Rating: 
Summary: Hollywood Ending
Review: Hollywood Ending is a likeable Woody Allen comedy about a director making a movie with the involvement of his ex-wife and her new fiancé. Woody plays his usual character- insecure and self-absorbed. He is a failing filmmaker whose movies are bombing the US. His ex-wife had left him for the studio exec who is financing the picture he's now making. The stress of it all leads to psychosomatic blindness in Allen, who without anyone's knowledge of his condition, attempts to make a film while sightless. Perhaps the greatest drawback to HE is the casting. Although I love Tea Leoni, she's really far too young to play sixty-ish Allen's ex. In the best of his films, Allen populates them with strong actors and characters that give them depth and complexity. The cast here is simply not as strong as in his other films and it suffers somewhat for it. And while this isn't any near his Hannah or Manhattan standard, it's still an enjoyable and fulfilling "middle" Woody Allen film.
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Ending
Review: Hollywood Ending is a likeable Woody Allen comedy about a director making a movie with the involvement of his ex-wife and her new fiancé. Woody plays his usual character- insecure and self-absorbed. He is a failing filmmaker whose movies are bombing the US. His ex-wife had left him for the studio exec who is financing the picture he's now making. The stress of it all leads to psychosomatic blindness in Allen, who without anyone's knowledge of his condition, attempts to make a film while sightless. Perhaps the greatest drawback to HE is the casting. Although I love Tea Leoni, she's really far too young to play sixty-ish Allen's ex. In the best of his films, Allen populates them with strong actors and characters that give them depth and complexity. The cast here is simply not as strong as in his other films and it suffers somewhat for it. And while this isn't any near his Hannah or Manhattan standard, it's still an enjoyable and fulfilling "middle" Woody Allen film.
Rating: 
Summary: resignation
Review: Hollywood Ending is better than Woody Allen's last two films, but that makes it...what? His third-worst ever. All I can say for it is that it wasn't as excruciatingly awful as Small Time Crooks and Curse of the Jade Scorpion, but it still WASN'T FUNNY. Is there anything sadder than a Woody Allen movie that's neither funny nor intellectually stimulating? I've seen all but three of Woody Allen's movies, but unfortunately that's now three too many. Reviewer David Edelstein's analysis was that Woody is trying hard now to cater to his audience but has no respect for that audience: the result is trash. Can we hope that he'll pull out of this hole? Of course we can hope. But we shouldn't get those hopes up.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny Movie, But Allen is Getting Too Old....
Review: Hollywood Ending is the story of a washed-up director who is given a last chance to make a comeback. He gets so agitated by the pressure that he is stricken by a bout of hysterical blindness, and must be led through the filming process by his agent, Producer/Ex-Wife, and the Cameraman's translator. All of this is well and good. The movie is funny, but the laughs were tempered by the icky feeling I got watching the shriveled Allen being the object of desire for Tea Leoni, Debra Messing, Tiffani Theissen, etc. In what universe is this happening? I could accept it when he was younger, but it's just creepy now. I'd prefer to see Woody romance someone his own age next time. I also had a problem with the ending,.The entire movie builds your expectations about the movie he's directing (The City That Never Sleeps): How will it look, having been directed by a blind man? Woody chooses not to show us, and I think that was a big mistake. The movie is WAAAYY too long, and perhaps if he cut the long, unfunny, dressing-room sequence (Which is just an excuse for Allen to grope the Bra/Panty/High Heel-clad Theissen's breasts), he would have had time to show some scenes from the film-within-a-film.
Rating: 
Summary: Woodman is Back in Full Throttle
Review: HOLLYWOOD ENDING (***1/2)
out of ****
Rated PG-13 Each year audiences are treated with a visit from something from another time, a nostalgic piece of comic heaven. Last year it was the mediocre "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion," this year it is the full-blown genuine comedy "Hollywood Ending". I hadn't laughed so hard and so genuine since "Annie Hall", Woody Allen's 1977 masterpiece. "Hollywood Ending" is no masterpiece, but if you're a lover of true comic timing and the styling of such comedians as Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx and Bob Hope, you will not only love this film, but you will, inevitably, love Woody Allen.
I attended this film on opening night, May 3rd, in Lawrence, Kansas, for Topeka Kansas seems to be more focused on block-busting adventures such as "Spider-Man." I went to see it with three Woody Allen fans, two of them long- time fans (one them told me their first affair with Woody Allen in seventh grade when they saw "What's New Pussycat") and one barely over a year old. Yet, all of us were giddy with excitement at what we were about to be presented with.
"Hollywood Ending" tells the story of Val Waxman (Woody Allen) a hypochondriac artistic filmmaker who, although in the 70's and 80's won Oscars, is now filming deodorant commercials in Canada. His ex-wife, Ellie (Tea Leoni), who left him for studio executive Hal Yeager (Treat Williams), has gotten him a job shooting a remake of the 1953 film noir "The City That Never Sleeps." But days before shooting begins Val goes psychosomatically blind, and his agent, Al (Mark Rydell) tries to cover it up, creating surreal comedy.
The premise is simple, and goofy, yet Allen's intellectual sense of humor will keep people whose vocabulary does not consist of "morose" out of the theatre. Allen's films aren't made for a wide audience; they're made for the people who truly love this type of humor. In one scene in which Val is trying to cover up that he is blind while he is having a meeting with Hal Yeager, he prances around the screen like Charlie Chaplin. I have to say I haven't seen Woody this physical since his 1973 ode to silent film, "Sleeper." Allen's films always parallel situations in his real life. Like the fact that he always likes to hire foreign cinematographers, or that he wants to shoot the film entirely in black and white, or that the only place to shoot it is in the streets of New York City. In this film Woody makes New York brilliantly beautiful and once again portrays his love affair with the city. The performances were wonderful as well. Woody Allen has never been so anxious and nervous, his nervous tics radiate the screen and energize the audience. And he hasn't had a leading lady that has done so much for the film like Tea Leoni does since, perhaps, Diane Keaton. Barney Cheng stars as the translator for the Chinese cinematographer in the first half of the film, and when paired with Allen's character is was comic heaven. I was impressed by Debra Messing and her stomach, along with her dizty, yet truthfully, comedic performance as Val's live-in girlfriend. Though, as I have stated, some performances were top-notch, other's slightly above mediocre. Treat Williams' performance was nothing amazing, neither was Tiffany Thiessen (remember Kelly from "Saved by The Bell"?) and George Hamilton just stood there with his golf club and played what he plays best...himself...The Tan Man. Woody Allen is still the master of comedy, and, from what I can see, is the only one around still doing this kind of stuff. From his introspective films of the eighties ("Hannah and Her Sisters" "Crimes and Misdemeanors") to his mirth filled comedies of the mid-nineties ("Mighty Aphrodite" "Everyone Says I Love You") to his more hard-edged, cynical films of the late-nineties ("Deconstructing Harry" "Celebrity"), Allen has proved with this film, and his last two ("Small Time Crooks", "Curse of the Jade Scorpion) that he still has that perfect comic timing he had twenty-five years ago. This was an amazing film with a wonderful ending that will have you chuckling days after you leave the theatre. And if you didn't have faith in the Woodman, he's already working on his next film, shooting will begin May 13th in New York City. His new film stars Glenn Close, Danny DeVito, Jason Biggs, Jimmy Fallon, Christina Ricci and, of course, Woody Allen. So viewers...enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Hey Woody: straighten up and fly right!
Review: I don't want to give up on Woody Allen yet. I know what he is capable of. But after watching Hollywood Ending, I was close to forgetting him entirely.
The plot is absurdly funny: Allen plays an old washed up film director who has one shot at a big-time comeback with his ex-wife serving as a professional laison. One problem that arrises is that Allen's character goes temporarily blind. For the rest of the movie, he, his manager, and his ex-wife need to hide the fact that he can't see while he's directing the film.
But as hilarious as the story presents itself, everything else works against it. The cast, dialogue, and especially the pacing completely kill any hopes of this being a good Allen film, to say less a great one. The momentum drags big time, and many of the gags loose whatever it was they had going for them despite the fact that Woody Allen has a hidden talent for physical acting (remember Sleeper?).
But like I said, I'm not ready to abandon Woody Allen just yet. He has a really good movie left in him, I know it. We just haven't seen it quite some time.
Rating: 
Summary: Still a fan despite this film
Review: I have been enjoying Woody's films since I was about 14. This is the only film I can say falls a tad short of engaging in his extensive career as (arguably) the only living comic genius writer/director today. If you are a fan, take a look, you will still find one or two moments of hilarity. If its your first, start anywhere but here.
Rating:
Summary: Witty self referential and funny
Review: I like Woody, I like this film, and I like his love of film. Mr Allen's love of human beings, his compassion and understanding of our foibles, vanities, and his own foibles and vanities, shine through this fine film. I also like his truth - in some ways he his almost anti-Hollywood in the sense that he does not try to cover up his physical deterioration, as if to say " Well, he I am and here you are, and are we going to make the journey with a joke or a whine?" To me, despite the jokes in the film about his character and being a great artist, I think he is one of America's great film makers, and a great humanitarian, with a deep understanding of his art, comedy and us. This is a good example of his work and worth owning.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Woody's usual
Review: I love Woody Allen's films when he's in them and they take place in NY. This one fits the bill in both cases but it's just a so-so film. The jokes are OK but the real wit is lacking. If you're a Woody fan, this is a good film to see but don't wait to see anything spectacular.
Rating:
Summary: Woody-lite
Review: I saw this at a free screening earlier in the week and that might have made the laughs easier to come by, but it was still quite amusing and fun. Allen seems years past his prime when he had his pulse on the mores of urban life in the late 70s and early 80s. As a 60-something, his screen persona is grayer but no wiser. This is a lighter-fluffier Woody that brings back the old New York-Hollywood dialectic and has fun with it. It's just not the big and innovative work we used to see from him. For an Allen film, it seems surprisingly restrained in lanquage, PG-13 for sure. If you're not crazy about Woody, wait for the video.
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