The Premise
The Night Before isn’t the type of movie to win awards, but it is the type to win over your funny bone. A comedy set on Christmas Eve built around three life long friends who started this tradition 14 years ago when Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) lost his parents to a drunk driver. Isaac (Seth Rogen) is his Jewish friend who is about to have his first child and as a result they decide to make this the last time they do their traditional Christmas Eve. Chris (Anthony Mackie) is their superstar friend. A guy who thanks to some steroid usage finally made an impact in the NFL. A big fan of social media, which plays throughout the film, Chris allows himself to get carried away with his newly acquired fame even though the guilt of lying to his mom is always on his mind.
A Christmas Carol on Mushrooms
Not your prototypical Christmas comedy, The Night Before is everything you would expect from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Pineapple Express, This Is the End) with A Christmas Carol on mushrooms thrown in. Each of our main characters gets the Scrooge treatment throughout the film whenever they come across their high school pot dealer, Mr. Green (Michael Shannon). He is all three visiting spirits in one crossed with a guardian angel with magical weed.
Some comedies are hit or miss and most of the time what some find funny others won’t, but The Night Before wins me over right from the start and will be added to the Christmas DVD rotation next holiday season. Levitt, Rogen and Mackie have good chemistry with one another and it shows in how much fun they are having and that is what Christmas should be, fun. This film isn’t for everyone and yes there are d*** jokes throughout and jokes about drugs and religion as well. It’s a stupid film, but it is just endearing enough and just the right amount of outrageousness to have you laughing throughout.