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New Year's Eve | 2011 | PG-13 | - 5.3.5
A star-studded ensemble cast featuring the different experiences a group of connected strangers with intertwining stories on New Year's Eve 2012. Love, hope, forgiveness, disappointment, second chances and fresh starts are in the air. With Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Alyssa Milano, Common, Jessica Biel, Seth Meyers, Sarah Paulson, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Sofia Vergara, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Jim Belushi, Josh Duhamel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Abigail Breslin and Hilary Swank. Directed by Garry Marshall. [1:58]
SEX/NUDITY 5 - During an outtake, we see a young man shirtless (his bare chest is visible) as he makes a sexual joke implying that the young woman leaving the room had sex with him. Several women remark on a woman's sexy appearance after she changes into a tight-fitting and low-cut dress, the woman smacks her behind playfully. A young man stares at a young woman wearing a figure-hugging short dress, he lifts her up and his face is at eye level with her breasts. A teen girl lifts her shirt to reveal her bra and bare abdomen while on a crowded stairway causing her mother to shout and quickly pull down the teen's shirt saying, "This is not Girls Gone Wild." We see women wearing tight-fitting dresses at a party. A woman wears an extremely tight-fitting dress with a lot of cleavage exposed and another woman comments on the amount of cleavage the woman is showing. A woman's cleavage is clearly visible in her low-cut chef's coat.
► We see two men holding a woman on their shoulders, and the men smile and hold onto the woman's hips. On multiple occasions a woman flirts with a man and makes flirtatious comments about him, including grabbing the man's hands and leaning in to kiss him (the man pulls away). Two women approach a man and make a sexually suggestive remark about him being "in the middle" while one of them places her hand on the man's upper thigh suggestively; the man pulls away from the two women.
► Throughout the movie we see multiple couples of men and women kissing: A young man dips a woman and kisses her; a man lifts up a woman, spins her around and they kiss; we see men and women in a crowd kissing; a man tries to kiss a woman and she pushes him away; a young man and a young woman kiss; a teen girl grabs a teen boy and they kiss while another a teen girl sees them and begins to cry; a teen boy and a teen girl kiss; and a woman kisses a statue. A man kisses a woman's hand. A man kisses a woman on the cheek and puts his arms around her. A man kisses another man on the cheek. A young man and a young woman are about to kiss until an elevator door opening interrupts them.
► On multiple occasions we hear women and a men discussing female genitalia using nicknames: a pregnant woman tells a man that a camera could be inside her genitalia if she were paid $25,000; a woman tells her husband that she does not want a camera near her genitalia; a male nurse asks a man the condition of his pregnant wife's cervix and the man responds that he knows she has one; a pregnant woman looks disgusted and tells a man not to talk to her genitalia; a male nurse shouts a nickname for female genitalia to two pregnant women and their husbands; and a pregnant woman in labor makes a reference to giving birth being like pushing a very large car out of a compact parking spot.
► A young man makes a joke implying that he could join a young woman in the shower so he could hear her sing; the young woman immediately shuts him down. A man makes a sexually suggestive comment to a young man that implies that the young man and a young woman had sex in an elevator; the young man denies it and the man tells the young man he will watch the CCTV footage of the elevator. A woman asks another woman if she had "made love" with a man and the woman ignores her question. A woman tells another woman that wearing a dress will "scare up some action." A woman jumps up and down as a man tries to take her picture while making sexual comments about her jumping and being "sexy." As a young man walks toward a building he flirts with multiple women.
► An older man makes a series of sexual jokes: An older man asks a man if his story is "R-rated" and if the woman he is describing has "a body"; a man jokingly asks an older man if he is "going to hit that" in reference to a woman; and a man tells an older man's adult son that the older man is "horny." A man jokingly tells another man to enjoy having casual sex with multiple women; a woman teases the man saying that he is no longer allowed to have casual sex with multiple women. Several teen girls tease another teen girl, saying that a teen boy wants to kiss her; the teens then discuss how the teen girl can learn how to kiss by watching Internet videos. A young man asks a young woman whom she is planning to kiss at midnight. A teen boy jokingly tells a woman he is planning on kissing her at midnight after the woman asks a crowd of people whom they are kissing at midnight. A teen girl accuses a teen boy of kissing another teen girl; the teen boy explains that the other teen girl had "grabbed him." A man tells another man that he and "his lady" have plans to watch pornography. A young man tells a woman that he is planning on flirting with and "hooking up" with women at a party. A female doctor jokingly threatens a man, saying he is "dangerously close to a rectal exam." A young man jokingly tells a woman that he should "be offended" after a woman tells the young man she had "bought him for the day" to use him as a courier. An older man playfully asks a woman if she has a "hot date."
► On multiple occasions we see a female doctor examining a pregnant woman, the pregnant woman's legs are propped up and the doctor looks under a blanket covering the woman's lower body (no nudity is visible). We see an outtake where a female doctor takes DVDs from under the blanket covering a pregnant woman's lower half.
VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A woman standing on the street is almost struck when a taxi speeds around a corner and she falls backward into a pile of trash bags; she turns down an offer of help from a man, and later tells another man that she had "almost died." A man is distracted while driving and drives off the road and into a street sign; the airbags deploy and we later see the man with a small piece of tissue in his nose (no blood is visible and is otherwise unharmed).
► On several occasions we see a very ill looking older man in a hospital bed: he has an IV tube in his hand and is on oxygen, a doctor and a nurse explain that the man is very ill and we learn that he has a very short amount of time to live after declining both radiation and chemotherapy; we see the man's adult daughter holding his belongings, implying that he died. An older man on his deathbed hallucinates that a woman is his relative; the woman holds his hand and assures him that she will not leave him as he is dying.
► A woman slaps a man, she tells him that she did not enjoy slapping him as much as she had thought and she slaps him again very hard; he yelps and holds his face. An older woman slaps away a young man's hand as he tries to close a door for her.
► A woman angrily throws eggs and produce at a photograph of a man; a second woman throws an egg that breaks on the ground. A young man tears down decorations from a hallway, he gets caught in a strand of tinsel and throws a box on the ground angrily.
► A young man and a young woman lurch forward as the elevator they are in comes to an abrupt stop and the young woman shouts for help. A woman has a panicked look on her face as she slowly tries to climb a flight of stairs and a man lifts her and carries her up the remainder of the stairs after another man asks if she is afraid of heights. A woman is startled when her teenage daughter slams a door closed in her face.
► A very pregnant woman acts surprised when her water breaks (we do not see the water); the woman is then seen wincing and holding her stomach in pain as she begins to experience labor pains. Two very pregnant women walk down a hallway while clutching their stomachs as they experience labor pains.
► A man shouts at a woman. A woman shouts at a man, accusing him of abandoning her. A woman tells her teenage daughter that she does not feel comfortable with her going to Times Square alone and the teen storms off shouting that the woman believes the city is too scary. A woman shouts at a young man. We hear a loud crash off camera and a man shouts a woman's name.
► An older man tells a woman that he had seen death on countless occasions when he was a photographer in Vietnam. A man tells a woman that another woman is "too busy slapping him" to talk. A woman apologizes to a man for frequently slapping him. A man makes a toast to his deceased father. A woman tells her brother that she is concerned for the safety of her teenage daughter if she were to go to Times Square alone. A woman jokingly tells another woman (over a walkie-talkie) to tell a man to stay away from a woman holding a large knife. A woman jokingly tells a man that if men in her country are on one knee it is because they have been shot. A man makes a speech and jokes that a philosopher's friends had killed him for making speeches.
► A woman lifts a small boy up to a crowd and shouts, asking if someone had lost him; we see the boy then bodysurfing to his mother. A man playfully grabs a horn away from a boy blowing it in the man's ear. In the background we see a man almost fall as he is ice-skating and a woman steadies him. A woman runs on stage during a performance and a man lifts her and carries her off stage. A man appears to pass out into a woman's lap and then belches loudly (he is implied to be drunk).
► A woman coughs and makes choking noises as she tries to each an anchovy; she pulls it out of her mouth and then tries to swallow it again until she spits it into a trashcan (we hear the food hit the bottom of the trashcan but do not see it leave her mouth). A man takes a drink of castor oil and spits it into a cup; we do not see the spit. A woman licks her finger and brushes back an older man's eyebrow. A woman tells another woman that she wants to be close enough to a stage that a man can "spit and sweat" on her. A young man is seen standing at what is implied to be a urinal; he answers a phone call and has a complete conversation while in the bathroom (no nudity is visible).
LANGUAGE 5 - 1 not enunciated F-word (a woman obviously mouths an F-word during outtakes), 7 sexual references, 3 scatological terms (1 mild), 3 implied scatological terms ("S.O.L." and "shi-"), 11 anatomical terms (5 mild and 1 incomplete), 4 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, psychotic, nuts, Kanye, numb*uts, hostile, owner of a charm school in Guantanamo, Prince Charming, pathetic, a couple sandwiches short of a picnic, coward, wannabe hipster too scared to take a chance, Mr. Moron, big mouthed idiot), 1 religious exclamation.
SUBSTANCE USE - Throughout the movie we see people toasting with and drinking champagne, a man is served an alcoholic drink and the bartender lists the liquors contained in the drink, a woman tells a man to ensure that cases of champagne are prepared, a woman jokes that a party has "more celebrities than rehab," a teen girl tells her mother that she does not do drugs or drink, a man tells another man he and a woman are going to "crush a 12 pack," we see advertisements for various types of alcoholic drinks on billboards, a man appears to pass out into a woman's lap and then belches loudly (he is implied to be drunk but we only see his back).
DISCUSSION TOPICS - New Year's Eve traditions, loneliness, death of a parent, serendipity, anticipation, fulfilling goals, New Year's resolutions, promises.
MESSAGE - New Year's Eve can be a memorable and happy occasion.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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