Rating: 
Summary: time-marking comedy by a master filmmaker
Review: **1/2 Did your mother ever tell you that it wasn't polite to make fun of blind people? Well, apparently, Woody Allen's mother didn't, since this is exactly what he does for a good hour or more in his latest film, "Hollywood Ending." (Or, perhaps, he just doesn't WANT to be polite). Allen himself stars as Val Waxman, a once brilliant film director who has fallen on hard times, partly due to his own temperamental nature and partly to his own tendency for obsessive/compulsive behavior and chronic hypochondria, all of which have made him anathema to Hollywood's major producers. Tea Leoni plays Val's ex-wife, Ellie, who convinces her current fiancé, studio boss Hal (played by Treat Williams), to take a chance on Val and turn a multimillion dollar film project over to the iconoclastic director. All is going well until, right on the eve of production, Val develops a case of psychosomatic blindness, a condition he and a few close allies try to keep a secret during the making of the film. The majority of "Hollywood Ending" revolves around Val's attempts to keep people from finding out the truth and delivering a creditable motion picture to the studio heads at the same time.In many ways, this pallid comedy combines the slapstick elements of Allen's early works ("Bananas" and "Sleeper") with the cynicism of his later, more mature explorations of modern urban romantic life ("Annie Hall," "Manhattan"). Unfortunately, "Hollywood Ending" winds up as an uneasy hybrid of the two forms, mixing lowbrow comic mugging and pratfalls with the customary angst-ridden dithering that Allen has been indulging in (often quite effectively) for well nigh a quarter of a century now. Well, the bloom is definitely off the rose here. Part of the problem is that Allen's neurotic tics are amusing only when he has some serious points to make under all the humor. In this film, however, he is providing no insights to go along with the chatter so that he comes across as whiney and self-absorbed rather than witty and ironical. Val always seems to be blathering a mile a minute, so much so that we finally just want him to shut up and give us a moment's silence. To make matters worse, the scenes of broad physical comedy - Allen bumping into furniture, Allen breaking glasses, Allen falling off platforms - are not particularly well executed, lacking the kind of adept, split second timing essential to make such scenes comically effective. Thus, the film fails on two levels: both as a work of slapstick and as a verbal comedy of ideas. The film could, potentially, have scored as an acerbic satire on the ludicrous commercial values that define the American film industry, yet even most of these "inside" jokes seem strangely unoriginal and old hat, especially coming from a man as attuned to the industry as Woody Allen. Although Allen, in his old age, has degenerated into little more than a wan parody of himself, Tea Leoni sparkles as Ellie, creating a character who is simultaneously strong, sensible, insecure and vulnerable. Leoni's performance is, literally, the anchor that keeps this otherwise lighter-than-air trifle from floating away completely. Barney Cheng does a nice job playing a Chinese translator whom Val uses to help him carry off this impossible charade; Mark Rydell provides some memorable moments as Val's helpful agent; and Debra Messing glows as Val's beautiful but bubble headed "significant other," who is far more concerned about losing her part in the movie than losing her role as bedmate to the neurotic director. It would be unfair, as well as untruthful, to say that "Hollywood Ending" did not afford a couple of pretty impressive laughs along the way. This IS a Woody Allen film, after all. And even Woody on a bad day is better than many of our Hollywood humorists on a good day. But with so many great films in his oeuvre, one naturally goes into this film with high expectations. When a final assessment is made of all of Allen's prodigious cinematic output, "Hollywood Ending" will wind up somewhere very near the bottom of the list.
Rating:
Summary: A Big Waste from the Woodman.
Review: ....eh. i usually enjoy Woody (Manhattan, Hannah and her Sisters, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Mighty Aphrodite), but Allen's writing needs an enema. It's weird, i actually enjoyed the PLOT of this film MORE than the dialogue (which is usually the opposite of past Woody Allen films for me). Problems abound in the film though, most notably Tea Leoni and Woody Allen have ZILCH chemistry (which is paramount to the story), and the ending seems put on fast forward. I did enjoy the light comedic moments alot though (and was surprised at how often i laughed at jokes about blindness), and george hamilton and debra messing are cute in supporting roles....
Rating: 
Summary: Been a Long, Long Time...
Review: ...since I've seen a Woody Allen movie. In fact, I hadn't even heard Woody Allen's VOICE for years until there he was at the Academy Awards this year, introducing that salute to New York City. It was then a strange feeling, rather like hearing the dead. Not a resurrection, mind you; just like hearing the voice of someone who has died on a tape recorder or something. Of course, this was because of the Soon Yi thing. Like many others, I took the oath: no more Woody, that creep. But when I saw him again on the Oscars and had that strange feeling, I said to myself, "Well, why wait until he is dead, why don't you go see another movie by him?" So this one was at the local theatre, and there I found myself. And, now seeing one of these movies again after years, it struck me as from another era, even though it's spanking new. The camera angles are more static and the direction much slower and really of a different time; today there's just so much cutting and fancy work, what with all the advances in special effects. During the first prolonged scene when the ex-wife is convincing Treat Williams and George Hamilton to hire the absent Woody to direct an expensive movie, I thought I was watching a movie made in the dinosaur age, or at least a few decades ago. I got over it, though, and began to take the movie for what it was. Woody is about as I remember him: a neurotic man hasn't gotten over the woman who left him, and now is going to bungle things, pretty much like he did last time to cause the woman to leave in the first place. He's a film director who pyschosomatically gets struck blind on the first day of shooting the new come-back movie. His agent gets a young Chinese guy to serve as Woody's eyes, and we're off to comic complications. I thought the ex-wife was miscast, only because she seemed too young to have been divorced from Woody for ten years and to have been married to him for ten years before that. She should've been much closer to 50 than this babe kind of woman. Don't get me wrong, she was a good actress and pretty, but just too young for the scenario presented us. Mark Rydell as the agent/conspirator was especially good, probably the best in show. Nothing wrong with Treat and Hamilton, but nothing mind blowing either. "Hollywood Ending" was an enjoyable night at the movies for me, and a bit of a trip down memory lane, seeing Woody and remembering the pre-scandal days. Not a classic, but entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Starts well - then stretches endlessly. Disappointing.
Review: A Hollywood Ending I usually like Woody Allen's movies - especially his more serious films such as Hannah and her sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors and even Mighty Aphrodite. However, "a Hollywood Ending" is not a movie I will recommend. The story starts as rather promising when a once famous director played by Allen is given a promising directing job. This job comes to him when he is at the bottom of his career and thus he has no option but to take the offer even if it comes from his ex-wife and her new lover (whom he detests). At this stage of the movie Woody Allen is as neurotic as ever but the dialogues are witty and interesting. I was now expecting to see something about movie filming on the whole and something about the director's struggle to make the film when his ex-wife is in the neighborhood. However, the director, our hero, suddenly turns psychologically blind and this not-so-funny gimmick is stretched throughout the whole film. The director has no choice but to hide his blindness and thus directs the movie without being able to see what he does, with endless seemingly "funny" situations where this gimmick is used over and over again (a gossip reporter spying around, the young actress invites the blind director to her room, the scenes are not properly filmed, etc. etc). The whole situation did not seem comic to me and I could not understand the pride over spending the studio's 50 million dollars.
This movie seems to be such a waste as the story begins quite well and could have been really interesting. Tia Leoni is beautiful and her performance seems to save this movie from being totally boring. No other actor has left any impression on me. Very disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: A WINNING FILM
Review: A REAL WINNER!
Woody Allen's best film in years! It is hilarious and fun! Woody plays himself basically as a New York-based filmmaker in a low point of his career. When he is signed on to make his comeback film, he goes psychosomatically blind! Mr. Allen (North America's Fellini) creates a bunch of purely enjoyable parallels between the character that he is incarnating, Val Waxman, and himself, Woody! The blind gags alone are enough reason to see this comedic masterpiece. Only complaint: slightly overlong by ten minutes or so... While blending great Hollywood industry humor and Allen's signature physical comedy, Allen makes a sort of résumé of his entire career to date. Allen even provides an unusually sweat back story about his estranged son who is a punk rock star. 'Hollywood Ending' is wonderful!
The first, real, great film of the year... This comedy has brains!
Also, it is packed with Woody Allen's classic self-mocking jokes and one-liners.
Rating: 
Summary: Thank God for the French!
Review: A very witty movie by Allen, comparable with 'Swimming with Sharks' and 'The Player' in the genre of Hollywood putting down Hollywood, only this one's a romantic comedy, not a savage indictment. And that's what makes it so good. It packs rather than lacks punch precisely because it is not mean spirited. The moguls and their yes-man retainers are not ugly, they're absurd. The 'in' jokes play well to the whole audience. Even if they miss one or two, as when Allen's ex-wife and studio executive reminds her secretary not to forget to send flowers to Haley Joel Osmond for his lifetime achivement award.
Four stars only by comparison with Woody's best films (I'm still [upset] 'Crimes and Misdemeanors' did not win the Oscar for best original screenplay. ) Still, it's hard to name several Woody Allen films that do not deserve at least 5 stars. Beyond the fact that it's not Annie Hall, critics seemed to dislike it for two other reasons: 1. Woody Allen has gotten old and should retire. 2. It's neither broad enough to be slapstick nor sweet enough to be heartwarming. The first objection is not worth comment, as to the second, they're right. It's not 'Mad Wednesday' or 'Limelight' But it's still wickedly funny.
Rating:
Summary: A return to form...partially
Review: Although nowhere near the greatness of Woody's movies of the 80s (when he could seemingly do no wrong and did just about everything WAY better than right), Hollywood Ending has enough Allenesque humor to make it a better entry than he's offered for some time. Allen here constantly mocks himself without the bitterness seen in Deconstructing Harry. He plays a director near the end of his career--not agewise, but workwise--whose girlfriend is significantly younger (and dumber) than he is. The film opens on a hilarious note, showing him bundled up in sub-zero clothing, shooting a commercial in northern Canada in the midst of a blizzard. The juxtaposition of his whiny voice as he complains to his girlfriend via cell phone and the snowstorm setting, requiring heavy impersonalizing clothing, is truly inspired. The rest of the film does not approach that degree of inspiration although there are a number of small scenes and/or situations that come close. He's offered a script by his ex-wife (Tea Leoni) who persuades her current boyfriend, a wealthy Hollywood producer (Treat Williams), to go with him even though Williams can't stand him. On the first day of the new film shoot, he goes blind, psychosomatically, and while first using his agent (played convincingly by Mark Rydell) as his seeing-eye, he's forced to replace Rydell, and goes with the Chinese translator for his Chinese cameraman who speaks no English. The translator's English is so formal that here again, the juxtaposition of this stiff language with Allen's neurotic babble is very funny. But alas, the translator is let go and Allen needs a seeing-eye substitute. From this point on, the film is not bad, but aside from a scene with Allen and Williams where Allen has had to memorize where everything in a room is located--and, predictably, fails, resulting in some comical pratfalls and other humorous moments--the sparkle is definitely diminished. This is brought home in a very strained scene with his son who's now a punk musician, complete with dyed hair, nose ring, etc. The humor, what little there is here, is too forced and makes the viewer understand that the only reason for the scene is that Woody wishes he had had a son of his own. There's an equally strained scene between Leoni and Williams as they argue about the film. These intervals of "drama" do much to weaken the spirit of the comedy and are the primary reason for three stars. Still this is signficantly better than Woody's last flaccid outing, Curse of the Jade Scorpion, and is worth seeing for what comedy there is. The ending of the film is, in fact, a Hollywood ending, full of romance and good news.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, funny, funny
Review: Don't pay attention to the misguided critics of this delightful film. Woody's latest is very amusing, with several priceless scenes that rank among Allen's funniest. Sure, it's not the deepest or most thought-provoking film ever, but it's not meant to be. It is meant to be light, diverting entertainment and on that account it succeeds marvelously.
Rating:
Summary: Fading Charm
Review: Hmmm, I'm not so sure I agree with the Amazon reviewer that Woody Allen 'good-naturedly bites the hand that feeds him'. While the subject of the movie is indeed the film industry, Hollywood Ending is no more a satire of that system than America's Sweethearts was. Both seemed to promise more than they delivered, and neither had the sardonic bite of Blake Edward's scathing SOB. Allen can't or won't muster up that anger, and so Hollywood Ending ends up being nothing more than another vehicle for Allen to display and parody his own neuroses. Granted, there are some very funny lines, but mostly Allen seems pretty self-satisfied at his own cleverness--never more literally than when one character compares directing a film to masturbation. I'm reminded of the Saturday Night Live skits of the Woody Allen fan club in many ways--once you're past the concept, the charm of seeing a Woody Allen caricature fails rather quickly.
Rating:
Summary: Fading Charm
Review: Hmmm, I'm not so sure I agree with the Amazon reviewer that Woody Allen 'good-naturedly bites the hand that feeds him'. While the subject of the movie is indeed the film industry, Hollywood Ending is no more a satire of that system than America's Sweethearts was. Both seemed to promise more than they delivered, and neither had the sardonic bite of Blake Edward's scathing SOB. Allen can't or won't muster up that anger, and so Hollywood Ending ends up being nothing more than another vehicle for Allen to display and parody his own neuroses. Granted, there are some very funny lines, but mostly Allen seems pretty self-satisfied at his own cleverness--never more literally than when one character compares directing a film to masturbation. I'm reminded of the Saturday Night Live skits of the Woody Allen fan club in many ways--once you're past the concept, the charm of seeing a Woody Allen caricature fails rather quickly.
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