Rating: 
Summary: What a great movie!
Review: I believe this to be one of Woody Allen's new classic films. It's fun, sexual, and of course a bit weird. What else do you expect from Woody? I own this DVD and give the movie a full 5 stars but the DVD itself lacks a bit so it gets only a 4 star rating. Couldn't they at least put the trailer on the DVD? I also wish Woody would do running commentary like on some other titles but no such luck. The only real extra on this DVD is the Cast List/Biography/Filmography for almost 20 known actors. Also, the DVD has no art and is double-sided, this feature allows you to watch the film in full screen mode or wide screen mode. Apparently you must physically flip the disc to switch between the two modes. All in all this DVD is worth buying . . . unless there is a new release with more features (I seriously doubt that will happen). Enjoy it!
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing, so what?
Review: This is one of those movies that you can watch again and again and every time you do it, you discover something new to it. I think it's a lot like Stardust Memories, it is truly funny but it isn't a happy film, that is, of course, until you watch it again. The message is clear and simple, which makes it a great film as most of the films today carry no message at all. My favorite part is when the devil says life "it's like Vegas, sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down. At the end the house always wins, doesn't mean you didn't have fun." That says it all.
Rating:
Summary: Woody's Angriest and One of His Finest
Review: This film, which I've seen many times, gets better each time out. It is not the usual Woody fare (although experimentation has been a hallmark of his career--this is quite different). Harry Block is awful and disgusting and hilarious. This film was loved by some and hated by many. I argue it is Woody's return to his peak after the Mia mess. A bitter and honest self-examination. It is shockingly vulgar to some I'm sure. The short stories (the cannibals and the star wars bar mitzvah is grand) are marvelous. There are so many brillant touches here. My favorite moment comes at the end in a dream sequence. I won't say too much about it (no need to ruin it for those who have not seen it). I noticed this very small touch the first time I saw the film in theatres. Most people miss it. My advice would watch the dream sequence in slow motion and on the DVD and watch the people closely. You'll see Woody's final statement there. Utter brillance and bitterness. Just like this film and his life in the early 1990s.
Rating:
Summary: Daring Woody Allen Movie
Review: In »Deconstructing Harry«, Woody Allen is playing with effects which we are not quite used to from him. You hear swearwords, see sex scenes, and you are even taken on a trip down to Hell!Despite these surprises - or perhaps because of them - it works very well. It works brilliantly, in fact. I laughed my way through nearly all of the film. But there is a great deal of philosophy to it as well. The main character Harry (Woody Allen) who is an author is confronted with characters created by himself in his books. And since these characters are a little more than just based on persons from Harry's own life, the border between reality and fantasy becomes pretty wiped out. Very interesting aspect - and extremely elegantly constructed! The meta aspect gets and extra kick as one of Harry's first-person-characters becomes out of focus! A totally genius and hilarious detail! Which ends in the film's key quotation, said by Harry's shrink: »You expect the World to adjust to the distortion you've become!« The cast is densely occupied by stars even in small roles - Kirstie Alley, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Demi Moore and not least GOOORgeous (AND naturally well-acting) Elisabeth Shue.
Rating:
Summary: Annie Hall of the 90's?
Review: Allen recaptures, and probably evolves the style and pacing of Annie Hall.
Rating:
Summary: Under all this amazing storytelling, the story is a bit weak
Review: Technically, a masterpiece of modern hypertextual cinema: a choppy, in-your face editing style & the narrative blur of fantasy and realism (between the stories of the main character and the "real life" of Allen's writer going to pieces) make the authorial voice of Allen himself and the act of film creation visible. And this technique is not arbitrary; ideally, the resultant confusion acts as a metaphor for the internal turmoil of Allen's main character, or at least that is the intent we attribute to Allen. At times it works. We get a clear portrayal of the chaotic frazzle of the artist's mind, and the parallels of role and character between his life and his own fiction give us a great, layered depth of character. We also get a rare, complex story told in both first person and third person, through Allen-as-character (for all of Allen's roles are ultimately facets of himself) and Allen as actor/director, driving the camera view and the manner of presentation. But the story behind all this storytelling mastery is weak and fragmented, dissolves instead of resolving, seems negligible and lost inside some great character work and rhetorical mastery. There are too many characters, plot-driven deaths which rip significance from the dying persona; too much sound, not enough fury. In all likelihood Allen intended this -- intended us to see his character fall apart in the way his own story and film fell to pieces around him. And there is no denying that, although we see it more in written literature, film is an excellent medium for such narrative breakdown. But although told in the extreme here by Allen, this, the man in his midlife exploring how he got there, is no unusual theme (see, for example, Garp or Updike's Rabbit), even if it is a new way of telling it, using the mechanics as well as the narrative itself to make the point -- and by now the genre brings with it some expectations, I think, which Allen fails to serve...hence the sense of imbalance. Also, the end of the film seems so rushed I wonder if perhaps Allen's director's cut is four hours long. If so, I long to see it -- this Updikean tale deserves the time it would have taken to tell it properly instead of dribbling away the end to fit the "hollywood film" format. We expect this of Allen, by now, unfortunately -- great storytelling that never amounts to anything -- it is a great way to make astute and revelatory observations about the universe, as Allen the Chronicler has always given us so well, but it is a hell of a way to tell a story.
Rating: 
Summary: Not that wild about Harry...
Review: There was a time when the prospect of a new Woody Allen movie was genuinely exciting. Somehow that's changed. Now it seems that critics and--to some extent--audiences accord Allen a certain respect for his wit and intelligence, but no one seems to get excited over the prospect of a new Woody film anymore. I suspect, in part, it's because he's been almost too prolific over the past decade or so. Someone below suggested that you either like Woody or you don't. But it's not that simple: you can genuinely like someone and get a little sick of his routine at the same time. In "Deconstructing Harry," Allen explores such familiar themes "art vs. life," "men vs. women," "critical intelligence vs. received wisdom (i.e. tradition)." He engages yet another talented ensemble cast, all working for peanuts and prestige, and peppers the screenplay with enough sharp dialog to keep the viewer engaged. But this is no "Annie" or "Hannah." The contrast of the "fictional" realities from Harry Block's pen and the "real" scenes (from Woody Allen's pen) seems more gimmicky than illuminating. Therein lies the problem. What was once innovative in Allen's films now seems tired. Moreover, his characters are no longer likeable schlubs trying to make sense out of life. They're, for the most part, unlikeable cynics who have given up making the effort. Sure, the stories of unlikeable cynics deserve to be told too, and no one can deny that an Allen film is always worth a look, but when it comes down to it, what's to love anymore?
Rating:
Summary: Woody Allen travels into the mind of a writer, excellent!
Review: How can I best describe the story of Woody Allen's 1997 comedy "Deconstructing Harry"? Well, I think that the film does a great job of describing itself with some of the final words of dialogue that we hear spoken by Allen's on-screen protaganist Harry Block, "It's about a really interesting character, a guy who can't function well in life, but can only function in art". This is not the first or last time that Allen has taken on the subject of creative personalities in his work, look at the jazz musician in "Sweet and Lowdown", the playwright in "Bullets Over Broadway", or the documentary fimmaker in "Crimes and Misdemeanors". But with "Deconstructing Harry" Allen seems to be at both his most self-revealing AND self-conscience as he tackles the life of a popular (but unhappy) novelist who is experiencing writers block, as well as those close to him who he has literally "used" in his work. It also seems like Allen was in a particularly dark and pessimistic mood when he concieved this piece (as opposed to say, the romanticism of "Manhattan" or "Annie Hall"), but luckily for us that pessimism translates into some hilarious darkly-comic moments. I must say that personally, I love this film and consider it among Allen's best work ever,...but I gaurantee you, it will NOT be for everybody! This film has an unusally complex style of storytelling, even by Woody Allen standards. We see Harry's life and work unfold through flashbacks, scenes from his novels, fantasy sequences, and most interestingly, conversations with the imaginary characters that he has created. Some viewers may also be turned-off by Woody's excessive use of jump-cuts in this film, as dialogue is sometimes cut off in mid-sentence, and scenes jump from one image to another. However, some words spoken by Harry towards the end of the film about his "fragmented, disjointed existence" (as the on-screen picture runs through a series of quick jump cuts), seem to be an attempt by Allen to actually EXPLAIN the film's choppy style to his viewers. I remember that when some people went to see this film in the theater (including a certain big-time movie critic!) they got completely swamped by it's unpredicable, free-wheeling narrative, but for those who are used to Allen's unique brand of storytelling will probably find it to be quite fascinating! It would be amiss of me not to mention Allen's excellent supporting cast. Elisabeth Shue (looking particularly gorgeous here!) is a sheer delight as Harry's much-younger love interest, and their brief scenes together add s real spark to the film, Judy Davis has some great scenes as a neurotic kook ex-lover who has been hurt by Harry's all-too-true work, and TV actress Kirstie Alley almost steals the show as Harry's bitter ex-wife, and a flashback to the literal END of their marriage is one of the films best moments. Allen and Alley are both exceptional in what must be the most hilarious marital argument scene ever put on film! Harry's wimpy backpeddling and self-justification when caught in an exra-marital affair is a classic Woody Allen moment! This film may not be for everyone, but for those who "get it", "Deconstructing Harry" is a great cinema experience!
Rating:
Summary: Life as text
Review: Woody Allen scores again with this mordantly witty comedy-drama. As usual, he presents scathing satires of, among other things, sex, marriage and the Jews. Being a Jew, of course, Allen can get away with being an anti-Semite with a good conscience: -- as Henry Miller has said, "Who hates the Jews more than the Jew?" He pillories Judaism and Jewish familial values with a passion. The only shortcoming with "Deconstructing Harry" is that it was too short; it didn't seem to be in the same league as some of his earlier pictures. I greatly appreciated the Derridaean parallels in the film: Harry Block, a depressed writer whose surname is an eponym for his writer's "blockage", borrows incidents from the lives of his friends and acquaintances and scandalously transposes them onto his fiction. He begins to live a strangely unreal existence, holding conversations with his characters and so forth, in other words, he lives his life as an enormous literary text. The erratic editorial "cutting" throughout the film brilliantly draw attention to how Harry is undermined, or "deconstructed".
Rating:
Summary: Deconstructing Harry
Review: I'm not a very big fan of Woody Allen, but I enjoyed this movie enough to buy it. Funny with a twist.
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