Review of The Night Before (2015) by 007 W — 02 Feb 2017

Everyone gets a Christmas special, guess it was about time the Seth Rogen crew got one. True it's only part of the crew but, y'know...anyway how's the movie? It's pretty good. It's nothing great, and definitely formula, but it's fun. Imagine the characters of Superbad in 10-15 years on Christmas, it's a little like that. They spend the whole night trying to get to this party, and crazy things keep preventing them. You know this type of movie by know, and you already know whether or not you'll like it. For me, it doesn't have the same shock and charm that it did when I first saw Knocked Up, but it's still a really fun time. The three leads have great chemistry with each other, Seth Rogen taking an increasing amount of drugs through the movie is good for a lot of laughs, and the final party scene is visually a ton of fun. I also loved Michael Shannon in this movie. He's only there for about 10 minutes of it, but he's by far one of the most memorable characters. Not that the other characters are bad, he's just that good.

If I have a criticism of this movie I guess it's that there weren't a lot of huge laughs for me. Like I said, you've seen this type of movie before, so the surprise is gone and without surprise comedy can be difficult. There were a couple of big laughs for me (mostly involving Michael Shannon), but not as many as I would have liked. Still, I was chuckling pretty consistently, and the movie still has enough heart and fun to get you through the less funny parts. It's an enjoyable movie. Maybe not a holiday classic, but still worth checking out for at least one Christmas.