New Year’s Eve movies on DVD
Yes, there are a million Christmas movies. But films about (or set around) New
Year are a little harder to come by. You probably won’t find them strategically
placed next to the check out at the local supermarket as is custom with
Christmas movies come December.
But with a little digging New Year’s movies aren’t too hard to find. When you
think about it New Year is the perfect plot device around which to set a movie
script: drama, tears, romance and of course fireworks.
Take
Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001). The story covers a year in the life of
Britain’s most miserable single woman,
Bridget Jones (Renee Zellwegger), whose diary as we learn is stuffed
with exact statistics on her struggles with alcohol, food, smoking, and men.
The film starts with Bridget making a heartfelt New Year’s resolution to “drink
less…quit smoking…” and to go on a quest “for the right man”. She breaks the
first two but keeps the latter, only going on a quest for two “right” men… They
both end up pursuing her with decidedly crowd-pleasing results in one of
Working Titles resolutely most successful feel good films...
Speaking of nicotine, the aptly named 200 Cigarettes (1999) also has a plot
revolving around New Year. The year is 1981, the place is New York City – the
grungy Lower East Side to be exact - and it’s New Year’s Eve. It’s going to be
a long one...
A cast of twelve or so twenty-somethings are on their way to a party, wrestling
all the while with love, lust and relationships. 200 Cigarettes boasts a
veritable who’s who of an ‘indie cred’ cast, including
Ben Affleck and brother Casey, one time “It Grrrl” Janeane Garofalo,
Christina Ricci, a pre-Almost Famous
Kate Hudson, a pre-supercomic
Dave Chappelle, and rock/pop musicians
Elvis Costello and
Courtney Love. You guessed it – between them they smoke 200 cigarettes
over the course of this very long crazy night.
For more of a horror NYE theme visit Arnie “The Governator”
Schwarzenegger’s
End Of Days (1999). Arnie himself had seen better days by the time this
movie came along, which pitted the Terminator against The Devil (played wildly
over-the-top by
Gabriel Byrne). Satan returns to Earth (read New York City) in the days
leading up to the turn of the second millennium (2000). On New Year’s Eve he
the Evil One must find a body to inhabit, then a woman to have his demon spawn,
but hells bells, finds ex-cop Jericho Cane (Arnie) is out to stop him.
Predictably the film counts down to the big climax at midnight only instead of
fireworks there’s just fire – and tons of it. The end of the world is nigh.
And the same could be said of the mob stuck in the police station under siege
in the underrated remake of
Assault On Precinct (2005), an update of John Carpenter’s low budget,
gritty 1976 film. Angry young cop Jake Roenick (Ethan
Hawke) and his colleagues have drawn the short straws this New Year’s
Eve, stuck working at a station that’s about to shut down. Their last
assignment is to “take delivery” of a contentious prisoner, Marion Bishop
(Matrix’s Lawrence Fishburne). Coming under siege from forces unknown, cop
Roenick turns guardian over this cop killer when he smells corruption. It’s a
taut, simply made action thriller that does the job, well. Maybe that could
inspire a New Year’s resolution for Hollywood come this December 31st: to only
remake classics if they’re at least as good as this one.
- Megan
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
