Rating: 
Summary: My Favorite Woody Allen Film
Review: Being a HUGE fan of The WoodMan, I have concluded that this ismy favorite of all of his films so far. The film follows the thoughtsand stories from the mind of Harry Block, a well-known and respected writer whose stories reflect much too closely on those who he has inter-acted with in the past. This draws fire and confrontation from ex-wives, girlfriends, sister - basically, everyone he has come in contact with. The film moves in and out throughout these "stories", mixing real-life with Harry's version of real-life. These stories are well-integrated throughout, with the typical Woody Allen neuroticism and pessimism. It's a darker side of life than most his films, but it's a side that I loved getting to know. A writer who can't exist in real-life, but only in the fiction that he has created?
Rating: 
Summary: Deconstructing Harry
Review: This is Woody at his absolutely lowest point. The film is not remotely funny, and we see a sad and unintentionally revolting parody of the Woody character that appeared so brilliantly in his earlier films.
Rating: 
Summary: Roth's influence is clearly seen and felt in this film
Review: I won't bother repeating what's already been said about this wonderful movie.What I will do is recommend that those who enjoyed this movie pick up Phillip Roth's classic *Portnoy's Complaint,* the stream-of-consciousness rantings of a successful 2nd-generation Jewish lawyer about his upbringing, his past, his guilt, his sex drive, and all the things that they drive him to do. -J.
Rating:
Summary: Woody Does it Again
Review: This movie was hilarious. It's definitely up to the Woodycode. My favorite scene is when Kirstie's character goes balisticover Woody, while she has a patient in her office. I couldn't stop laughing! ... Woody, in regards to the prostitute: "She's the nanny." Woody Allen is a comic genius!
Rating:
Summary: Pitiful, Pathetic, Poor, Painful...
Review: Woody's lost it. This isn't bitterly funny, its just bitter. The film's low point is a crude, ugly sight gag involving Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Richard Benjamin, who should have insisted on reading the script before they signed on to the project. Anybody who thinks this is either intellectual (it sure isn't) or amusing (nope, sorry) is just wishful thinking or remembering the old days when Woody was both. The characters here are ugly, the situations silly, the gags flat. As a former fan, I keep watching Woody's films hoping he'll recapture the magic of PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO or RADIO DAYS. This film is light years away. What it is, is racist, painful to watch and a sad reminder that it's all over for Woody. Time for Woody to call it a career and spend the rest of his time WATCHING films. He might want to rent something like HANNAH AND HER SISTERS if he wants to see how film can be both intellectual and funny. This deserves no stars.
Rating:
Summary: WOODY CREATES HARRY CREATING KEN WHO COULD BE PART OF WOODY
Review: Intellectual pleasure is so rare today that it would be really masochistic not to enjoy DECONSTRUCTING HARRY. Woody Allen had already treated in THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO the theme of imaginary creations coming to life and, this time, these are no more movie heroes but book's characters. With a plot line like this one, Woody had to write a really solid screenplay in order not to get lost in the multiple possibilities it involves. And it works ! Harry is an unusual variation of the Woody character we know. He's a hooker addict, a womanizer and he likes to drink alcooholic beverages. Around him, Judy Davis, Amy Irving and Richard Benjamin give above-average performances. The cinematography is excellent, Woody trying some interesting arty effects like an "out of focus" Robin Williams and chaotic editing. A DVD fo your self.
Rating:
Summary: REPROBATE ALLEN WINS ME BACK, THIS TIME
Review: When it was first released, I avoided seeing DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (a.k.a., Woody) because I couldn't bring myself to face yet another self-deprecating, neurotic, self-indulgent, self-centered Woody Allen on screen (who the newspapers had just confirmed is that way off screen too!). Having first laughed at and then endured Allen since the 1960s, I'd had enough. Nevertheless, to this day Allen's THE FRONT remains one of my all time favorite movies ... mainly because of its truthfulness, honesty and courage. Unintentionally, one night I saw part of DECONSTRUCTING HARRY on cable TV (and then HAD to buy it here in DVD) ... because I couldn't stop howling. I'd only seen perhaps the middle half hour of it, but that was enough. Mercifully, THIS movie was not ALL about Allen. Rather Harry Block-Woody Allen was "exploited" as a vehicle for a higher form of humor. Then there were a parade of actors who I never imagined had it in them: Richard Benjamin, Kirstie Alley, Amy Irving ... of all people ..., Mariel Hemingway ... yet! ALL were great in this comedy ... they were terrific. Equally terrific were Hazelle Goodman as Harry's motherly hooker Cookie (wonderful), Billy Crystal and Robin Williams ... who you'd expect to be funny, were indeed that. I must admit, Allen pulled one out as writer, director and star. But not merely because of the brilliant writing and directing (oh, O.K., and the acting) but because for ONCE Harry-Woody was not the center of the neurotic universe. He was in the middle of the action .... but he tied it all together in DECONSTRUCTING HARRY. Many modern interpersonal issues, stereotypes and clichés are brought into scrutiny under this microscope. It is the very absurdity of it all, making the movie hysterically funny. Clearly, this is a movie for mature audiences. It is definitely not a movie for children and adolescents. Probably they would find it boring and confusing. The language and situations are graphic, raw and irreligious. But in this movie these are necessary "paints" for painting this picture. Grownups will enjoy this movies thoroughly.
Rating: 
Summary: GOOD!
Review: This guy ALlen is a freak, but I must admit that this movie is something unique to watch. Allen gives the audience a movie with fast dialogues, funny (and sometimes grotesque) situations, intelligent plot and great acting. No wonder actors normally do anything in their reach to work along with Allen, sometimes even for free. The anguish and neurosis of the main character almsot leaves the screen and went into the audience's skin! Amazing!
Rating:
Summary: SEE NAPLES AND DIE!
Review: What it's about is Truth, symbolized in the chestnut of "the writer's block". This is vibrant, stimulating stuff - and no stranger, nor less pertinent, than Allen's legendary favorite Sophocles, prodding autocracy and tyranny in Antigone. Face facts, fellas. The jury is in on Allen. He was - is - a memoirist and satirist of the first order, comparable with Swift, with anyone, who has come before him. His medium is film, and he plays with it as a child plays with clay: he muddles, and tugs and laughs with it. There is a forlorn, desperate "earnestness" with which contemporary reviewers weigh Woody, as though their raison d'etre was our moral realignment, using Allen as the plumb. It doesn't cut. It mostly smacks of a kind of blind self-loathing. Allen is above it. He entered as court jester, and moved, as jesters will, to the position of invisible power that allows us the great insight: that the emperor has no clothes. God bless him! Catch this one. See Naples (or London, or Rome) and die!
Rating:
Summary: Funny, funny, funny!
Review: One of pure fun dark films I have ever seen... Allen at his best, laughing at anyone, especially himself and all the values of the family. When I saw it at the cinema, the whole crowd held their body, rolled on the floor laughing.
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