Mr. And Mrs. Smith

Released: 2005
Comedy
Director: Doug Liman
Starring: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A long time married couple that's getting bored with their marriage realizes that they are both assassins who need to kill each other according to their bosses.

This movie first off isn't funny, second it's not a romance either, so to call it a rom com or even a comedy is misleading.  It's ridiculous most of the time and average the rest.

A man and woman fall in love within weeks and get married.  They've both lied to each other about what they really do for a living and on the outside, 6 years later, they look a bit bored with each other.
After both their bosses tell them to kill the same target, they end up realizing who their spouse really is.
They try killing each other and then have sex.  Their marriage is renewed, blah, blah, blah.  A whole bunch more stuff that is totally unrealistic happens, happily ever after.

1 out of 5 for some nice sets and cute outfits.

The Distinguished Gentleman

Released: 1992
Comedy
Director: Jonathan Lynn
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Lane Smith, Sheryl Lee Ralph
Running Time: 112 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A con man decides to go for the biggest con of all and become a US senator.

I watched this movie by accident, and even though it got some really poor reviews, I thought it was funny enough to be good.

After a well known and well loved congressman dies suddenly during his campaign for re-election, Eddie Murphy realizes an opportunity.  They both have the same name and he wants to ride the dead senator's popularity and hope the voting public doesn't realize the switch.
It works and he's elected.  He moves from Florida to D.C. and starts learning what happens in congress and how wrong and crooked everyone really is.  Even though he originally wanted to be as crooked as the rest he sees some opportunities to help people who really need it and he has a change of heart from a con man to someone who's trying to make a difference.

It was funny and cute enough to probably be counted as Murphy's last good movie.

2 and 1/2 out of 5 for being entertaining and fun.

Prince of Darkness

Released: 1987
Horror
Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jameson Parker
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: Inside an old abandoned church lives pure evil in green liquid form.

An old priest dies with a box containing a key to an old empty church.  A new priest investigates and finds in the basement of this abandoned church a vat of swirling green liquid which he thinks might be the devil.  He hires a bunch of physics students and their teacher to investigate what they can find out without opening the vat.  Through research they find ancient texts saying the liquid is Satan himself and if released he will try to bring his father, an Anti-God into our plane, presumably ruining the world.  Problem is, as they discover more info, liquid starts to escape without anyone noticing and people start acting very strange.

I thought this was a really interesting idea for a movie.  It's original, well paced, and interesting to watch.
With that said, it looks pretty dated and some of the effects look pretty goofy.
Some of the scenes came off kinda' silly, but I'll forgive that since I enjoyed the story.

If you like horror movies, I'd recommend it with the caveat that some of it comes off a bit silly or goofy.
3 out of 5 for being a great idea, if not a great execution.

Melancholia

Released: 2011
Drama? Sci-fi?
Director: Lars Von Trier
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgard
Running Time: an agonizingly slow 136 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  I don't really know how to summarize this one.

This movie is a ripped off idea, style-wise from Kubrick's 2001.  The opening sequences are all slow motion and has a backdrop of classical music while strange impossible images are shown involving space and planet's colliding.

The first half of the movie, complete with black and white title card using one word, just like 2001, is about a wedding of Kirsten Dunst and some other actor I've never seen.  They are two hours late to their own reception apparently trying to help the limo driver navigate the long driveway.  Dunst is ill with either depression or bi-polar disease because she's terribly unhappy and stops in the middle of the celebration to take a bath upstairs in her sister's house.  Oh, she also sleeps with some random guy out on her sister's golf course instead of her new husband, who she left waiting for her in a bedroom upstairs.  I should mention her sister and brother-in-law have a huge mansion and their own golf course and paid for the wedding.
Anyway, the husband's tired of waiting for her to come up to have sex with him so he leaves her, as in, I want to divorce you.  So then she's alone.
Second half of the movie, they finally start talking about the new planet that supposed to either pass by Earth or collide with it.  The sister who isn't Dunst, has a child and seems to have some sort of anxiety problem as well.  Slowly, the non-Dunst sister gets more and more concerned that the other planet is going to collide with Earth.

This movie was a HUGE waste of time.  It's not stylish in a creative unique way, it's a direct rip off of Stanley Kubrick's style for his own sci-fi movie from the 1960's.  There's also not a lot of dialogue as was the case with 2001, but this time it doesn't work.  It simply is annoying and makes the movie seem even longer than 2 and 1/2 hours.  It was painfully slow, agonizing to watch, and I don't know how such a useless movie got such good reviews on Rottentomatoes.com.

I hated it.

0 out of 5 for annoying the hell out of me and having nothing redeeming about this movie to say.

Never Been Kissed

Released: 1999
Comedy
Director: Raja Gosnell
Starring: Drew Barrymore, Michael Vartan
Running Time: 107 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A new reporter gets her first assignment as an undercover teenage girl in high school.

A copy editor wants to be a journalist.  The Chicago Sun Time's owner lets her leap frog over her bosses wishes and allows her her first story.  Go undercover as a high schooler and learn what kids are doing these days.
Problem is she was a total loser back in high school and it seems she's doomed to repeat the same path, until her brother saves the day and her reputation.  She falls for a hot teacher, but is conflicted when the paper's owner tells her to make a story out of him or else she'll lose her job and get her boss fired as well.

This was a predictable, uninspired movie with a terrible performance from Barrymore.  She was a producer and that's always a bad sign that it wouldn't get made without her money behind it.

Skip it.
1 out of 5 for Michael Vartan.

Dune

Released: 1984
Sci-fi
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Sting
Running Time: 137 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A Duke's son is the chosen one and leads his new army on a strange desert planets filled with sand dunes and giant worms.

This movie was so weird and I don't know who to blame.  Could be David Lynch since he really likes to do weird concepts, could be the author of the book since I've never read it.  Could be that 2 and 1/2 hours isn't enough time to compress this really long novel into anything that makes sense.
With that said, it's hard to describe.  Easy to say though that the special effects are certainly dated and some of the scenes are kinda' goofy.

The universe is under the power of this drug called spice that allows people to fold time, live longer, and expand their minds into traveling through space without machines.  The Duke's son wasn't supposed to ever live, but his mother knew his father wanted a son, even though she was only allowed to have daughters. Anyway, the son ends up being the chosen one and starts a war to control the universe.

I don't know what to think of this one.  I guess...
2 out of 5 for some interesting ideas and maybe in the hands of a less bizarre director, could have been better.

Before Sunrise

Released: 1995
Romance
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Running Time: 105 long boring minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  Two young people spend a day and night in Vienna talking after meeting on a train.

So SO BORING.
I saw this got 100% on rottentomatoes.com and I had accidentally seen the sequel to this movie first, Before Sunset where they meet up again, and I didn't really like that one either.  I thought maybe I would like the second one more if I had seen the 1st one but it looks like that's not the case.
These two strangers meet on a train on the way to their separate locations when they strike up a conversation and hit it off.  When the guy is supposed to get off he asks the woman to come with him and she agrees.  They end up walking around Vienna all afternoon and night until they stop and have sex in the grass.  I guess they are supposed to have some connection, but I don't see it.
I was bored within the first 20 minutes of the film and I saw no instant connection that the actors should have had for this movie to work.  I don't know what the critics were watching, but it couldn't have been this movie.  It's not a romance, it's not a drama, it's not a character study.  It's just a bad idea.

0 out of 5 for giving me nothing but a wasted block of time.

Ali

Released: 2001
Biography
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight
Running Time: 157 long boring minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  The story of Muhammad Ali as he started out to his time in the ring later on.

It's obvious that a lot of time and money went into this biopic that travels with Ali from 1964-1974.  As he rises to the world Champion, marries and divorces multiple wives, as he's drafted for the Vietnam war and refuses to go, where strictly for political reasons they strip him of his belt and there's a lot talent in the film as well.
With that said, it's boring.  Muhammad Ali's life story is not boring, but the presentation of it here, and the extremely slow pacing is what brings the picture down.
I was interested in seeing it at first, but after the first 40 minutes I realized I still had 2 hours to go and it just seemed to drag on and on.
Even if you like Muhammad Ali, I recommend you steer clear of this rambling, slow paced film.
Skip It!
2 out of 5 for some good acting from people in small roles.

Major Payne

Released: 1995
Comedy
Director: Nick Castle
Starring: Damon Wayans, Michael Ironside
Running Time: 95 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A Major is being discharged from the Marines and finds a new purpose at a kid's school.

So this is a goofy comedy with lots of silly bathroom humor and visual gags, but there was some of this that I did think was funny.
Major Payne loves to kill people, but the wars he's used to are drying up and the Marines discharge him from the Military.  Without anything else to do, he longs to kill something.
His C.O. finally contacts him that there is a place he's needed.
He shows up for work, only to find out, he's going to be training R.O.T.C. members in a kid's school.  The kids, for the most part, are horribly out of shape and seem to have no pride or interest in themselves or the military.  Major Payne shapes them up and makes them a cohesive family unit.

3 out of 5 for being funny where it's supposed to be.
Incidentally, I watched this movie the same day as Will Smith's Ali, and this movie was much better.

The American

Released: 2010
Drama
Director: Anton Corbijn
Starring: George Clooney, Violante Placido
Running Time: 105 minutes
Rated: R



The breakdown: An American assassin hides out in Italy after his last assignment ended badly.  Based on the book by Martin Booth titled A Very Private Gentleman.

So I get to the end of this film and I really loved it.  I checked out the reviews and see that they are really lopsided with lots of critics and viewers complaining it was boring.
Well, it's not boring for the intelligent, patient viewer who is interested in a CHARACTER STUDY more than someone looking for an action flick where there's a big body count and no intelligent dialogue.

With me writing a book, it's easy for me to see how hard it is to write a good story.  This is a good story, it's gripping, and even though it's slow paced, it's engaging.

An assassin hides out in an Italian town after his last job went sideways.  Despite him trying to blend in, he's very lonely and seeks out a friendship with a local priest and a relationship with a prostitute who he develops feelings for.  I don't want to say too much so as to not ruin the story, but know this...This is not an action spy film like James Bond.  There's not a ton of eye candy and explosions and shoot outs.  This is a character study and a brilliant one at that.

4 and 1/2 out of 5 for a brilliant clean and simple film.

Dogma

Released: 1999
Comedy
Director: Kevin Smith
Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
Running Time: 130 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A seemingly average woman is called upon by God to save humanity from two fallen angels who are trying to get back into Heaven.

I don't know how to feel about this movie.  I did chuckle a couple times, but it wasn't super funny.  It's definitely full of crass humor, sex and drug references, lots of violence, and some interesting ideas about religion and God.

The main plot is that this abortion clinic worker has lost her faith and is recovering from a divorce when she is approached by the voice of god, played by Alan Rickman, to help save humanity.  At first she doesn't believe she's the chosen one, but events that unfurl soon after change her mind.  She has to stop two fallen angels from getting back into Heaven and she needs to find two prophets to help her along the way.

Obviously this is a controversial movie since it has anything to do with religion (which is such a ridiculous taboo in this country) but anyway, I know anyone who wants to see it has to be open minded to fully ingest all of it.
I'd say see it unless you're a religious nut, and then I'd probably say skip because it'll probably make your head explode.
3 out of 5 for being full of interesting ideas about God, but I wish it had been a bit more mature and little less crass.

Twilight - the book

Released: 2008
Author: St Meyer
Pages: 544 agonizingly stupid pages
Teenage

The breakdown: The phenomena that is a teenage girl falls in love with an old vampire.

So, the real reason I read this (well, half of it was as far as I got) was to see what made it so popular and how good or bad the writing was.  I did not surprise myself.
Regardless of how many people tell me the book is so much better than the movies, it's not the truth.  This book is just as bad as the movie.
The first time author has her own agenda to keep girls away from having sex before they are married.  She warns of all the bad things that might happen to the female lead if she continues to hang around and/or make out with this vampire.
Later on in the series we find that even after you get married, sex is still dangerous creating a child that almost eats it's way out of the mother, plus abortion is not an option, no matter what the circumstance.
There's too many direct moral messages the author is trying to hit you over the head with, for this to still remain a novel.  She should've just written a non-fiction book on how to raise your teenage daughter.

Anyway, the plot, teenage girl moves from Phoenix to Washington state in a dreary little town named Forks that almost never sees warm temperatures or sunlight.  She's the new girl in a very small town.  She's hit on by several boys at once, but is interested in none of them.  She does like the vampire pretending to be a boy who just smelled something bad and who looks at her as though he wants to eat her, literally, for dinner.

They start a relationship that sets the town ablaze with gossip and makes the vampire a bit of an outcast within his own "family."

The characters are always angry or filled with sarcasm, but beyond that, you don't really get to know them on a deep level.  It's all surface and the author goes on and on about how perfect and gorgeous the boy vampire is.  It's quite annoying and distracting to the reader's enjoyment.

The characters are also not allowed to talk without a lot of different versions of she said, he said surrounding the dialogue, so that's what not to do for writing 101.

I got as far as about 260-something pages before I quit.  The part where he's standing in the sun in a sleeveless button down shirt?  Why would he be wearing this?  But anyway, and he's sparkling, was just too much ridiculous crap for me to continue on.

1 out of 5 for showing me how not to write a novel.

Here's the review from my amazon.com account:

I saw the movie first and hated it. My best friend tried to persuade me that the book was better. I resisted. I am now in the process of writing my own novel and wanted to try to understand why this story, despite it's utter lack of good story line or characters, was so immensely popular. I rented it from the library and could only make it halfway through the book before giving up in disgust.
The female lead is good at hating things, complaining, and being obsessed with a "boy" who's over a hundred years old pretending to be a teenager.
The male lead is good at inappropriate emotional reactions to simple things the whiny girl says, and being moody or strange.
There is no chemistry between them. There is weak writing followed by a boring story line. I gave up at the point where the vampire shows his sparkles to her in the forest wearing a button down sleeveless shirt.
What I learned from reading half of this rubbish is how not to write a love story, which in a way is valuable, but for the understanding why it's popular....I'm still at a loss.
This book and movie was utter crap with no worth or entertainment value.
I would've given it a zero but the lowest I could go was 1.

Hanna

Released: 2011
Action, Drama
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Eric Bana, Saoirse Ronan
Running Time: 111 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A teenage assassin trained by her father is being tracked down by the government for elimination.

I thought this might be a crappy movie, but watched it anyways.
It's definitely weird.  I mean, there's a lot of stuff that is kinda' strange visually and I think the filmmaker though they were being quirky or artsy, but it just came off as weird instead.
This 16 year old lives in the frozen wilderness with her father and one day pushes a button that releases the government hounds on her.  Yes, they do it on purpose knowing they are being hunted anyway.
She and her father agree to meet up somewhere in Germany and they separate.  She gets caught and he almost does.  She breaks loose and kills a lot of people all while trying to get back to her dad.
I suppose the base story was interesting, but some of the weird stuff really gets in the way of this being a better movie.

2 out of 5 for me.
I say, skip it.

Cold Mountain

Released: 2003
Drama, Romance
Director: Anthony Minghella
Starring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger
Running Time: 154 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  During the Civil War, a deserter tries desperately to get back to the love of his life.

This was based on the book of the same name by Charles Frazier, which I totally want to read now that I've seen the movie.  Where as in The Notebook, I had heard great things and it was a total flop, this one I had heard nothing about and it was a great success.
A young couple meets and like each other, but then the Civil War breaks out and they are torn apart without being able to say more than a few paragraphs to each other.
He hates the war and leaves, a deserter, who is hunted down by many people for rewards and such.
She meanwhile, stays on her fathers farm and tries to cope with not knowing whether he's alive or not or getting her letters or not.
He's been injured during battle and finds many obstacles to getting back to her, and even though the film's almost 3 hours long, it never feels long.
All the main cast, and the supporting cast are very well known and strong actors and I enjoyed this dramatic romance immensely.
SEE IT!

4 and 1/2 out of 5 for being damn near perfect.  Sure to go down as one of my favorite romantic films of all time.

Behind the Candelabra

Released: 2013 on HBO
Biography
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Michael Douglas
Running Time: 118 minutes
Rated: TV MA or R in other words

The breakdown:  This is the story based on the autobiographical novel of Liberace and his much younger lover, Scott Thorson.

So Liberace apparently seduced this young L.A. guy who worked with animals for stage and screen.  They start a love affair and the young lover moves in almost right away.  Liberace tells him he wants to adopt him so that if anything happens his young lover will be taken care of.  Soon, Liberace has eyes for a new younger lover and Scott Thorson is kicked out.
A downer of a movie, but there wasn't anything else to watch, which is why I sat through an anal sex scene between Damon and Douglas.

Um, I don't know how to rate this one.  I guess if you liked Liberace it's worth your time, if not, maybe not then.

If I had to put a number to it - 3 out of 5 for being well done, just not super great.

Dark Shadows

Released: 2012
Comedy, fantasy
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter
Running Time: 113 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: This is a spin on the classic old television show of the same name.

So I've never really like Tim Burton, so, in the end, I'm not surprised I didn't like this movie.

Depp plays Barnabas Collins who was cursed back in the late 1700's and became a vampire.  His scorned love interest, who's a powerful witch, created a trap for him in which he got buried (alive kinda) for 200 years.  Meanwhile, she took over the town that he lived in and was fine until Depp got released from his trap by accident.
He goes back to his home where he finds new relatives of his living there and they work together to try and get his town back from the witch.
Now the first half of the film was doing good, but the last half ruined everything that started off right.  The ending was really silly and a bit of a rip off of another movie, which, I can't name or else you'll know how this movie ends.
Anyway, it ended up being just a little below average from me, even though I chuckled a couple times.

2 out of 5 for some laughs.

The Amazing Spider-man

Released: 2012
Action, Adventure
Director: Marc Webb
Starring: Martin Sheen, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone
Running Time: 136 long minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A totally unnecessary reboot on the Spiderman franchise.

I say unnecessary because this movie was poorly done.
Here's the plot:
Peter Parker who is a photographer but doesn't have anything to do with the paper, still loses his parents mysteriously and wonders what really happened to them.
He's left with Uncle Ben and Aunt May of course, but he takes up an interest in science after he's bitten by a spider.
There's no Mary Jane, instead we have some science major named Gwen.  She's super smart and an intern at Oscorp.
Uncle Ben still gets killed by a robbery gone wrong after Peter lets him (the robber) go, leading him to an interest in chasing down bad guys.

So they've totally messed up the iconic story, and to boot they got a lame awkward actor to play Spiderman.  He cannot do the role justice and a lot of scenes make him look to be a kid dressing up like Spiderman for Halloween.

The romance is terribly boring and lacks any spark, even though those two are dating in real life.

The special effects take the main stage and storyline and character development are on the back burner in this one.  Plus, the soundtrack is painfully bad and stands out so that it takes away from the movie instead of adding to it.
The whole project reeks of bad script writing and becomes a melodrama for superhero stories.

Skip it!
2 out of 5 for Emma Stone.

Sideways

Released: 2004
Comedy, Drama
Director: Alexander Payne
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen
Running Time: 126 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: Two friends go on a trip to the California wine country for a week before one of the men gets married the following Saturday.  Based on a novel by the same name.

So this is a character study movie.  One man is an aspiring writer who is an English teacher Monday-Friday. He's responsible, a little up-tight, emotional, and caring.
The other is an actor who is immature and irresponsible and just wants to get laid one more time, or two, before he gets married at the end of the week.
The two disembark on an adventure up north to the wine country of California.  You can certainly feel the dread coming off both of these characters.
They talk about their lives and relationships and somehow at the end of the week, they are still friends, even though the irresponsible one has repeatedly messed up and left his friend in the dust for a woman who he thinks he's in love with.

I don't know, this was a solid movie, but it just didn't do it for me.  Ended up being just okay for me.
3 out of 5 for solid acting and script, but something about it just wasn't spectacular for me.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Released: 2011
Romance, Comedy
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Amr Waked
Running Time: 107 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A scientist and a business consultant work together with a middle-eastern sheik to create a stream where fly fishermen can come to catch salmon in Yemen.

This was based on a book by the same name.  I'm not sure if the book is any better, but this movie was kind of boring for me.  The scientist loves fly fishing and he works for a fishing magazine.  The consultant works for some firm where I assume she makes things possible or finds a way to do impossible things.  He's married and unhappy, she's in a new relationship with a guy who after 3 weeks of them dating gets sent off to  war and asks her to wait for him.
The scientist and the consultant meet up to see how this plan is going to work and then fly to Yemen to do on site research with the sheik.  Of course they fall in love, even though, it seems the romance is kind of the subplot to this "Romantic" movie.  It's more about the fish I think.

Kinda boring, but well done.
2 out of 5 for moving slow sometimes and just being ok.
Skip it, even if you like romances.

School of Rock

Released: 2003
Comedy
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Jack Black, Adam Pascal, Mike White
Running Time: 108 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A loser without a job who just got kicked out of his own rock band, needs a way to make quick money to pay his rent owed to his friend.

So Black lives with his friend, who has a bitchy new girlfriend demanding Black move out or pay his rent which is way overdue.  Black gets voted out of his own band, and can't stand the idea of getting a real job, so he's lost.  One day when he's the only one at home, he takes a call meant for his roommate who's a substitute teacher.  He decides to pretend to be his friend so he can work for a few weeks at an elite prep school and ends up turning the class room into a rock band so they can compete at a battle of the bands competition where the grand prize is $20,000.

I think I chuckled once, but otherwise I didn't much care for this.  I have to say Jack Black was not as annoying as he usually is so that was a plus, but the plot was just too thin for me to care and all the characters were just surface of course.  This was probably a great movie role for Black since he gets to play air guitar and make stupid "rock" faces.

Skip it.  1 out of 5 for Joan Cusack.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day

Released: 2008
Comedy, Romance
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Starring: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Ciaran Hinds
Running Time: 92 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: Based on a book written in 1938 by the same name by Winifred Watson, a recently fired governess works her way into being a social secretary to an up and coming actress.

I almost never use the word delightful for anything, but this movie was!
McDormand plays a governess who never seems to find the right house to work in and has just been fired again.  While she's at the agency that placed her before in jobs, her "boss" for lack of a better term refuses to place her anywhere else.  While getting kicked out, she steals an address for a possible job and goes there straight away.  Within minutes she proves to be too good for the up and coming actress that needed an assistant to let go and secures herself a job.  The governess is exposed to a world filled with luxury like she's never experienced and quickly becomes very influential on several people.
Taking place just before WWII the movie is full of old world glamour and Art Deco!  My favorite!
This movie is so charming, so fresh, so delightful, I can't believe it wasn't made into a movie sooner, although, I understand when it was originally released in the late 1930's the book was a smash and it was supposed to be made into a film but the start of WWII actually ended that possibility, then it was re-released by the publishing house in 2000 and was re-discovered all over again.

If you like romance, or the time period of the 1930's, or Art Deco, or laughing, this one is a winner.

I LOVED IT within just the first few minutes and I think you will too.
SEE IT!!!
5 out of 5!  It was so good, I wished it had been longer than just 1 hour and a half.

200 Cigarettes

Released: 1999
Comedy, Romance
Director: Risa Bramon Garcia
Starring: Ben Affleck, Dave Chappelle, Kate Hudson, Paul Rudd
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: On a New Year's Eve in 1981, several young singles search for fun and love.

Okay, so this is what the movie titled New Year's Eve tried to achieve but failed miserably.  Unlike Love Actually, or Valentine's Day or any ensemble cast recently for that matter, all the characters are interesting and fun to watch.  You look forward to each couple as another scene starts and you see how paths start to cross.  I loved the music of the 80's, the cameo from Elvis Costello, this comedy was actually funny.  I enjoyed it and easily can recommend it you.

3 and 1/2 out of 5 for being funny and entertaining.
P.S.  I don't know why it's called 200 Cigarettes, although, I might take a guess that that is how many actual cigarettes are seen on screen during the entire movie.