The Worst Film Ever

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Did you people see the same film I saw?

As Good As It Gets

Woody Allen movies depend a lot on whether the core of his story has a good idea to it. When he has a good story to build around, he can still do good work. But when he doesn't, his movies can become tedious and repetitive.Hollywood Ending is the latter kind of movie. It's about a movie director (what a stretch for Allen!) whose given a shot to film a movie with his ex-wife (played by Tea Leoni, who is more than three decades his junior) as producer. We never get any idea what the movie is actually about because that's part of the joke. Here's the big joke: Allen's character develops psychosomatic blindness and has to direct a movie where he cannot see anything. But nobody notices! With the help of his agent, a Chinese translator, and eventually his ex-wife, he muddles his way through the entire process and finishes the picture, which is of course terrible.I can see about five minutes of humor here, but the movie stretches this out for more than an hour. It quickly stops being funny and just becomes annoying. OK, we get it: Hollywood movies are so insipid and shallow that even a blind man could direct one and studio heads wouldn't notice. Maybe you could do an episode of a sitcom with this plot, but trying to extend it into an entire movie just doesn't work.Worse, the movie tries to support itself with a plot line of Allen re-connecting with his ex-wife. And there's absolutely no chemistry whatsoever between Allen and Leoni. Aside from a cringe-worthy make- out scene, for the most part their relationship feels like a woman in the prime of her life attending to the needs of her aging father. I didn't for a second buy the notion that these two could ever be a couple. The movie literally has the worst features of Allen movies: narcissism, unrealistic ideas about the appeal of older men to younger women, and a cast filled with characters who all speak like Woody himself. Many of his more recent movies are better because he's tempered these destructive tendencies: he no longer makes himself the romantic lead, and he's allowed great actors to take over their roles and sound less like an Allen mouthpiece. Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine is the best example of this.I wish the movie hadn't pursued the one-joke path that it took. Before the blindness the movie seemed like it had a lot of possibilities: Allen can certainly take jabs at Hollywood culture and the characters are pretty well drawn. He could have had an intelligent satire of Hollywood with well-developed plot lines exploring the realities of trying to interact with an ex-. But instead the movie devolved into a one-joke production, and the joke doesn't work.

"Hollywood Ending" is a funny comedy, but only a mid-level Woody Allen film. Although he is still neurotic, bumbling, hypochondriac and caustic, Woody seems slightly more relaxed than usual here - as if he's learned how to live with his neuroses and be more comfortable with them. The "blindness" joke gets overplayed, but there are still enough clever and laugh-out-loud lines & bits of physical comedy in this film to make it worth your while. The supporting cast contributes a lot, especially the stylish Tea Leoni, the slick Treat Williams, and the goofy Debra Messing (who does look like she works out a lot, just like her character in the film!) The cinematography is particularly vibrant. Pleasant, light fare for a slow weekend. **1/2 out of 4.

There are certain Woody Allen movies that I don't fully appreciate- I don't like when he films in black and white and I'm not a big fan of slapstick comedy. The movies I prefer are the witty, dialogue rich, relationship based, contemporary feasts. I also prefer Allen to star in his own movies, mostly because when he doesn't, the lead character tends to be doing an imitation of Allen. This film, although I wouldn't give it a ten out of ten, certainly featured all of these ingredients.Once again Allen has surrounded himself with an amazing cast of actors who aren't nobodies, but aren't quite superstars. I don't know if he chooses actors based on chemistry, or if that is something that just comes together when one is working for him. Whatever it is, it is on full display throughout Hollywood Ending.Allen, as usual, plays a neurotic, under-appreciated, genius (called Val) with a knack for speech. He's a genuine artist who has been fired one too many times and is therefore stuck working on commercials and other lowbrow jobs. He has a live in girlfriend, an actress played by Debra Messing, who is pretty much just around because Val doesn't like to sleep alone. After getting fired from his last big picture, he is dumped by his then wife, Ellie (Tia Leoni) for the head of a studio, Hal (Treat Williams).As Val is stuck in Canada filming a commercial (that he eventually gets fired from), Ellie is in Hollywood with her new Hal, trying to get him to use Val to direct their newest film. Everyone in attendance agrees that Val is a great director, but no one wants to hire him because of his mental problems. Finally Ellie convinces to Hal to give Val a chance and things begin to look up.The night before filming is about to begin, Val makes an emergency call to Al (Mark Rydell) because he (Val) has suddenly gone blind. Trips to the doctor reveal that there is no brain tumor (as Val had obviously expected), nor are there problems with his eyes. Instead, as his analyst (of course, it is a Woody Allen movie) explains, it is completely psycho-somatic. Pressured by Al, Val decides to not tell anyone else and attempt to direct the movie anyway.Mayhem obviously ensues, as it's never easy to direct a movie without the use of the eyes. Al agrees to be Val's guide, but on the first day is told that he is not allowed to be on the set. Eventually, after many hilarious incidences, the movie gets made.Although the movie comes out horrible and Val is ultimately discovered, happiness does prevail. Life doesn't often have happy endings, so when one happens in a film it tends to feel forced or corny. Not with Woody Allen; maybe it's because so many of his movies do not end sad, or because even some of the films that end happy are also sad, but Mr. Allen sure knows how to make a happy ending out of a mess.Overall, there have been better Woody Allen films and there have been worse. I would rank Hollywood Ending somewhere near the top of his list though. It never ceases to amaze me how Allen has written and directed over 70 films, many of which have the same general plot, and yet he never seems to lose his freshness.

The mark of a good comedy is that audiences must get a healthy dose of Buster Keaton kind of humor.If that is not the case,a film must not be considered a good example of a classic of comedy genre.Woody Allen surely knows how to make films as he has made films which have become an integral part of American cultural landscape.However,it can be said that his magic has not at all worked wonders with "Hollywood Ending",a strange film which was chosen to open Cannes International Film festival 2002.The trouble with "Hollywood Ending" is that one does not know what Woody Allen is trying to portray.The comedy parts are very much dramatic in nature and laughs are few and far between.This is due to the fact that at surface level his film looks like a product of American culture but on deep introspection one finds that Woody Allen has made a film that not only takes American cinema for a ride but also lampoons Hollywood.This is something which was not accepted by audiences all over the world.French people are the only cinema audiences who appreciate such kind of cinema. This is the reason why such a flop American film has been lapped up by Gallic audiences.