I admit I didn't see New Year's Eve in a theater, where I might have resented spending the money. I saw it on TV and for what it was - a holiday movie, I thought it was cute.
Okay, I'm a sap. I've read the reviews here. I didn't find the story lines a jumble at all. This is a feel-good film with expected endings and so what? I for one do not want to be made miserable around the holidays when I'm already sad because so much of my family is gone.
There were also complaints about the cast - too many stars. So what? All-star casts have been around since 1931. Hillary Swank, Zach Efron, Robert de Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Halle Berry, Katherine Heigl, Bon Jovi, Lea Michele, Ashton Kutcher, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Biel, Carla Gugino, Seth Meyers, and Sofia Vergara.
The film is episodic, about happenings in New York City on New Year's Eve: Swank is responsible for getting the ball to drop at midnight; de Niro is a dying man who wants to go on the hospital roof to see the ball drop; two couples want to have their babies at midnight and win $25,000; Katherine Heigl comes face to face with Bon Jovi, who dumped her the year before; Michelle Pfeiffer is a secretary who leaves her job and asks Zach Efron to fulfill her bucket list; Lea Michele and Ashton Kutcher are stuck in an elevator; etc.
"New Year's Eve" is an old-fashioned film, the kind you would see in the '50s. It's not Citizen Kane and it's not supposed to be. It seems to me that many people on IMDb are incredible snobs, sorry, and don't understand simple entertainment and taking a movie for what it is instead of what it isn't. You didn't know George Bailey would come out okay in "It's a Wonderful Life"? You didn't know they'd pull off honoring the general in "White Christmas"? I'm not sure what the problem is. I want predictable around the holidays. For those of you who wanted the ball to blow up and kill everyone at the end of the movie, you'll need to watch something else.
