New York Minute (film)

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.

New York Minute was not a critical success. 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."[1] In his print review, he further commented:

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.[2]

Aggregate movie review web site Rotten Tomatoes listed a critic score of 11%.

New York minute earned $5.96 million over its North American opening weekend, setting a new record low for a film playing in over 3,000 theatres.[3] The film eventually went on to gross $14.07 million at the North American domestic box office and $7.22 million internationally.[4]

• New York Minute at IMDb
• New York Minute at AllMovie
• New York Minute at Rotten Tomatoes
• New York Minute at Box Office Mojo
• New York Minute soundtrack