Movie Review: The Night Before (2015)

Hello all,

With December and the holidays around the corner, we’re starting to see an influx of this year’s offering of Christmas movies and Holiday offerings, it’s time we talk about a staple of this time year, the Christmas movie.

Now I can imagine that most people have their favourite movie they watch during the holidays. The most well known and arguably the best Christmas movie ever made is of course it’s a wonderful life, a movie that you will mostly likely see playing more than any other movie at this time of year.

Some people are a fan of what they might call non traditional Christmas movies. I personally make it a habit to watch the first Die Hard around this time of year, simply because the events of the film do indeed take place on Christmas. My intentionally made for Christmas Christmas movie is of course Arthur Christmas which I reviewed last year.

So basically every year around this time studios want to try and add new Christmas movies to your yearly rotation. My first dive into this year’s batch of Christmas movies is The Night Before, reuniting the director and stars of 50/50 a movie which I rather enjoyed.

So will this be a new Christmas tradition, or will the makers be getting a lump of coal in their stockings this year? Let’s find out shall we?

Plot Summary - Fourteen Years Earlier, Ethan’s (Joseph Gordon - Levitt) parents passed away on Christmas Eve. So his friends Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) start a tradition of hanging out and going wild every Christmas night. This year is planned to be their last however with Isaac becoming a father and Chris becoming a star athlete, so they plan to head to a wild party and celebrate Christmas together one last time in epic fashion.

Pros - Right away, the movie is actually pretty funny, with most of the jokes being rather clever and even the slightly lower brow jokes being pretty solid. The cast is great, everyone puts gets their great scenes and lines, and even Michael Shannon shows up in probably one of the funnier supporting roles I’ve seen in awhile. The pacing is great, you find yourself suddenly realizing where the story is and wondering how you managed to get this point and actually rather enjoying the journey of it all. The three characters each have their own side stories in the film, and each one of them being mostly unique and interesting. They even manage to put a nice spin on the couple getting back together in the end scene that I can’t say I’ve seen done in recent memory. It especially works as a Christmas movie, because it also manages to be a heartfelt story about friends and family as well, which what most people argue that Christmas is about.

Cons - There’s one rather weird bit involving James Franco, I’m not going to spoil it here, but I would honestly say the one kind of dragged out joke they have him involved in to be the most out of place and the least funny scenes in the movie. The build up towards it was funny, but then it kind of filters of and then ultimately lands with kind of a meh punchline.

Final Score - 9/10

Honestly, this might make it’s way into my personal Christmas movie rotation, even if it won’t be the one I watch first. Overall though, it’s an awesomely funny and heartfelt movie, perfect for those of us who like a little more humour in our holiday season.

I will try and see Mockingjay when I can. I actually have most of the weekend off work so expect it soonish.

Until then, I’ll see you folks at the movies.