Movie Diva Review: "New Year's Eve"

I will get straight to the point so as not to waste your time as this movie wasted mine: "New Year's Eve" is lame.

The movie is directed by Garry Marshall and written by Katherine Fugate, the same team who brought you the celebrity-packed and equally awful "Valentine's Day" in 2010. Apparently, they love to highlight the holidays. Maybe next year we'll get Arbor Day or Independence Day – minus the aliens, Will Smith and an enjoyable plot.

Just like "Valentine's Day," "New Year's Eve" is filled with A-list celebrities. In fact, Jessica Biel, Ashton Kutcher and Hector Elizondo are in both movies, but this is not a sequel. We get to watch a new cast of characters rush around New York City before the ball drops in times square on December 31, 2011. The plot lines intersect, but unfortunately, that doesn't make them interesting.

You would think with a cast that includes Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Hilary Swank (all Academy Award winners), Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kutcher, this movie would be very entertaining.

It's not. It's really not.

The laughs are few and far between in this schmaltzy movie. I did tear up a couple of times during sentimental moments, but I'm sappy and an easy mark. These "moments" were not that deep or touching.

Because I hate to be completely negative, here's what I did like: Sofia Vergara and New York all decked out for the holidays. You know Vergara from the hit sitcom "Modern Family." She's funny and sassy in this movie, but you don't see her much. And New York is gorgeous in its holiday finery. You'd have to work hard to make this iconic scenery look bad.

And speaking of looking bad, did the hair and makeup people hate Pfeiffer? We all know she's a gorgeous woman, but she looked awful for the first half of this movie. She's playing a character who's trying to make over her life, so I'd expect her to look dowdy, but not as if she hadn't slept in months. But toward the end of the movie, you can clearly see someone received the memo that they should throw some under-eye concealer and blush on the woman.

I give "New Year's Eve" 2 out of 5 stars. It's rated PG-13.