Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Looper), Isaac (Seth Rogen, This is the End) and Chris (Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) are three friends that have come together year after year to go through a series of their own personal Christmas traditions. They put on really bad sweaters and travel New York City doing everything from visiting the tree at Rockefeller Square, to dancing on the piano at FAO Schwartz (a la Big), to singing at the only open karaoke bar and eating Chinese food.
Some years back, a new tradition was added to their annual festivities. They learned of a massive secret party called The Nutcracker Ball. This is supposedly the biggest party in the city and the only way to know where to find it is with special red tickets. So now, each year, the trio not only does their normal routine, but also scour the streets for any evidence of The Nutcracker Ball.
This year is different though. Isaac is about to be a father, Chris has had an impressive sports season and has suddenly become wildly popular and Ethan ... well, he hasn't actually done much with his life over the last few years. With the changes in Isaac's and Chris' life though, the three have decided that this would be their last romp through the city on Christmas Eve.
Luckily for Ethan, this is also the year that he happens onto a set of tickets for The Nutcracker Ball, so it looks like this night will truly be a last hoorah and they will go out with a bang, and what a night it turns out to be.
Before leaving Isaac's house, Betsy (Jillian Bell, Workaholics, 22 Jump Street), his wife, gives him a box containing an odd selection of drugs. During her pregnancy, Isaac has been a strong force helping to get ready for the baby, and she gives him the gift as a way to help him unwind for the night. As the night goes on, Isaac ends up taking the various drugs and the combinations of effects end up resulting in several ridiculous situations. Of course, these odd events play off of the other two characters' stories rather well.
When Chris lets a teammate know that he will be at The Nutcracker Ball, that teammate asks him to bring some weed to the party. The trio contacts their high school drug dealer, Mr. Green (Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road, Boardwalk Empire, Man of Steel) who ends up acting as an odd guide for the three main characters as they go through this night of Christmas Miracles. Unfortunately for Chris, after having a passionate encounter with superfan Rebecca (Ilana Glazer), he finds his stash stolen. Chris then becomes hell bent on tracking down Rebecca and getting his weed back.
As for Ethan, his group runs into his ex-girlfriend, Diana (Lizzy Caplan, Masters of Sex) and her best friend, Sarah (Mindy Kaling, The Office, The Mindy Project, This is the End). While together, we get some tidbits about Ethan and Dianna's history, as well as some hints about why they aren't together anymore. It becomes apparent that the two work well together, but existing issues between them only start to get aired out when Chris has his run-in with Rebecca, and Isaac's drug-fueled trip results in Sarah getting offended and storming off, forcing Ethan to leave as well.
I found that, while fully in the "raunch-comedy" genre, The Night Before does a great job of taking the three main characters through some personal growth as they not only have to deal with their own issues, but also with how their friendships have changed over the years. What results is a fun and funny film that has some genuine laugh-out-loud moments and really highlights the comedic strengths of Rogen, Gordon-Levitt and Mackie. What's even better, though, is that the supporting characters also do a fantastic job with their roles making for some really interesting chemistry.
The Night Before also comes with a ridiculous number of special features. While both the deleted scenes and gag reel feel like the standard fare, the other extras included in this movie really add a lot to the overall product. There is a featurette that goes over the hassles the crew had to go through by filming a Christmas movie in August, while another talks a lot about what Christmas movie tropes the filmmakers wanted to portray. Another focuses on a pair of drunken Santa Clauses that appear late in the film and yet another goes into the making of a scene where Isaac ends up attending Midnight Mass with his wife and her family, while high on all sorts of drugs, of course.
The extras are rounded out by a lengthy segment focused on the filming of Isaac's dream sequence where he and Betsy are in a strip club. There is also one featuring Shannon's role as the crew's weed dealer and finally a really long one about the making of the movie in general.
The movie itself is fun enough to warrant a couple of watchings, though only select people might want to make it a Christmas tradition, but the addition of all of the extras really helps the Blu-ray version.
