The Night Before * * *

I saw the preview of this about a month ago and immediately marked it down as a “must see”.  The trailer made me nearly wet myself laughing. Now that I have seen the whole film I have to say they were the best bits. The rest is…… okay.

Seth Rogen is a brilliant comic actor and he owns this film as surely as he owns his Jewishness. A heritage which he makes both comic and serious reference to in nearly every film he does.

It's the night before Christmas and three lads are out on the town in New York. 
Isaac has been given permission to party hard by his loving wife.  Ethan wants to party hard because he is alone and that's what you do, and Chris wants to party hard because he’s had the best year of his life and is now a sports celebrity.

Also, the partying will help Isaac forget his fear of imminent fatherhood, Ethan his regret of letting the love of his life slip away and Chris suppress his dirty secret.

There is a legendary party that only the most elite can get into.  It’s hidden away. On this night the boys get tickets. It doesn’t start till late and so there is time to kill.

If responsible consumption of alcohol and drugs is important to you, you’re not going to feel comfortable with this. The boys are utterly irresponsible and unapologetic with their drug and alcohol intake.They run round town, consuming, vomiting, hustling for weed and opening up about their personal issues.

There are about half a dozen hysterically funny scenes, the rest are a bit funny, making the distracting contribution of other characters welcome: Ilana Glazer plays a sexy evil thieving grinch and she is a very funny distraction.  Lizzy Caplan plays Ethan’s  ex girlfriend and she is a very beautiful distraction.  Michael Shannon  plays Mr Green the drug dealer and he is a darkly funny - and somewhat disturbing - distraction.