New Year's Eve (2011 film)

New Year's Eve is a 2011 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall. The film consists of an ensemble cast consisting of Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Héctor Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Jake T. Austin, Hilary Swank, and Sofía Vergara.

New Year's Eve is the second in an unofficial trilogy of romantic comedy films directed by Garry Marshall, set on a one-day holiday and featuring an ensemble cast in a variety of stories, the other films being Valentine's Day (2010) and Mother's Day (2016). Some of the cast of New Year's Eve had previously appeared in Valentine's Day, including Biel, Kutcher, and Elizondo. New Year's Eve was released on December 9, 2011, and grossed $142 million.

Plot
New Year's Eve follow story of unconnected people who has their own problems during New Year's Eve.

On New Year's Eve, Vice-President of the Times Square Alliance Claire Morgan (Hilary Swank) is making the final arrangements for the ball drop with the help of her friend Police Officer Brendan (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges). Meanwhile, after being nearly run over by a car and denied a vacation, Ahern Records secretary Ingrid Withers (Michelle Pfeiffer) quits her job and offers the deliveryman Paul Doyle (Zac Efron) tickets for the Ahern Records Masquerade Ball if Paul helps her complete a series of New Year's resolutions before midnight, which he accepts.

Paul's older sister Kim Doyle (Sarah Jessica Parker) is having trouble with her teenage daughter Hailey (Abigail Breslin) who wants to spend New Year's Eve with her friends and her boyfriend Seth Anderson (Jake T. Austin) in Times Square though Kim wants to spend time new year with her after her husband's death. Paul's best friend, comic book illustrator Randy (Ashton Kutcher), who hates New Year's Eve after his girlfriend left him on a date, gets stuck in an elevator with Elise (Lea Michele), an aspiring singer who will be providing back-up for musician Daniel Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi) in his show at Times Square who also prepares to perform at the Ahern Records ball. Besides Kim and Randy, Jensen also has his own problem, where he attempt rekindles his feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Laura (Katherine Heigl). But fails every time miserably.

At a nearby hospital. Claire's father Stan Harris (Robert De Niro), a man in the final stages of cancer who refuses chemotherapy and who wishes only to see the ball drop one last time, is kept company by Nurse Aimee (Halle Berry) and Nurse Mindy (Alyssa Milano) after his doctor (Cary Elwes) reveals he will not last much longer. In the same hospital, a young couple named Griffin (Seth Meyers) and Tess Byrne (Jessica Biel) are about to have their first child, and they compete with another couple, James (Til Schweiger) and Grace Schwab (Sarah Paulson), for a bonus offered to the family of the first child born in the new year. Elsewhere, Sam (Josh Duhamel), a businessman from Ahern Records, attempts to go to the Ahern Records Ball, where he is to deliver an important speech, after his car malfunctions outside New York City, all the while wondering if he should attend a meeting with a mysterious woman he met and fell in love with on the previous New Year's Eve. Sam was able get a ride from cheerful family who own their RV.

In the early evening, one of the LED panels on the Times Square Ball malfunctions, jamming the ball and forcing Claire to call Kominsky (Héctor Elizondo), an electrician who the company had fired a few weeks prior. Kominsky repairs the ball before midnight, and, in gratitude, Claire leaves him in charge of the operation, and rushes to see the ball drop with her father, Stan. Meanwhile, Nurse Aimee has a video conference with her husband Chino (Common), a soldier serving in Afghanistan. Who end up spending new year in there. Stan passes away just after the ball drops and a chorus of Auld Lang Syne, with crying Claire holding his hand.

Paul helps Ingrid complete all the items on her list, and she gives him the tickets. They later saying goodbye each other, but Paul decided stick with her instead. Meanwhile, Randy and Elise become closer after telling their lives and problems, just about they are going to kiss, the elevator is repaired by the building superintendent (James Belushi) and Elise rushes to Jensen's show. Randy notices she forgot her rubber bracelet and rushes to give it to her. At Times Square, Jensen leaves midway during his show to return to the Ahern Ball to apologize to Laura, who accepts him back and leaves with the approval of Sam. With Jensen gone, Elise is called to replace him and attracts the attention of the crowd. She kisses Randy, and they start a romantic relationship.

Griffin and Tess have their baby and, although it is born first, they lie to allow James and Grace to have the bonus after discovering they already have two other children to provide for. Meanwhile, after being forbidden from attending the celebration, Hailey runs away to Times Square, where she sees Seth being kissed by another girl, Lily, unaware that he had been kissed against his will. Heartbroken, she meets and is comforted by her mother. Kim finally realizes that she was too selfish for not allowing Hailey spending New Year with them. Seth finds them and apologizes, revealing Lily to have stolen a kiss from him. Hailey forgives and kisses him back. Her mother allows her to go to an after-party. Kim then goes to a restaurant to meet Sam, who had succeeded in delivering his speech. She later revealed to be mysterious woman he met one year prior, and they finally discover each other's names. The film ends with Paul and Ingrid having fun at the Ahern Records ball party.

Cast

 * Jake T. Austin as Seth Anderson
 * James Belushi as Building Super
 * Halle Berry as Nurse Aimee
 * Jessica Biel as Tess Byrne
 * Mayor Michael Bloomberg as himself
 * Jon Bon Jovi as Daniel Jensen
 * Abigail Breslin as Hailey Doyle
 * Ludacris as Lieutenant Brendan Nolan
 * Robert De Niro as Stan Harris
 * Josh Duhamel as Sam Ahern, Jr.
 * Zac Efron as Paul
 * Héctor Elizondo as Lester Kominsky
 * Carla Gugino as Dr. Morriset
 * Katherine Heigl as Laura
 * Ashton Kutcher as Randy
 * John Lithgow as Jonathan Cox
 * Katherine McNamara as Lily Bowman
 * Seth Meyers as Griffin Byrne
 * Lea Michele as Elise
 * Alyssa Milano as Nurse Mindy
 * Sarah Jessica Parker as Kim Doyle
 * Russell Peters as Sunil
 * Michelle Pfeiffer as Ingrid Withers
 * Sarah Paulson as Grace Schwab
 * Ryan Seacrest as himself
 * Til Schweiger as James Schwab
 * Hilary Swank as Claire Morgan
 * Sofía Vergara as Ava
 * Nat Wolff as Walter

Critical reception
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 7% based on 136 reviews and an average rating of 3.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Shallow, sappy, and dull, New Year's Eve assembles a star-studded cast for no discernible purpose." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 22 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said, "New Year's Eve is a dreary plod through the sands of time until finally the last grain has trickled through the hourglass of cinematic sludge. How is it possible to assemble more than two dozen stars in a movie and find nothing interesting for any of them to do?" Kimberley Jones of the Austin Chronicle said, "Mostly, New Year's Eve is appalling stuff, a poorly constructed, sentimental sham. Auld Lang Syne." Claudia Winkleman on the BBC One show Film said "I have found the worst film of all time, and it is called New Year's Eve." Rolling Stone shared the same opinion and gave a zero stars rating, stating "Director Garry Marshall follows last year's Valentine's Day romcom crapfest with an even more puke-up-able sample of the species" and concluding New Year's Eve is "bad beyond belief". British newspaper The Telegraph named New Year's Eve one of the ten worst films of 2011. British film critic Mark Kermode named it as the worst film of 2011. On the more positive side, Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman said, "New Year's Eve is dunderheaded kitsch, but it's the kind of marzipan movie that can sweetly soak up a holiday evening."

The film earned five Razzie Award nominations: Worst Picture, Worst Director (Garry Marshall), Worst Actress (Sarah Jessica Parker), Worst Screenplay and Worst Screen Ensemble, losing all to Adam Sandler's Jack and Jill.

Box office
The film opened at the No. 1 spot at the box office with $13 million. It made $54.5 million in the United States and Canada, as well as $87.5 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $142 million.

Parodies
New Year's Eve, and its predecessor Valentine's Day, were parodied in December 2011 on the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in a trailer for the fictional film The Apocalypse, set on the last day on Earth. They were similarly parodied on the TV show 30 Rock, in the January 2012 episode "The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell", in a trailer for a film called Martin Luther King Day, whose large cast includes Jenna Maroney.