New York Minute is a 2004 teen comedy film starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in their first—and last—theatrical outing since It Takes Two.
The plot follows the twin Ryan sisters: Jane (Ashley), the smart and responsible one, and Roxy (Mary-Kate), the rebellious one. On the day the film takes place, both Roxy and Jane travel into New York City, where Jane must give an important speech for her college future while Roxy is hoping to sneak backstage at a Simple Plan concert. They end up caught in an elaborate piracy conspiracy led by the greedy Bennie Bang (Andy Richter) as well as being framed for stealing a senator's pet dog. Also on their tail is a truant officer, Max Lomax (Eugene Levy), as well as the inevitable love interests.
It did very poorly at the box office and was savaged by critics, marking the end of the twins' stardom.
This film provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Roxy knows Tae Kwon Do.
- Anti-Villain: Max Lomax takes his job as a truant officer extremely seriously and spends most of the movie trying to track down Roxy (for good reason), but she outsmarts him every time. After Roxy and Jane expose Bennie's plan in front of the whole conference, Lomax arrests Bennie instead.
- Back Up Twin:
- Jane isn't there to make her speech while Roxy is there with her notebook. So she tries to do Jane's speech for her (and fails miserably). Luckily Jane shows up anyway.
- This backfires on Jane earlier in the film. Roxy is thrown off the train for not having a ticket. The conductor sees Jane and assumes Roxy has snuck back on board and throws her out too.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Jane.
- The Cameo: Bob Saget as a man whom Jane and Roxy run past on the street. He stops and stares at them, surprised.
- Camp Gay: See The One Guy below.
- Control Freak: Jane.
- Crash-Into Hello: Jane's love interest, Jim, keeps crashing into her with a bike.
- Crowd Surfing: Jane and Roxy pull a stage dive and are carried off by the crowd. The truant officer Max Lomax tries to copy them, but the crowd moves out of the way, and he thuds to the ground.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Both sisters, but mostly Roxy.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Gender Flipped. Bennie Bang is Mummy's Little Villain.
- Epic Fail: Roxy tries to bluff her way through Jane's speech by quoting Avril Lavigne.
- Establishing Character Moment: Our introduction to the twins shows them getting dressed and shots of their wardrobes. Jane's is extremely tidy, organized and filled with clothes that would be worn by a serious-minded professional. Roxy's wardrobe is a complete mess with clothes everywhere and made up mostly of t-shirts. It nicely sums up both of their characters in seconds.
- Hair Flip: Both twins when Trey walks in on them, complete with slow motion and No Doubt's "Hey Baby!" playing over it.
- Makeover Montage: The girls get one in a beauty salon.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Bennie is a nasty guy who makes an honest attempt to be Ma Bang's henchman, but his acts of malevolent are downright pathetic.
- Ms. Fanservice: Jane actually has three nude scenes in the film. Her opening dream sequence, a shower scene, and her towel falling off after the twins leave a hotel. Her skirt also gets ripped in an earlier scene.
- Modesty Towel: Jane wears one after taking a shower in the hotel, and when she suddenly needs to leave she's stuck wearing it outside for a while.
- Murphy's Law: This film is LOADED with it, part of the things that go wrong are due to their own clumsiness, and when it's not things just seem to keep happening back-to-back in order to keep the plot moving.
- Naked People Trapped Outside: Jane for a while, after her towel gets caught and she lands in a dumpster naked.
- Non-Giving-Up School Guy: Max Lomax the truant officer that takes his job extremely seriously and pursues Roxy through the movie for Skipping School.
- "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: Jane has a dream where she is giving a speech and her clothes disappear.
- The One Guy: The hairdressers has one male stylist who gets to do the dog's hair.
- Parent Service:
- Trey first walks in on Roxy in a bathrobe in his hotel room, quickly followed by Jane coming out of the shower in a towel.
Trey: Is today my birthday?- For the reverse, he's also shirtless.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Jane is a overachiever trying to earn a prestigious scholarship, while Roxy is laid back, habitually skips school, and dreams of becoming a rock star.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Jane as the responsible one and Roxy as the foolish one.
- Rip Tailoring: Poor Jane. She has to do this to her skirt and then after she breaks a heel, Roxy breaks the other to match them.
- Roadside Wave: Jane and Roxy get caught in one in the city.
- Sassy Black Woman: All the hairdressers who help the twins out.
- Satellite Love Interest: Jane's Love Interest Jim. In contrast Trey, Roxy's Love Interest has a little more to do with the plot.
- Shoulders-Up Nudity: Jane during all her nude scenes.
- Shower Scene: Jane is taking one when Ringo, Roxy's pet snake sneaks up on her and freaks her out.
- Stripping Snag: When sneaking out of their hotel room, Jane's Modesty Towel is caught in the scaffolding and she ends up falling naked into a dumpster.
- Team Pet: Ronaldo the chinese crested.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Mary-Kate plays punk-rock rebel Roxy while Ashley plays classy and uptight Jane.
- Toplessness from the Back: Jane during her "Not Wearing Pants" Dream.
- Twin Switch:
- Played With. Roxy get's throw out of the train for not having a ticket. The conductor then finds Jane and assumes she has snuck back on, refusing to believe they are twins.
- Played straight later when Jane is meant to give a speech but is lost in New York and Roxy decides to take her place and improvise. Thankfully Jane arrives before she can truly mess up.
- Twin Threesome Fantasy: When Trey enters his hotel room to find the freshly showered twins, he asks, "Is today my birthday?"
- Uptight Loves Wild: With a sibling relationship rather than a romantic one.
- "Walk on the Wild Side" Episode: The car chase is one for Jane.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Roxy and Jane give each other big ones after the car chase.
