De Niro and Swank can't stop New Year's Eve bombing

 

WITH a sparkling cast of Hollywood stars, New Year's Eve was expected to light up the hearts of festive movie-goers. Instead, the Warner Bros movie looks like going down in history as one of the great Christmas turkeys.

According to film critics on both sides of the Atlantic, the likes of Hilary Swank, Halle Berry and Robert De Niro were unable to save the film, which follows several New Yorkers' antics on the last day of the year.
As for box office returns, the UK figures were not available at the time of posting, but in the US it pulled in $13.7m on its opening weekend – way less than the meagre $20m or more that might have been expected at what is traditionally a difficult time of year because of families preparing for Christmas.
New Year's Eve is directed by Garry Marshall of Pretty Woman and Valentine's Day fame. According to Andrew Barker of Variety, the plot involves "around a dozen barely there, aggressively agreeable mini-stories spliced together". The overall effect of which is like "being crushed under an avalanche of throw pillows".

Most insulting of all, says Ann Hornaday at The Washington Post, is the movie's "moralising" tone. Midnight in New Year's Eve cannot be about romance and giddy anticipation but "forgiveness", "second chances" – oh, and a shameless product placement for Warner Bros' new Sherlock Holmes film, she says.
Such scenes have the sincerity of "an unsolicited email from Nigeria", says Christopher Tookey in The Daily Mail. "It's painfully obvious that most of the actors turned up for as short a time as possible, received no direction and delivered a performance that was inexplicably hailed as adequate on the first take."
The Ashton Kutchers and Sarah Jessica Parkers of this world might belong in this "abomination", but what were Hilary Swank, Halle Berry and Robert de Niro thinking, asks Wendy Ide in The Times. "These people have won a total of five Oscars between them. Surely they are better than this?"

So, what will be the impact on the cast and crew of the poor box office and miserable reviews? "Early in the film, Pfeiffer falls into a rancid pile of garbage," says Peter Travers at Rolling Stone magazine. "I can't think of a better metaphor for the movie, which leaves a stink on everyone associated with it." ·