Cady's Take:

The movie features such a cornucopia of hot young stars that it looks like a celluloid version of "People Magazine." You will find such actors as Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, David Chappelle, Janeane Garofalo, Gaby Hoffmann, Catherine Kellner, Courtney Love, Jay Mohr, Martha Plimpton, Christina Ricci and Paul Rudd.

Kevin (Rudd) is depressed over his recent breakup with performance artist girlfriend Ellie (Garofalo, as hilariously acerbic as ever) and the fact that it's also his birthday, his best friend Lucy wants to cheer him up and make him forget about Ellie--in any way she can. Courtney Love plays Lucy, her performance here--in tandem with her breakthrough work in “The People vs. Larry_Flynt”, reveals Love to be the real thing, acting wise. Dave Chappelle is amusing as a slick cabbie that taxis many of the characters around town. Ben Affleck is a hoot as an incredibly square bartender. Martha Plimpton is nicely neurotic as the big party's harried hostess and finally, there is Cindy (Kate Hudson), a neurotic klutz who has fallen in love with vain actor Jack (Jay Mohr). She continually embarrasses herself as the two of them have a date from hell.

200 Cigarettes is decent mindless fun that's perfectly appropriate if you're just looking for some light entertainment. This movie is a peek into life as it all too often appears to us, confused, wandering, and seemingly without structure. This light romantic comedy cruises along on the charm of its large and talented cast and tries to cash in on 80s nostalgia. There's really no reason for the film to be set in 1981 and the only real references made to this are the occasional appearances of Elvis Costello (who plays himself). One has to wonder whether MTV Productions was merely looking for an excuse to string together these tunes to peddle a soundtrack.

The ending is a bit of a let down. Most of the characters break off into random couples after the party, which only shows how little emotional investment is developed with them. Unlike real life, in the movies- happy endings is the rule. To sum it all up, good music, lots of action, pretty faces and an empty plot.

Ensemble movies can be classified in two ways – perfect or putrid. Guess which one “200 Cigarettes” falls under? Let’s just say I did not find this movie to be perfect in any way, shape, or form. Basically this movie looks like everyone got to pick a person to pretend to be, and then made up the rest for about two hours.

The premise is an old one – a seemingly unrelated group of people on a night out (in this case New Year’s Eve 1981), all trying to make their way to the same place, and we find out along the way how they are all connected to one another. The characters, the conversations, and the scenarios are completely without substance and I was bored the entire time. Christina Ricci is in this movie, which is an automatic deduction of one bucket of popcorn – this movie didn’t even start at five buckets. Christina Ricci is like nails on a chalkboard except I like nails on a chalkboard better. Then we have to deduct another popcorn because of the lack of plot AND dialogue – we are now at three buckets of popcorn. I will deduct another bucket of popcorn because the acting was horrible and one more bucket because I hate Christina Ricci more than I did four sentences ago. That leaves us with one bucket of popcorn for “200 Cigarettes” but am I done there? No – please deduct one-half bucket of popcorn because I could have been watching “Trading Spaces” instead of this waste of valuable film.

The remaining half-bucket of popcorn belongs to Kate Hudson and Dave Chappell who offer the only genuine moments of laughter in the film.