With a supporting/ensemble role in Christmas With the Coopers and a co-starring turn in this festive turkey, Anthony Mackie must be on Santa’s naughty list. Here he teams up with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a mirthless bromance about three old friends getting together for a last hurrah (stop me if you’ve heard this one) Christmas Eve blowout. There’s some mawkish twaddle about parenthood (both becoming one and losing your own), but pretty soon Rogen is off his head on ’shrooms and downloading pictures of huge cocks on to a mobile phone, so it’s basically business as usual.
Jonathan Levine, the director of 50/50, can’t seem to muster much enthusiasm for the legendary secret ball to which our antiheroes are heading, and which not even a chart-topping cameo (one of many) can raise from the doldrums. Top marks to Jillian Bell and Michael Shannon for briefly raising the overall tone; brickbats to James Franco for bringing it right back down again.
