The Night Before (2015)

Directed by Jonathan Levine. Starring Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anthony Mackie, Lizzy Caplan, Mindy Kaling, Michael Shannon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, Lorraine Toussaint, Nathan Fielder. [R]

With their lives sending them on separate paths, three friends decide to put an end to their tradition to spend every Christmas Eve with each other in NYC, but they want to go out in style with a big blow-out. Over the course of the long night, commitments will be tested, old wounds will be opened, drugs will be devoured, shenanigans will be shenaniganned. Mediocre irreverent festivities; has a few very funny moments, but too much is just same-old, same-old in the Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg stoner-juvenilia revue (Goldberg co-wrote and co-produced). The occasional attempt at touching the heart might have worked better if the script didn’t involve so many dips into the preposterous—Home Alone “traps” and guidance from an angel—or if there was real payoff to their riotous ride. Cameos from James Franco and Miley Cyrus as themselves; Tracy Morgan provides brief narration at the beginning, then shows up at the end as…Santa?

53/100