Celebrity

Rating:
Summary: DEJA VU FEELING...BUT A VERY BORING DEJA VU.
Review: "Celebrity" features most of Woody Allen's trademarks: a huge number of characters, a lot of cameos, a lot of mini-stories that are connected between each other, and dialogues filled of whining, sexual allusions, irony and social satire. When the movie is well made, like "Hannah And Her Sisters", "Annie Hall" or "Manhattan", those Woody Allen's trademarks translate into a very good movie, with lots of fun and entertainment. But when is made like "Celebrity" the final result is a failure of a movie.

THE BEST: Without a doubt, Charlize Theron, Winona Ryder, Famke Janssen and Melanie Griffith are the best of the movie, all of them are beautiful women and make their scenes in "Celebrity" more interesting than they would have been without those gorgeous actresses.

Some of the dialogues in the Leonardo DiCaprio segments are funny and original. There are a lot of interesting cameos. The black & white photography gives personality to the film, in an era packed of explosions and computer generated special effects, is always interesting to see a black & white movie.

THE WORST: Without a doubt, the worst in the movie is the Kenneth Branagh character, he is a great actor, but in this movie he makes an increasingly irritating Woody Allen imitation. When the real Woody Allen is the central character, his voice, attitude and physic translate into a funny character, but when someone else does a cheap imitation, the central character becomes pathetic. A lot of the scenes and situations are very, very boring and pointless.

"Celebrity" is one of the less interesting movies of Woody Allen, it just feels too familiar, repetitive and boring.

Rating:
Summary: HO HUM...WOODY ALLEN REALLY COASTS ON THIS ONE.
Review: "Celebrity" is definitely a Woody Allen film. Yes...it is shot in black and white. Yes...it features a lot of familiar faces. Yes...the main character is arrogant and neurotic. Yes...at its core, this movie is all about sex. There is nothing new or interesting that hasn't been done by Woody before. It's almost as if he is simply riding on his reputation and isn't inspired to do anything different. The handful of decent moments are brought to us by either Winona Ryder or Charlize Theron. All in all, "Celebrity" is a waste of celluloid.

Rating:
Summary: Celebrity
Review: "Celebrity," Woody Allen's latest film is a very unique one. One interesting aspect is that the Woody Allen character -- here played by the, in this case, terrible and annoying Kenneth Branagh who imitates Allen's every gesture and stutter -- definitely loses out in the end. Allen's movies typically have some element of ambiguity in the end as far as the characters' paths are concerned, but everything seems set. Judy Davis' character, Robin Simon, marries happily to Joe Mantegna's Tony, and finally learns the lesson that there isn't always another shoe. Kenneth Branagh's Lee Simon loses out completely.

Also, it is more of a "flashy" comedy than his others -- although part of this can be attributed to its subject matter of fame and sex. Without Kenneth Branagh as Woody, and without the trademark credits set it Windsor Condensed, it would not be as easily identifiable Woody film as others.

There are some terrible moments in the film -- the scene were the Hooker played by Bebe Neuwirth demonstrates oral sex on a banana for Robin and chokes on it, the ending scenes with Winona Ryder and the director of a play she's in -- which are rare in Woody Allen's movies (although, an experiment in drama entitled "September" by Woody should be avoided like the plague). Sadly, it did not fare well at the domestic box office. It cost $20 million to make and grossed a mere $5 million. It is also priced very high on VHS, meaning I'll have to wait to buy it and rent it for about six months until the price goes down.

Definitely worth a viewing if you're a Woody Allen fan.

Rating:
Summary: Allen Takes Branagh And Davis Down
Review: "Celebrity," written and directed by Woody Allen, is one of his most anxious, neurotic, caffeine-driven works ever, and he even includes what can be construed as a disclaimer of sorts: the scene is the screening of a new film by an artsy-type director, whom someone refers to as pretentious; his movie is shot in black & white and is apparently self-serving and self-indulgent. This film by Allen is shot in black & white, is pretentious, self-serving and self-indulgent. There is a story in here somewhere that seeks to explore the nature and effects of fame, but toward that end the viewer is subjected to a vast array of unsympathetic characters, mediocre performances and a lot of endless stammering and hand wringing. Kenneth Branagh should be happy with this one, however, because for him there is no place to go from here but up; this is far and away the nadir of his film career. He plays Lee Simon, a writer, a role written by Allen obviously with himself in mind, and Branagh does little more with it than give a Woody Allen impersonation throughout the entire movie. Inexplicably, he fails to create any semblance of an original character, so caught up apparently with "doing Woody," and the result is a ridiculous caricature that lacks any credibility and is annoying in the extreme. How a terrific actor like Branagh, with so many personal tools at his disposal, could produce such a pretentious portrait is beyond comprehension. Judy Davis comes off looking bad as well; playing essentially the same type of role as she did in Allen's "Deconstructing Harry" (which she pulled off so well), she has been "over-Woodied" in this one, taking her character of Robin (Lee's wife) to a teeth-clenching extreme. Watching such a gifted actress give such a fingernails-scraping-the-blackboard performance is almost beyond endurance. Also wasted in this film are the talents of Hank Azaria, Leonardo DiCaprio, Melanie Griffith, Famke Janssen, and Michael Lerner. The only actors who managed to keep their heads above water in this one were Joe Mantegna (as Tony, the only character you could come close to caring anything about), Bebe Neuwirth (as a hooker), Winona Ryder (as an aspiring actress) and Charlize Theron, who was probably the most memorable, in a convincing turn as a supermodel. Allen has made some great films over the years, but unfortunately "Celebrity" isn't one of them. This is vapid drivel that will do little more than leave you jittery and have you reaching for the antacid tablets.

Rating:
Summary: DEJA VU FEELING...BUT A VERY BORING DEJA VU.
Review: ** 1/2 stars rating for this movie. "Celebrity" features most of Woody Allen's trademarks: a huge number of characters, a lot of cameos, a lot of mini-stories that are connected between each other, and dialogues filled of whining, sexual allusions, irony and social satire. When the movie is well made, like "Hannah And Her Sisters", "Annie Hall" or "Manhattan", those Woody Allen's trademarks translate into a very good movie, with lots of fun and entertainment. But when is made like "Celebrity" the final result is a failure of a movie.

THE BEST: Without a doubt, Charlize Theron, Winona Ryder, Famke Janssen and Melanie Griffith are the best of the movie, all of them are beautiful women and make their scenes in "Celebrity" more interesting than they would have been without those gorgeous actresses.

Some of the dialogues in the Leonardo DiCaprio segments are funny and original. There are a lot of interesting cameos. The black & white photography gives personality to the film, in an era packed of explosions and computer generated special effects, is always interesting to see a black & white movie.

THE WORST: Without a doubt, the worst in the movie is the Kenneth Branagh character, he is a great actor, but in this movie he makes an increasingly irritating Woody Allen imitation. When the real Woody Allen is the central character, his voice, attitude and physic translate into a funny character, but when someone else does a cheap imitation, the central character becomes pathetic. A lot of the scenes and situations are very, very boring and pointless.

"Celebrity" is one of the less interesting movies of Woody Allen, it just feels too familiar, repetitive and boring.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of a dissapointment.
Review: Although it has some funny scenes and a great idea behind it, this movie just didn't seem to take off for me. Woody Allen has done much better in the past. Even his "Deconstructing Harry" was better than this. It was just too uneventful. I do agree that Leo DiCaprio had one of the best scense in the movie. It does show that the man can act, when given the right oppurtunity. (Although it is debatable if his small, almost un-important part was deserved of an Oscar nomination as a few reviewers have commented.) Kenneth Brannah's character was funny, but I think that actors playing the lead in Woody Allen comedies need to stop pretending they're Woody. Although I've only seen two do it, Brannah and John Cusack, I have no doubt others have as well (or will. I really hope Sean Penn doesn't try it out in this next movie!). I also wish Woody would stop giving the very talented Judy Davis such insecure, neurotic roles. I think I've seen her in three of his movies, and she seems to be the same in each. She is a beautiful and talented actress, and I think Woody should let her show it more (although I haven't seen her Oscar nominated performance in Husbands and Wives, so maybe he has at least once). Like I said, if you're a Woody fan, you might go for this. If not, don't expect a great movie. Get some of his classics instead.

Rating:
Summary: Tale of the "Starstruck Underachieving Writer"
Review: Although the movie doesn't start at this point, the storyline does. Lee, a Hollywood beat writer, skillfully portrayed by Kenneth Branagh attends his twenty year high school reunion and realizes his life is passing by uneventfully while he's married to a school teacher, Robin (Judy Davis). A divorce ensues and Lee begins searching for happiness among Hollywood's "elite". A series of fairly entertaining misadventures commence for both Lee and Robin that lend insight to the life of *Celebrities* obviously filtered through Woody Allen's glasses. Fans of both Branagh and Allen should be pleased. Some viewers will feel the pain of Branagh's character at his class reunion and thus be able to sympathize to some degree for the rest of the movie. Of course Lee is so self-serving it's amusing to wonder what Woody Allen's plot has in store for him as punishment. Great cameos abound and performances by Leonardo Dicaprio, Charlize Theron, and Famke Janssen enhance the lumbering plot immensely.

Rating:
Summary: Best thing Allen's done in years.
Review: And by the amount of stars in my review, you have an idea of what I've thought of his recent efforts. As it is, the film's theme is too obvious: "Entertainment Tonight" is turning us into zombies. Yeh, yeh, we know. "Celebrity" works better when it gets personal.

The Amazon reviewer and a reviewer below bemoaned Mr. Branagh's performance, presumably because it's such a blatant imitation of Woody. To which I remark, Well, if you didn't like the takeoff, why do you like the original? Branagh's mimicry was so exact as to be creepy -- AND amusing. And nothing new, considering Allen's penchant for meta-cinema (did anyone notice, btw, Charlize Theron's hairstyle when she first appears in the film? is that Mia circa 1969 or what?). At any rate, I certainly prefer this Branagh to the shrill Shakespearean Branagh. Finally, you must blame Woody, not Kenneth, for the final result; Allen is nearly as bad Kubrick for being a control-freak. Obviously this is a film Woody would've starred in 20 years ago; now that he's in his 60's, he sensibly vouchsafed someone else to play him.

The Allenian "Cavalcade of Stars" has more to do in this film than is usual from this director. The cameos have meat (Melanie Griffith excepted). Ms. Theron was humorous as the oversexed supermodel, baying for echinacea. And Leonardo DiCaprio was simply brilliant at playing . . . himself?

Allen's recent films have been titanically boring to look at: bland camerawork, minimal scene composition, et al. "Celebrity" is composed of sparkling black/white by our old friend, Sven Nykvist. So this Allen film is, atypically, a joy to look at.

Allen, it seems, is mad at us. I wished I could feel as outraged as he apparently is over America's preference for substance over image. I would suggest to him that, as Americans, we are who we are.

Rating:
Summary: Fame -- It's the name of the game
Review: Andy Warhol once intoned that we'd all be famous for 15 minutes. In Woody Allen's 1998 comedy "Celebrity," one of his characters cites that quotable quote. The unquenchable thirst for being applauded and lauded permeates this film. All of the denizens of this black-and-white NYC world gravitate toward photographers' flashbulbs, gossip column newsprint, and sound bites on entertainment TV. His cast of actresses, models, painters, writers, and producers are all jockeying to be recognizable to the public, as opposed to being recognized in their fields. It doesn't matter whether they create works of art or produce oeuvres that will be their permanent legacies--they all simply want a chance to appear on Page Six or be dished by Joan Rivers on the red carpet. (Allen shows this brilliantly during a second-rate movie premiere sequence, where Karen Duffy interviews arriving celebrities in a high-pitched, frenzied, continually growing fervor. Her hard-hitting questions of these minor celebs include insights into the weather, the rain, and the puddles. Additionally, Debra Messing makes a brief pre "Will and Grace" appearance as a bellowing banshee TV reporter. Her broadcasting is of a feverish, shouting, ear-splitting level.)

Allen, who at one time had been hailed as a comic genius, began to make serious, European-inspired films in the early 1980s. He is at his best, however, when he makes "warmedys" or "dramedys," movies that walk the tightrope of laughing out loud and meditatively exploring affairs of the heart and mind. In Allen's personal life, which always included the requisite relationship with leading ladies (Louise Lasser, Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow), he seemed to be following what is mandated of directorial types. His reputation took a violent turn downward with his secret wooing and seducing of Soon-Yi, Farrow's adopted daughter. With his callow explanation of "The heart wants what the heart wants," Allen had unwittingly joined a pantheon of fellow May-December offenders: Roman Polanski, Charlie Chaplin, Errol Flynn. It doesn't matter whether Soon-Yi was of legal age when the romance began, Allen was branded as a child grabber.

This fall from grace and the unwilling attainment of fame on a whole different level is the driving force of "Celebrity." Throughout the film, shallow models, spoiled actresses, high-strung editors, generous producers, and confused writers interact before backdrops of "The Ricki Lake Show" or "Jerry Springer." Look carefully and you'll see Joey and Mary Jo Buttafuco playing on a televison screen, and you'll catch Donald "the Donald" Trump extolling how he plans on buying up St. Patrick's Cathedral to raze it and build some dynamite condo space.

We live in a world where people become PEOPLE magazine cover stories by virtue of being kidnapped, taken hostage, or victimized in some grotesque way. We lionize interns who have achieved notoriety because of their oral skills, rather than their clerical talents. (Just the other day, a 60-plus-year-old woman has come out of the woodwork confessing to being the first First Intern, having taken advantage of executive privilege with JFK.)

Allen's movie delves into the whole culture of making a name for oneself without being able to name what one actually does. Kenneth Branagh, doing a dead-on Woody Allen impression, is a travel writer who has a midlife crisis that dictates he wants, and deserves, more than an occasional byline and tryst in bed with his long-suffering Catholic wife. Judy Davis is the aforementioned spouse, and she does a serviceable job as a woman who is convinced that she doesn't deserve happiness and any morsel of good fortune.

Along the way, the two characters separate and divorce, then become involved with lunatics and lovers played by Charlize Theron, Famke Janssen, Winona Ryder, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Joe Mantegna. Interestingly, Theron (as a self-absorbed, selfish woman who basically has become famous for wearing lingerie on a runway) utters a prior Allen line: She admits to being polymorphously perverse, being able to attain pleasure wherever she's touched. Allen uses that same adjective to describe the Keaton character in "Annie Hall." (And he uses its reverse, "polymorphously insensitive," to razz the Dianne Wiest character in "Hannah.")

Overall, "Celebrity" is not a fabulous movie. It's not consistently funny and it doesn't have the touching moments or sweetness of "Hannah and Her Sisters." This is a text-book movie to view, though, if you want to see how one of the most famous men in American cinema history pontificates about fame and the price one pays to attain it. It will also prompt you to consider whether mass adoration morally bankrupts the seeker, or is one already lacking in good character when the hungry hunt begins?

Rating:
Summary: I just don't see what's all the critism!
Review: Before renting this movie all I heard fro people is how bad this movie was! what's wrong with it! Okay I'll be the firt to admit-it's not one of the greatest films ever made and certainly NOT Allen's BEST! Most people look at this as a comedy,I don't! I see it more as a drama. The movie has a serious message(How dumb people and are country is! I'm not saying everyone is dumb.But,yes their are peple who do foolish things.And we as a country celebrate and accept very odd things a perfect example is pokemon) and that message gets through clear. not to mention Allen's great directing and some great acting.