200 cigarettes takes place on new year’s eve 1981 .
monica , played by martha plimpton is having a huge new year’s party .
everyone in town is trying to get there , but some are caught up in other things .
this is the basic plot of 200 cigarettes .
as we meet the characters headed towards the party , we are sent into many subplots which are unoriginal , and not interesting at all .
this disappointed me greatly .
the film should have been more about the party than the people trying to get there in my opinion .
lucy , played by courtney love , is with kevin , played by paul rudd .
the two are in a relationship that is more of a friendship , but starts to blossom into something more than that .
this subplot is extremely boring and dull , and i am getting quite sick of plots like that .
janeane garofalo is involved in another subplot , dealing with kevin .
she plays ellie , an ex-girlfriend of kevin’s .
this subplot is completely a waste of garofalo’s talent .
there was no point to it at all , and it was hardly even in the movie .
when lucy runs into a bartender , played by ben affleck , another subplot is formed .
the bartender is invited by lucy to come to monica’s party .
at the bar , he runs into two more girls .
the girls are played by angela featherstone and nicole parker , but unfortunately , due to the terrible acting of both of them , i don’t even remember their characters names .
ben affleck is a good actor , but his character doesn’t go anywhere so he doesn’t have much screen time to give a good performance .
featherstone and parker are horrible in their roles , and they are part of the reason the film is so bad .
christina ricci plays val , and gaby hoffman plays stephie .
the two girls are trying to get to the party but are extremely lost .
they meet some guys and end up going around with them all night .
this subplot was alright , but it was quite annoying with stephie’s accent .
hoffman did an okay job of acting , but ricci did good .
she was underused , considering she is such a wonderful actress .
another subplot in the film is the relationship between cindy , played by goldie hawn’s daughter , and jack , played by jay mohr .
jack is an actor who doesn’t care about the girls he goes out with , he just likes dates for one night , and the next day he doesn’t .
kate hudson is a huge klutz .
she gets herself into very funny situations , that are the funniest parts in the entire movie .
they are probably the only funny parts in the entire movie as well .
this subplot could have been used more , mainly due to hudson’s performance .
mohr wasn’t good , but he wasn’t bad .
he was just alright , which i didn’t find acceptable .
there is not much to say about the performances in the film .
none of the characters are developed or shown enough to really tell if the acting is good or not .
the only performances that i can judge are christina ricci’s as always good performance , kate hudson’s funny role , courtney love’s mediocre performance , and paul rudd’s annoying and overused performance .
i was hoping for a little more out of jaw mohr , ben affleck , casey affleck , gaby hoffman , dave chapelle , and especially out of janeane garofalo .
the two strongest things in the film were the great soundtrack and the original costumes .
martha plimpton and christina ricci had very different and original outfits which made me feel like i was in the year 1981 .
the soundtrack is full of 1980’s tunes , ranging from ” i want candy ” to ” tainted love . ”
the songs in the movie also helped create the feel that you were back in the 1980s .
during the film , i often found myself asking the questions , ” is there a reason to this ?
is there any moral story ?
is there a point ?
are any of the events going on in the film necessary ?
do i care what lucy and kevin are going through ? ”
the movie is extremely boring , and by the time they reached eleven-o-clock , one hour before midnight , i could not wait for the movie to be over .
the plot is okay , but the subplots make it terrible .
maybe if the film was about the party , not about the people at the party , it could have been a lot better .
the bottom line : just like a slasher movie , this ? 80s comedy is just one too many .