Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16247 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-09
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 101 minutes

Amazon.com
Trying to cash in on the '80s-nostalgia bandwagon, this New Year's Eve ensemble comedy, set in 1981 Manhattan, offers a vintage soundtrack, some memorable fashion statements, and most notably a talented ensemble that's pretty much all dressed up with no place to go. The large cast--featuring such bleeding-edge actors as Christina Ricci, Ben Affleck, Paul Rudd, Janeane Garofalo, Jay Mohr, and a surprisingly demure Courtney Love--does manage to exude some charm, but in all the cross-cutting between numerous subplots we never get a chance to spend much time with anyone. Just when the story about two friends (Rudd and Love) who decide to have sex starts to get interesting, we're thrust into the adventures of two Long Island girls (Ricci and an uncannily authentic Gaby Hoffman) lost in SoHo. And then when they get picked up by two punk boys, it's off to the uncomfortable second date between an egotistical actor (Mohr) and the young virgin he just deflowered last night (Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn's daughter), and then off to even more characters, etc. The closest we get to a focal point in the film is a dizzyingly hysterical Martha Plimpton (better than she's been in a while), the hostess of the party everyone's going to--except no one's shown up yet, sending Plimpton into neurotic rages about crab dip going bad. Longtime casting director Risa Bramon Garcia, making her directorial debut, exhibits a fine hand with her actors--she succeeds in making Courtney Love a believably insecure firebrand who when drunk sings along to "Through the Eyes of Love"--but trips herself up by diluting her characters' misadventures. As a result, Affleck's charmingly goofy bartender gets lost in the shuffle, and Garofalo's part is reduced to a glorified cameo (though she lights up the screen when she's on). Make sure, though, you take in the wide-eyed Hudson, who at times seems to be channeling her mother's mannerisms and speech inflections to great if eerie comic effect. Nobody's mixed innocence, sexiness, and physical comedy so deftly since... well, Goldie Hawn. Also, look for Elvis Costello in a brief but pivotal cameo. --Mark Englehart

From The New Yorker
A noisy, brightly lit, undistinguished but highly populated comedy about young people trying to hook up with someone-anyone-on New Year's Eve in 1981, in the East Village. They prowl the streets, brush up against one another in bars, and finally wind up at the same party at midnight. Directed by Risa Bramon Garcia, this disposable date movie is not so much written and acted as cast-just about every young actor in the country is in it (it's no wonder: this is casting director Bramon Garcia's directorial début). Paul Rudd and Courtney Love have the best roles, as two people who have been friends for so long that they have lost the impulse to go to bed together. The other revellers include Christina Ricci, Jay Mohr, an Affleck or two, Janeane Garofalo, Dave Chappelle, Martha Plimpton, Kate Hudson, and, glimpsed for a second, Elvis Costello. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Rated on the fun factor, but not a GREAT film
I had to give this one 4 stars just because it is so fun. It is deeply flawed at points and as deep as a puddle, yet it is funny and still has some moving moments. The nostalgia factor works as well if you were out and about at the time. Affleck comes across a big dope, but that's okay (cuz I think he is). Ricci is great - why is she so underutilized? That girl has a power in her. Rudd is the sweet sort of everyman good guy and it suits him well. Love is, well, actually ... good here. I liked her and I felt for her character. Hudson is very, very funny, particularly in her scenes with Jay Mohr - they have great chemistry. Garoffalo is the best in a tart-tounged smaller part. Definitely worth a spin for an easy-on-the-eyes comedy.

Best line, Garoffalo in a moving cab trying to light a cigarette: These matches are disappointing me!

HAPPY NEW YEARZ!
A little slow getting started, but hey, I loved this movie! Hearing Christina Ricci's accent at the begginning of the film threw me off a bit. But all the characters in 200 cigarrettes transformed into highly adorable, funky, quirky, 80's type personalities, (pause!), cool people on a mission to party like it's 1999. There! I said it! I especially liked Martha Plimpton's character. I was feeling so worried when no one was showing up for her party.

This film is an engaging look at one night in NYC, (actually filmed in "real time" I'm assuming). It carries you along on this seemingly ill-fated New Years Eve, where everyone has got love on the brain. Primary mission: find someone special to share New Years Eve with. Who can't relate to that?! With the Millineum coming up close, this is a perfect movie to get into the spirit of things. And if you don't have that someone special in your arms that night, watch this movie. It makes perfect company.

An enjoyable dissection of one night in 1980's SoHo
A very funny and insightful examination of young adults all looking for love, happiness and meaning. The film takes place on new year's eve, 1981, and follows many different young people who somehow all eventually end up at the same party (which the hostess later wakes up to find she slept through.) Elvis Costello makes a cameo and provides a running joke in the last third. The soundtrack is great--all late 70's early 80's pop and new wave. And the one who steals the show is Dave Chappelle as the cab driver who manages to give a ride to practically every character at some point, dispensing equally silly and profound wisdom along the way, on everything from friendship and destiny to life before an afro and how to "get booty." (smiling at a girl is very important, as is avoiding talking about death--"Everyone knows they're gonna die someday, they just don't want to hear it from you.") Ben Affleck is very amusing as a clueless suitor. Oh, and Courtney Love was actually bearable. All in all, a very smart, enjoyable ride.