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Annie Hall

Annie Hall

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Woody Allen's Classic!
Review: Annie Hall is arguably Woody Allen's best film ever. Nearly a self-portrait of his affair with the luminous Diane Keaton, Allen paints a love affair in his beloved New York City, full of all the neurosis, eccentricities and oddball humor associated with Woody Allen.

Although New York is showcased, Los Angeles takes a second seat as the self indulgent, narcissistic counterpart. There are too many hilarious scenes to mention, other than they are non-stop and all hit pay dirt. This is also one of Allen's most inventive films, using split frame scenes for discussions between opposed families, inter-spliced time-gags (invisible characters visiting their past), cartoons representing the main characters and Allen narrating most of the film; sometimes directly into the audience's face.

It should also be noted that many stars got a big start from this film. Carole Kane is featured as one of Alvy's good-hearted girlfriends, along with a post-hippie Shelley Duvall. Diane Keaton's brother is played by a typically creepy Christopher Walken and her mother by the noble Colleen Dewhurst. Paul Simon, Truman Capote, Beverly DeAngelo and Dick Cavett also make guest appearances. Watch for the very young Sigourney Weaver as Alvy's date outside of a theater.

Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress, this film is timeless. All of the jokes still hold up today and this is a keeper of a DVD. Unfortunately, there are not a great deal of extras on it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: i love it
Review: Annie Hall is one of those movies that make a lasting impression on you. starring Woody Allen , And Diane Keaton both great performances this is a romantic comedy that's sweeter than maple syrup. I loved every minute of it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: please stop pretending he's funny
Review: i hate when people try to convince others that this man and his movies are funny.....please, this movie is a snooze fest and if you identify with either of the main characters...that would just be sad

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spot on!
Review: Woody's masterclass in sticking little bits of angst-ridden stand-up routine together and doing little holes round the edges remains quite unlike any other comedy. Everyone has their own favourites - the "where are they now?" classroom opener, a couple of guys named Cheech, Woody's Coney Island family, lobster hotpot, the LA scenes, "you know nothing of my work", etc. etc. But the quotable titbits all slot into a neatly observed story, and Allen and co. walk a fine line between straight acting and "funning up" the sketches. Still pure joy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: interesting
Review: i loved this movie. i don't like woody allen. just never got into his movies but i watched this and i loved it. interesting take on life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Forever entertaining
Review: Woody Allen's professional integrity has held fast for over a quarter century. Commercial concerns have never deterred the artist from pushing through on a particular idea or project. It is well known that over the many years of filmmaking, he created an insular production company and connected himself to people (producers) who would accept any film proposal on face value - sometimes merely on the bases of one telephone conversation. In some cases, Allen's films were great successes, 'Hannah and Her Sisters' and 'Crimes and Misdemeanours', but sometimes his ideas didn't pan out and the picture lost money. Woody Allen is often quoted as saying, "If I don't like something, it doesn't matter how many awards it's won. It's important to keep your own criteria and not defer to the trends of the marketplace." (Allen never attended the Oscars during the 70's 80' and 90's because his band performed in New York on Monday nights.) When ~Annie Hall~ opened in the late seventies, the studio was nervous. In fact they didn't know what to make of this strange picture, but decided to take a chance anyway. ~Annie~ turned out to be a commercial and critical success, which also launched Diane Keaton as a major Hollywood star.

This is not just a good film but a great film. Every scene has at least three to four gags that seem to never grow stale. When Alvie Singer (Woody Allen) meets Annie for the first time, she's obviously quite nervous and fills the pregnant silences with "La ti da, la ti da..." He says, "I'm dating a woman who says, "La ti da". This reminded me of Seinfeld's famous, "Yada yada yada..." Allen's wit runs hot and fast in this film and one has to pay close attention to catch all the great lines. One of my favourites is a short conversation about the media that Alvie has with his ex wife, Robin:

Robin: "I'm so tired of spending evenings making fake insights with people who work for Dysentery."

"Commentary"

Alvie: 'Oh really? I heard that Commentary and Dissent merged and formed

Dysentery."

In comedies particularly, the chemistry between the actors is essential for the joke and scene to work. The chemistry between Keaton and Allen has now become legendary. In the hilarious "Lobster" scene, you can tell they really like each other and have a lot of fun, on and off screen. They were of course once a couple, but they continue to be great friends and attribute their professional and creative successes to each other. One can see this relationship blossoming in ~Annie Hall~.

This film really launched Allen into the mainstream, however, because he never makes films for the popular marketplace, he moves in and out of the general public eye. This is the classic Woody Allen picture and one of his better films, that should be a part of every film lover's collection.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Highish marks, a bit grudgingly given
Review: Frankly I like Woody Allen a lot less than most of my friends, mainly because he seems to have only a very shaky grip on the difference between a movie and an ego-trip. And this film is in many ways a case in point, heavily self congratulatory, to a great extent a self-absorbed documentary about how hard it is being Woody Allen and what a terribly witty fellow he is. So much for the funk. But that said, as ego-trips go, this ego trip is at times extremely funny. And this movie, like the later 'Manhatten' and the earlier 'Play It Again Sam' comes from his best period: after he had given up making mildly amusing slapstick comedies like 'Bananas' but before he allowed himself to sink so far up his own bottom that the desire to strangle him takes over any other possible response. Grouching aside, if you want an effective and telling but affectionate send-up of the world of the 'New York Jewish left wing liberal intellectual Central Park West Brandeis University - socialist summer camps...' and the daft but very human hang-ups of the people who live there, you probably can't do a lot better. But, hey, sorry, he's no Groucho Marx.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: His finest script
Review: For all of his many skills, as director, actor and comedian, Woody Allen started as a writer, and it is as a film writer that he may ultimately best be remembered. Yes he's funny here, and the film is well directed, but its the writing that's the best. An exceptional script that goes back and forth in time to examine a relationship with the fictional Annie, made by a man co-staring with his ex-girlfriend. Perfect.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Maybe the most OVERrated film ever!
Review: Annie Hall is Allen's attempt to be Groucho Marx. If you need a witt fix watch A Night At The Opera or Duck Soup!! This is the single worst movie I have ever purchased.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Leave well enough alone
Review: I've seen Annie Hall quite a number of times on VHS. However when I bought and viewed the DVD, I was very disappointed about one particular scene. In VHS versions, with regards to the balcony scene I do not ever recall the subtitles taking the audience by the hand and include the word '(thinking)'as a preface to the characters thoughts!! Did I miss something here or did some marketing genius decide that for the DVD version MOST audiences would never understand that the characters are 'thinking' and those white subtitles are actually their thoughts so we'd better play it safe and include the word 'thinking' a couple of times before each thought just to make sure.To me it's akin to altering any artistic masterpiece.If Woody Allen were dumb enough to include the word (thinking) before his characters thought,he would have done so in the original film......he didn't.


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