Ethan (Joseph Gordon Levitt), Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) are fast friends who for over a decade have caught up for drunken blowouts each Christmas Eve. I guess the prospect of a hungover Christmas is too promising to ignore.
But time has a way of dulling things, and increasing family and work obligations have lead to a declaration; this will be the last The Night Before.
So what better finish to a longstanding tradition than to attend the super secret, super exclusive Nutcracker’s Ball?
Chris the professional athlete supplies the money, Isaac the soon to be family man supplies the recreational drugs, and in a stroke of luck Ethan supplies the tickets.
No-one supplies the laughs.
This is amazingly boring stuff that pales against the obvious Harold and Kumar comparisons. Here is a film that plays the black, Jewish, Anglo thing and ugly jumpers it to death. It believes that three guys karaokeing to classic Run DMC is hilarious. It gives us Michael Shannon as a somewhat mystical drug dealer but cannot work out what to do with him.
It puts Seth Rogen and makes him vomit in a church aisle. And WE are the ones who should be entertained.
No dice. It doesn’t matter how easy to like the three leads are, three second bananas don’t make for a bunch of laughs. No number of half baked ideas and situations add up to hilarity.
“You had to be there!”… A phrase oft used when breathless proclamations of social magnificence are met with shrugs and dull eyes. In the case of The Night Before you would be better served just accepting the phrase and moving on.
Final Rating – 5 / 10. In truth it’s better to miss this. No one else seems to want to be here. Why should we?
