1. New Year’s Eve (Warner Brothers, 3,505 Theaters, 118 Minutes, Rated PG-13): It’s a premise so mock worthy that even Entertainment Weekly can score laughs by making fun of it. Take a major metropolitan city, add a disparate group of celebrities, add a romantic holiday, and there’s your movie.
That was the formula for Valentine’s Day, and this one, its ipso facto sequel. It basically chronicles the romantic adventures of a bunch of different couples on New Year’s Eve.
This film is fairly comment proof. It’s a sappy romance flick, but otherwise fairly harmless. But there are a few games you can play if Garry Marshall keeps making these kinds of movies. First, try and guess how many actors have worked with Marshall before (and Hector Elizondo doesn’t count). Second, see how many inexperienced music artists he has cast this time (although the musicians in this one have a few movies under their belt). And finally, count the number of Oscar nominations and wins in the cast (so far, in the two films, there have been a lot).
2. The Sitter (Fox, 2,749 Theaters, 81 Minutes, Rated R): Essentially, this is a way darker version of Adventures in Babysitting. Jonah Hill plays a character who is conned into babysitting his neighbor’s kids. Unfortunately, he has things he needs to do, and these things involve drugs, bars and violence. Of course, the kids tag along.
I think it’s a bad sign when the thing people are most fascinated by the film is it being the lead actor’s last movie before a significant weight loss.
