Movie Info

RATING:

PG for mild sensuality and thematic elements

GENRE:

Comedy

STARRING:

Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, Eugene Levy, Andy Richter, Darrell Hammond

DIRECTOR:

Dennie Gordon

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:

Alison Greenspan

PRODUCER:

Christine Sacani, Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen, Denise DiNovi, Robert Thorne

WRITERS:

Emily Fox, Adam Cooper, William Collage

DISTRIBUTOR:

Warner Bros.

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MOVIE REVIEW

'New York Minute'

By Dr. Tom Snyder
Reviewer, MovieGuide Magazine

What's This?

CBN.com – New York Minute is a light, frantic teenage comedy that picks up steam as it goes along, but that has some moral problems in the resolution to its story conflicts.

Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, affectionately known as the Olsen twins, play Jane and Roxy Ryan, respectively, two very different sisters who have grown apart. Jane is studious and conservative to the point of being annoying, while Roxy is a wild teenager who cares only for loud rock and roll, an annoying trait in itself.

Jane has to deliver an important speech at Columbia University, which could land her an Oxford scholarship in England. The same day, Roxy plans on skipping school so she can deliver demo tapes of her rock band to the record producers for the group Simple Plan, who are shooting a rock video in New York City. Hot on Roxy’s truant tail is Max Lomax, a truant officer who thinks he’s Dick Tracy, played by comic actor Eugene Levy.

Roxy gives Jane a ride to the train station, but she unknowingly gets Jane kicked off the train. At the train station where they get off, a mysterious Chinese man drops something into Roxy’s handbag before the police grab him. Waiting to pick up the Chinese man is Benny Bang (played by Andy Richter), the adopted Caucasian son of Ma Bang, the criminal owner of a Chinese restaurant whose sons are helping her steal American music and videos for illegal sale overseas. The thing in Roxy’s bag turns out to be a computer chip filled with stolen music.

Benny tries to kidnap Roxy and Jane. They barely escape, but their clothes get ruined, so they sneak into a fancy hotel suite to clean up. While there, however, Jane learns that Benny has her journal, which includes all the notes for her scholarship speech that afternoon. The hotel room’s guest, who just happens to be a senator, has left her pet Chihuahua, Reynaldo, in the suite. As Jane makes arrangements with Benny to exchange the computer chip and the journal, Reynaldo swallows the chip, leading to further complications and wild scenarios.

The cast, including the Olsens, and characters are appealing enough to turn New York Minute into an enjoyable 92 minutes. The filmmakers have wisely decided to include some funny TV comics in the shenanigans, although Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy’s co-star on Canada’s SCTV in the 1970s, and Darrell Hammond of Saturday Night Live are under-utilized.

New York Minute is aimed at younger fans of the Olsen twins, but it does contain some light potentially objectionable content. For example, there’s the question of how to retrieve something that a dog has swallowed. Also, Jane is such an organized neat freak that she places three paper coverings over the toilet seat before she sits down, even at home. Furthermore, in one scene, Jane, clothed in only a towel, runs after the dog when a handsome young bike messenger she met earlier accidentally runs into her with his bike and falls on her, with only the towel between them. Finally, at the end of the movie, a lie resolves some of the story and character conflicts, and Roxy’s truancy from school is never punished.

Thus, while the second half of New York Minute is loaded with funny situations and characterizations, the movie is not as morally uplifting as it could have been.

Please address your comments to:

Barry M. Meyer, Chairman/CEO
Warner Bros., Inc.
4000 Warner Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91522-0001
Phone: (818) 954-6000
Website: www.movies.warnerbros.com