The Night Before

Once upon a time, I used to be an awful and borderline loathsome individual. For whatever reason, my buddy and I started this ridiculous tradition of hitting up the Yellow Rose on the eve of every Christmas Eve. I'm not sure why we ever did this but I am quite certain that it had something to do with the fact that my buddy loved strippers and the song Lapdance by N.E.R.D. I mean really though, who doesn't love that song?

Yellow Rose was by far the best strip club in Austin at the time and both of us were secretly hoping that something shady, but not too shady, went down in the V.I.P. room. Our chances were high considering the fact that we were the only two losers in a place like this on a day that close to one of the holiest holidays there is. Everyone else had the common decency to not show up to their relatives' homes smelling of stripper perfume and H.E.B.'s cheap version of Moet.

Thankfully though nothing out of the ordinary ever happened, so I was able to walk out with both my health and some of my dignity in tact. But the fact that it ever happened in the first place is embarrassing none the less.

Well in The Night Before, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and his two closest friends in Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie have their own Christmas Eve tradition. They take him out and get him wasted in the streets of Manhattan every year in an attempt to help him deal with the loss of his parents. Apparently some drunk driver killed both of his parents on that night, and the last thing want for him is to be alone.

Well after 11 years of doing this, both Rogen and Mackie are growing a bit tired of it as they have moved on with their lives and now feel as though they are acting as enablers for their stagnant friend. Rogen now has a wife and a baby on the way, while Mackie's professional sports career is about to take off. So they have all come to an agreement that this will be their final hoorah and they plan on doing it up big.

All throughout this movie there are clever references to some of the past Christmas classics we all grew up watching when we were kids. But thankfully they do add their own twist on them with a few gags that will have you rolling (no pun intended) for days. I say no pun intended because some of the funniest moments in this film come from the characters' reactions to the drugs they are taking. At some point Rogen's shtick will become tiresome but it's not quite there yet as it honestly feels like he's simply revisiting some of the bad trips he's had in real life himself. Even when he's at his most offensive (see the church scene and his recorded video) you can't help but giggle at his antics because he reminds you of that cousin in your family that no one wants to claim.

Then of course there's Ilana Glazer from Broad City (still can't believe I met her in real life and had no clue who she was) who basically steals the show every time she's on screen. Her groupie scene in the dirty bathroom stall still has me laughing out loud whenever I think about it. And of course Michael Shannon was terrific as the local drug dealer. 

This movie isn't great but it is silly enough to make you feel like it was money well spent. If for nothing else, you should pop in to see the killer cameos and to hear Tracy Morgan narrate a Christmas story. That alone was worth it for me. I rate this movie as barely FRESH!