The Night Before

Synopsis: Three best friends have gone out on Christmas Eve for years but as life overtakes them, two have decided to end the tradition. But they mean to make their last night a bit of a blow out…

Take a bunch of Christmas movies, run them through a mulcher and then smoke the remnants. That’s this film, which is a bit all over the place when it comes to its character and plotting, but fares much better when viewed as a string of gags. Your mileage may vary depending on your sense of humour though. So, just to clarify from the outset, The Night Before is a bit of a mess, but it’s funny. Which is what you’d expect from the people who made This Is The End and The Interview.

Both those films were little more a string of gags resting on an outlandish plot contrivance. I had low expectations of them, and they made me laugh, job done. And that’s all this film aspires to as well, most of the time, which is why it’s a bit annoying when it tries to pull for something more and fails. In between the dick jokes and drug gags is a wafer-thin story about the need to grow up, and also the need to be honest with yourself and your loved ones. When it finally goes there, in the dying minutes of the film, in spite of a few minor stabs at it earlier it just feels tacked on. It’s not Lord of the Rings levels of false endings, but there’s a string of moments that feel like the natural end point that lead into yet another attempt to tie up the narrative. It’s unnecessary and ruins the fun.

Basically, this is good dumb fun that occasionally falters by forgetting that fact. I had a good time, but I started to get fidgety by the end.

 

 

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