A nice cameo from Michael Shannon saves this smug guys’ comedy from utter mediocrity – sort of. There’s also a funny bad-taste gag about who was to blame for the crucifixion of Jesus. It’s a conceited semi-stoner adventure set on Christmas Eve, with mawkish top notes of male self-pity.
Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie and Joseph Gordon play Isaac, Chris and Ethan, three amigos who have known each other since forever. Their tradition is to go out and get wasted the night before Christmas, but now they figure they’re getting too old for it, so this is to be their last hurrah, especially as Isaac’s wife Betsy (Jillian Bell) is pregnant and about to pop. The film incidentally can’t decide if Betsy is to be uptight or cool: the butt of the joke or in on the joke. Betsy actually gives Isaac a little stash of drugs so he can enjoy his boys’ night out, but is then frowningly mortified when Ethan shows up high at the church where she has taken her parents for midnight mass. Her characterisation doesn’t make sense, but then the film’s bro ethic means she doesn’t really matter.
Things improve when the guys need more substances from Michael Shannon’s strange drug-dealer, selling weed that gives “surprisingly accurate visions of the future”. But he’s not worth the price of admission.
