New Year's Eve (the movie)

Released: 2011
RomCom
Director: Garry Marshall
Starring:  Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Cary Elwes, Jessica Biel, and a ton of others who want to ruin their own career.
Running Time: An agonizingly pointless 118 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: Intertwining love stories shown on a random new year's eve day and night.

First off this was supposed to be a romantic comedy.  With no laughs, and no romantic stories within the film I hardly see how this movie could qualify.  Second, I knew this was going to be a bad movie since Garry Marshall directed it and lately, all he cares about is a paycheck and not his reputation, nor a good movie.  He also made Valentine's Day which was equally bad, but actually made to look a lot better with the release of this new cinematic piece of crap.  Third, there's no story line here, and no interesting characters, so I ask why even bother to make this movie?  A paycheck is the only answer I can think of.  All of the actors included only did this for a paycheck, with no regard to their now dying careers.
I used to respect some of these actors like Michelle Pfeiffer and.....hmmm, well maybe just her.  The rest of them are no talent has-beens, respectable actors that started taking questionable movie roles a long time ago, or just a flash in the pan, hot-at-the-moment type "actor".  And I do use that term loosely.

This formula doesn't work Garry Marshall.  You can't take a whole bunch of actors, throw them together with a laughably bad script and hope that it turns out good....it doesn't.

Stop with the formula's Hollywood.  Stop with the ensemble casts with the terrible scripts.  Stop with the pointless movies that don't need to be made - no one wants to see them.  The movie has no message, the movie has no point really.  When you get to the end of it, you're still hungry to see a fulfilling story.  It leaves you completely empty and feeling as you've just played the fool for wasting two hours of your valuable time.
Here's some of the "stories" if you can call them that:
A man is losing his battle with Cancer and just wants to see the ball drop one more time.

A man is wrestling with the idea of meeting a woman who he's interested in back at the same restaurant he met her at last new year's eve, but she ran out on him and only left a note on a napkin telling him things are complicated and if he's still interested in her in a year to meet back there on next new year's eve.

A couple is about to have a baby and wants to be the first to deliver in the new year to win $25,000.

A 15 year old girl wants to be with a boy she likes in New York's Time Square to watch the ball drop and maybe kiss him at midnight.

An old meek secretary hires a courier boy to make her list of new year's resolutions come true even though they're impossible to do in 24 hours like save a life, go to Bali, and travel around the world.

A man (I'm being generous here considering the "man" is Ashton Kutcher) and a woman (also being generous considering the "woman" is the mean looking, no talent, Lea Michelle) are stuck in an elevator together in their apartment complex and apparently hate each other at first, but of course, fall in love by the time the night's over.

Sappy, saccharine, sugar coated crappy totally unrealistic "love stories" this movie is SUCH a waste of time.
The strongest parts of the movie are De Niro in the hospital one on one with Halle Berry or Cary Elwes just because men really do die of Cancer and have no one left in their lives to die with.  It's the most believable part of the movie, it's not because of great script writing or acting in those scenes.  Anyway, I can't say enough bad things about this movie.  There are no great love stories here, and there are no laughs.  Even at the end credits with the blooper reel running, Marshall decides to plug his other crappy romcom Valentine's Day by showing two DVD copies being delivered by a pregnant actor.  Pure disgust.  Garry Marshall has no shame and no good movies left in him.  I mean, this is the same guy that directed classics like Pretty Woman, Beaches, and Overboard - those were thoroughly entertaining good movies.  What happened?

1/2 out of 5 for too much sugary, unrealistic stories, empty emotionless characters, and an ensemble cast that was brought together for no apparent reason.  DO NOT SEE THIS FILM.