Movie Review: New York Minute

If you are a Mary-Kate and Ashley fan, you've waited for them to put a movie out in a theater rather than on tape or DVD. New York Minute is their "coming out" party. Meaning they are almost 18 and they want the world to know it!

Here's the haps: The twin Ryan sisters, are living in Long Island with their widowed doc dad (Dr. Drew Pinksy) and they couldn't be more different. Jane (Ashley Olsen) is a neatnik overachiever who is scheduled to give a speech at Columbia university in order to win a cool scholarship to Oxford University. Her sis Roxy( Mary-Kate Olsen) is a class-cutting free spirit who wants to go to Manhattan to sneak into a rock video (Simple Plan) in order to give their A&R people her band's demo disc. Jack Osbourne plays Roxy's band manager!

The girls fight all the way to New York and get kicked off a commuter train. A weird spyguy slips a microchip into Roxy's purse. Crook Bennie Bang (Andy Richter) wants to get his hands on it. (It's a disc full of pirated new music). He offers the girls a limo ride to the city but they escape him and the chase is on. Jane has left her speech in her dayplanner inside the limo and is desperate to get it back. Following Roxy like a hound dog is obsessed truancy officer Max Lomax (Eugene Levy) a wanna-be cop who is determined to catch his number one class-ditching target.

While in the city, the girls meet hot guys (Jared Padaleki, playing a senator's son and Riley Smith, a bike messenger).

Ever see Ferris Bueller's Day Off, that 1980's classic with a young Matthew Broderick? Well, if you see this, you're kinda seeing it again but without the wit. Mary-Kate and Ashley play the Ferris and neurotic buddy characters.. and, like in "Ferris", they're off to the big city with a school official on their tails. This movie is totally predictable and the Olsens aren't going to win Oscars but, hey, it's cute, especially if you want to see how the twins have grown up. Guys won't mind seeing them in towels and bathrobes and girl fans will enjoy the estranged sister bonding and cute guys, even though there is no time given to developing any relationships with the new boyfriends.

Eugene Levy is hilarious as usual, even if he's played almost the same part in his last three movies and Andy Richter is funny as a wasp crook raised by a Chinese crime czar mama. You're not seeing this film for the plot and it's a good thing since wacky inconsistencies are everywhere. The girls end up in Harlem at Big Shirl's House of Bling for no other reason than to put on a montage fashion show with wild outfits but.. again..it's cute.

It you are into a mindless romp, physical comedy chase movie with two hot twins and music from Simple Plan and a lot of other killer singers and bands like Jason Mraz, The Donnas, Junior Senior, etc. then this is for you.

For a hokey but okay coming out party for the Olsen Twins... 3 out of 5 stars

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.