge on a particular holiday in a big city. If you're familiar with Gary Marshall's illustrious career including iconic films like "Pretty Woman" (1990) and going all the way back to 70s TV with "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley" (and yes! He is married to Penny "Laverne" Marshall who makes a brief but funny cameo in this movie), then you know basically what to expect: good clean fun that won't necessarily change your life or fix the ozone layer, but it's great entertainment for a night. Eeeh slightly on the sappy/predictable side, but heck, what do you expect from a PG-13 movie?As with Marshall's other films, the appeal lies largely in a superstar studded cast. Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Ashton Kutcher, Hilary Swank, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jon Bon Jovi (wait... Who?), and buckets of cameos like James Belushi, Ludicrous (argh, IMDb's auto spell checker keeps messing up the spelling), Cary Elwes and Alyssa Milano whose scene actually got cut. However my biggest criticism is that, by splitting the screen time between so many show-stealers in so many little segments, nobody really gets a chance to shine. And for example you may be a little annoyed that a master thespian like Robert De Niro is on screen for only a combined 10 minutes, if even that. Thus, the big names come across as somewhat gimmicky.My next biggest criticism is that the jokes and gags weren't that great. At times it felt like the movie was trying too hard to make a lukewarm joke work. You know, like when you start to tell a lame joke at the office water cooler, then in your mind you realize how lame it is, so you try to dramatize it with flourishes and big arm gestures. Yeah because that always works. Not that I do that. Much.But then you realize that this really is a tale in the tradition of 70s sitcom, predictable, slightly flat, but with its own distinct style that might make you catch yourself grinning.Gary, if you're out there reading this (yeah because award winning Hollywood directors like to waste their time trolling internet movie sites), I'd like to suggest that the darker, edgier segments work best. For example Ashton Kutcher (whom I normally don't care for) played an excellent role as a misanthropic hipster poseur, sort of a modern day scrooge, who spends his time tearing down party decorations in his apartment building. Most of the other segments were a bit too chipper, and thus they suffered from lack of humorous irony, which, ask Mel Brooks, is important in comedy. Of course, the most important thing in comedy is... well... (insert big arm gesture) ...you know... like... timing.

Johan Dondokambey The movie nicely develops several sub stories to fill its duration wisely. A single story would have the movie's time-line stretched so far as two or three days back, which would make the movie feel stupid in comparison to its title. It's also good that the movie tries to use the classic approach on dealing with sub stories, which is connecting them all together into one certain event or place. Now this wouldn't be possible for all, but at least most of the stories ended very well this way. It's very nice to see so many familiar faces in this movie, both senior and junior in the industry. The main roles are executed nicely. Robert DeNiro and Halle Berry did well in their parts, so did Josh Duhamel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl and Abigail Breslin on their parts. The supporting roles get very interesting for having names like Ludicrous, Alyssa Milano and even Tig Scweiber.

studioAT Despite the critical mauling that 'Valentine's Day',the public disagreed and that is probably why Garry Marshall tries to repeat the multi-star,multi-story film around a holiday trick with 'New Years Day'. And I'm sure people will disagree with me but I think it's a decent film.The stories don't all work and it's pretty cheesy but come on, its heart's in the right place and some of the stories are strong.Films like this are made for the people, not for awards. There are some lovely moments within this film and I personally feel that it was a lot better than the harsh words it gained.If Garry Marshall wants to complete a trilogy I'd be welcome to it. Maybe set in Ireland around St Patrick's Day?