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'The Night Before' Review (Rogen, Gordon-Levitt, Mackie) (1 Viewer)

Yavin

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It's that time of year again, which of course can mean only one thing: Christmas movies. Enter The Night Before, a new holiday-themed comedy from the minds of 50/50 director Jonathan Levine, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.


Here's my quick take on the film, followed by a link to my full review at the bottom:

Directed by Jonathan Levine, The Night Before may look like just another excuse for Seth Rogen to run around sweating, panting and acting like a madman who's high on cocaine, weed, and 'shrooms. But make no mistake, beneath all the jokes about religion and male genitalia lies a genuinely touching and heartfelt story about the true meaning of Christmas: family and friends. In it, Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie play three "ride-or-die homies" named Isaac, Ethan and Chris, whose Christmas tradition for the past 14 years has been to hang out with each other on Christmas Eve, get piss drunk and make asses of themselves. But now that they're all in their thirties, that tradition is about to come to an end, though not before they get into the party to end all parties: The Nutcracka Ball. Of course, it's not easy for a movie to try and be sincere about the meaning of Christmas without coming off as artificial. But once The Night Before hits its stride, it becomes very easy to lose yourself in the hilarity, so much so that you may not even anticipate the emotional wallop waiting for you at the end. No, the emotional underpinnings of the story are nowhere near the same level as Levine's breakout film, 50/50, but the story's dramatic core is surprisingly solid. Factor in the hilarious supporting cast, and you can consider The Night Before your new Christmas movie tradition.

Full review (4 out of 5).
 

Tino

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I liked the film though not as funny as I Thought it would be. The Interview was much funnier.
 

TravisR

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I thought it had its funny moments here & there (loved anything with Michael Shannon and James Franco) but I was surprised by how well the flashback right near the end worked and actually made feel something for the character. Needless to say that owes alot to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's acting ability.
 

Edwin-S

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I saw the trailer for this in front of SPECTRE. It did nothing for me. Him being Jewish, throwing up in a church and yelling that Jews weren't responsible for Christ's death was exceedingly unfunny. If that is an example of the kind of humour in the film then I can safely pass on this one. It looked juvenile.
 

Patrick Sun

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The humor is pretty juvenile, but the bonds of brotherhood depicted in the movie transcend the humor level.


I give it 2 stars, or a grade of C.
 

Colin Jacobson

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Terrible movie. A few laughs in the first act but then it just becomes a random conglomeration of trite, predictable gags with no logic or purpose - and precious little comedy.


It deserves a "D" - maybe...
 

Malcolm R

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Colin Jacobson said:
Terrible movie. A few laughs in the first act but then it just becomes a random conglomeration of trite, predictable gags with no logic or purpose - and precious little comedy.


It deserves a "D" - maybe...

So it's just like every other movie with Seth Rogen.
 

Colin Jacobson

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Malcolm R said:
So it's just like every other movie with Seth Rogen.

No, not in my opinion. I don't love Rogen's movies but I've enjoyed some of them - "Knocked Up" was good, and some of the others have worked well, too.


This one was more like the awful "Neighbors": a decent premise burdened by a lack of logic, cheap, easy jokes and laziness.


I went into "Night Before" with the hope/assumption I'd like it - i wanted to see it. I felt bored through most of it, though, as it just went nowhere and offered far too few laughs to be worthwhile...
 

Sean Bryan

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Just saw this and really liked it. Some pretty funny drug and dick humor mixed with a good degree of actual heart that makes you care about the characters.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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I didn't laugh a lot, but a handful of times when I did, I laughed until I hurt.


The last act with the characters played Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lizzy Caplan was problematic for me, though. If I were in Diana's shoes and a man I'd dumped months earlier proposed to me out of the blue in front of thousands of people like that, I'd be running for the hills. Them patching things up the next day just didn't feel earned to me.


Michael Shannon was phenomenal as Mr. Green. I knew he looked familiar, but couldn't place him until I saw Shannon's name in the end credits. The only thing I'd seen him in recently was Man of Steel as General Zod, and this was a complete departure from that.


My favorite beat in the whole movie, though, was Anthony Mackie's football player and his mom saying grace over Christmas dinner in the final minutes. The writing, acting and directing in that scene was terrific.
 

Sean Bryan

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I think it would have been more problematic to get over the proposal if she had broken up with him for a different reason. But her reason for ending the relationship was his unwillingness to commit and take it to the next level.

I think his proposing, while wildly inappropriate, could ultimately be taken as more of a symbolic gesture that he was ready to go there and something that you could see past once you take into account the wildness of the situation. He hadn't been planning on proposing (that would have been kinda psycho), but the big secret party, Christmas Eve magic, being encouraged by Miley, etc... brought it out in that spontaneous gesture.

And remember, as she explained, she was actually kinda stalking him that night and she had been thinking about him and asking about him all this time. She wasn't over him at all (she just hid it better). I think that makes it much more believable that they got back together once he showed he wanted to build a life with her than if she had broken up with him because she wasn't into to him and that he just won her back. She was already looking his way.
 

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