New York Minute
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.jpg) Behold, the movie that was the final nail in the coffin for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's career!
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New York Minute is a 2004 American comedy film starring Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, and Eugene Levy, while Andy Richter, Jared Padalecki, Riley Smith, Andrea Martin, and Bob Saget are featured in supporting roles. It was directed by Dennie Gordon and released on May 7, 2004. In the film, Mary-Kate and Ashley play twins with opposing personalities who have a series of adventures around New York City. New York Minute reunited Mary-Kate and Ashley with Saget since they all starred together on the ABC original TV series Full House, which ran from 1987 to 1995. It was the Olsen twins' second theatrical film release after 1995's It Takes Two. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and was a box office bomb. Because of this, it is the last film featuring both Olsens to date. It was also the last film released by Dualstar Entertainment before it went into dormancy.
Plot
Seventeen-year-old twin sisters Jane (Ashley Olsen), an uptight overachiever, and Roxy Ryan (Mary-Kate Olsen), a laid-back punk-rock rebel, are completely different and never see eye to eye. They live with their widower father in Syosset, a suburban Long Island town. The two journey into New York City so Jane can deliver a speech for a prestigious college scholarship and Roxy can give her demo tape to a music group. Jane and Roxy board the train into New York but are thrown off after Roxy is found without a ticket. Jane flirts with Jim (Riley Smith), and a chip device is mistakenly planted in Roxy's bag. Bennie Bang (Andy Richter), the man behind the device, offers Roxy a limousine ride, and she accepts, dragging Jane along. He locks them inside, but they escape through the sunroof into the subway. Meanwhile, Max Lomax (Eugene Levy), an overzealous truant officer, is on the hunt for Roxy. Jane realizes she's left her day planner in the limo, which has money and the prompt cards for her speech. She and Roxy break into a posh hotel room to freshen up, where they receive a phone call from Bennie who offers to exchange the chip for the day planner. They meet Trey (Jared Padalecki), the son of a powerful senator staying at the hotel, and his dog, Reinaldo, who swallows the chip. Roxy heads to the video shoot, Max on her tail, while Jane meets Bennie for the exchange. When he finds out the dog has swallowed the chip, Max tries to attack Jane, goes to find Roxy, and kidnaps Trey. Jane, Roxy, and Reinaldo the dog end up in the underground sewer with Jane's speech in less than two hours. In the House of Bling, Big Shirl (Mary Davis Bonde) gives the girls makeovers, although Max hunts them down and they escape in a cab and later argue. Jane feels that Roxy has never been there for her and never takes life seriously, leaving Jane in charge after their mother’s death. Conversely, Roxy believes Jane doesn't need to take control of everything and feels she's being pushed away. Jane goes to meet Bennie, who takes her to his mother, the head of a DVD and CD pirating operation. Roxy finds Bennie's limo, retrieves Jane's day planner, and frees Trey, who is locked in the trunk. They both rush to the building where Jane will give her speech. When they arrive, Roxy pretends to be Jane so she can give the speech but drops the prompt cards and has to ad lib. Jane turns up and explains why she wasn't there. Suddenly, Max and Bennie arrive, Bennie’s illegal doings are exposed, and he is arrested by Max. As Jane leaves with Roxy, one of the judges catches up to Jane after finding her prompt cards and gives her a college scholarship to Oxford, because she "didn't just want to win, she absolutely refused to fail." Months later, Roxy is in the studio recording with the band, watched by Jane, Trey, Jim, and even Max (now an official cop) as they celebrate all together.
Why It's a Minute of Torture
- Terrible acting, which wastes the talents of Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen. Not to mention Eugene Levy, Andy Richter and Jared Padalecki.
- Andy Richter gives an embarrassing performance as Bennie. His character is a huge stereotype and rather offensive as well.
- Thin sometimes even chaotic plot. The whole film moves along quite messily, and the plot is everywhere.
- Unlikeable characters throughout the entire movie, most notably Jane and Roxy, who are responsible for the following things:
- Roxy throws a glass of water on Jane's face in a fashion store.
- Jane kicks a man in the face at the subway station and she never says sorry to him.
- Bennie even commits crime in one scene.
- Jane hits Roxy's face very hard in one part.
- Roxy throws a dog out the window in another.
- Some moments can be unintentionally frightening, such as a scene where Reinaldo swallows an electric chip and gets electrocuted. Speaking of that scene, it may encourage younger audiences to do the aforementioned act. Another example is when the Ryan twins fall of a building is very hard to watch.
- Lazy directing by Dennie Gordon.
- Lots of product placement such as Red Bull, Cheetos, Fritos, Perrier, Maxell, Samsung, Hershey's, Reese's, Sprite, among others, making this film a somewhat cash grab.
- Most humor falls flat on its face. The set-up lines are clunky, and the jokes are weak.
- Overall, New York Minute was considered the final nail in the coffin for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's career, which got killed along with the movie.
Redeeming Qualities
- The soundtrack is not that bad.
- Some good moments here and there.
- The scene where we find out the Ryan twin's parents passed away is very emotional.
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 11% based on 119 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "Feels more like a calculated product designed to expand the Olsens' brand than an actual movie. Also, it contains ethnic stereotyping and sexual innuendo." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 33 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film a "two thumbs down" on the television show Ebert & Roeper; in selecting the film as one of the worst of 2004, Ebert remarked that the film "not only should have gone straight to video but should have gone straight through video and kept on going to the end of the universe and never looked back." He added: "New York Minute was obviously generated entirely as a vehicle for the Olsen twins, but what kind of a vehicle has no idea where to go, or what to do when it gets there? This movie should have put on the brakes."
The Olsen twins are not children any longer, yet not quite poised to become adults, and so they're given the props and costumes of 17-year-olds but carefully shielded from the reality. That any 17-year-old girl in America could take seriously the rock band that Roxy worships is beyond contemplation. It doesn't even look like a band to itself.
Box office
New York Minute earned $5.96 million in its North American opening weekend, finishing in fourth place behind Van Helsing, Mean Girls, and Man on Fire, setting a record-low for a film playing in over 3,000 theatres. The film went on to gross $14.1 million in North America, and $7.2 million internationally, for a worldwide gross of $21.3 million.
Trivia
- This was one of the final times Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen did film production before they became businesswomen.
- Mary-Kate Olsen (Roxy) had to learn how to drive a stick shift for this movie.
- This is Ashley Olsen's last film as of 2020.
- This is the Olsen Twins' second theatrical film. The first being It Takes Two.
- Mary-Kate and Ashley's characters attend Syoddet High School.
- The film was originally intended to premiere with a Looney Tunes cartoon called "Attack of the Drones", however this never happened due to the box-office failure of Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
External Links
Comments
- Bad media
- Bad films
- 2000s films
- 2000s media
- Adventure films
- Box office bombs
- Comedy films
- Live-action films
- Films aware of how bad they are
- Razzie Awards Worst Picture winners
- Movies that killed careers
- Warner Bros. films
- Films that inspired a Roger Ebert book review title
- Cash grabs
- Boring films
- Unfunny films
- Gross-out films