Rating: Summary: Not A Keeper Review: I came into this film expecting quite a bit, I must admit. After the hugely satisfying "Deconstructing Harry" (and the fascinating documentary "Wild Man Blues"), I came to understand that Allen seems to be exploring a darker side in recent years, but this film really had nothing to say. Aside from some wonderful performances by the likes of Winona Ryder and the resplendant Judy Davis, there is really nothing going on in this film. That may be because are reminded that despite all the hoopla, we really don't care about any of these people. It's hard to really care about a movie like this the when lead is played uncovincingly by Kenneth Branagh, who really has no redeeming qualities at all. The movie should have focused more on Judy Davis' character, probably the only one that had a point to be in the movie, had a real. more compelling story to be told.Some good things: Bebe Neuwirth as the educational hooker......Charlize Theron as the model..Famke Jannsen, who takes a small role as works wonders.
Rating: Summary: Not A Keeper Review: I came into this film expecting quite a bit, I must admit. After the hugely satisfying "Deconstructing Harry" (and the fascinating documentary "Wild Man Blues"), I came to understand that Allen seems to be exploring a darker side in recent years, but this film really had nothing to say. Aside from some wonderful performances by the likes of Winona Ryder and the resplendant Judy Davis, there is really nothing going on in this film. That may be because are reminded that despite all the hoopla, we really don't care about any of these people. It's hard to really care about a movie like this the when lead is played uncovincingly by Kenneth Branagh, who really has no redeeming qualities at all. The movie should have focused more on Judy Davis' character, probably the only one that had a point to be in the movie, had a real. more compelling story to be told. Some good things: Bebe Neuwirth as the educational hooker......Charlize Theron as the model..Famke Jannsen, who takes a small role as works wonders.
Rating: Summary: Every master has a low point Review: I consider myself a Woody Allen fan. I love his movies, his essays, his plays, and his stand-up routine. So it pains me to say that Celebrity is the first, and so far the only, movie by Allen that I had to shut off before it was over. It was so tedious, that I turned it off twice! I don't know where to begin. This story, if you can call it that, was a messy hodge-podge. Sure, all actors considered are very talented, but their characters were not at all engaging and their respective plots were big empty holes. Celebtity presents itself as a case study of celebrity life: the kind of life a celebrity leads and how a culture regards that celebrated personality. But the movie never does it. All it does it hop from one soap opera lilly pad to another with little unification. The only part of the movie that upholds that promise is when Branaugh, a jabbering brainiac trying to get his screenplay off the ground, follows DiCaprio around Vegas, an arrogant teen movie star with a bad temper, trying to get him to look at his movie script. Only then does the word celebrity come to mind successfully. But this interaction is cut short as Branaugh flies back to NYC to do something, I don't even remember what. Another part of the movie that made me grin was when Branaugh's soon to be live-in girlfriend realizes that he wants another woman. She takes the only copy of his manuscript, some book he was writing, and threw it out into the bay. That was priceless. The rest though, is disposable. It's really hard to believe that this script came from the same guy who gave us Manhattan.
Rating: Summary: A Poor Man's La Dolce Vita Review: I dont understand why Woody Allen felt the need to make this movie. Fellini did it beautifully decades ago. Allen adds nothing to the classic. Instead of Woody Allen portaying himself, he has kenneth Branaugh do it. Without giving anything away, the Woody Allen character acts inconsistently to keep a senseless pointless story line moving. The talented Leonardo Dicaprio and the stunning Charlize theron are not enough to save this movie. it is pleasant to look at but clearly Allen has nothing to say. I have come to expect more from a Woody Allen production. If you want to see the social life of movie stars and the media see the masterpiece La Dolce Vita.
Rating: Summary: woody needs to join the rest of us in the 21st century... Review: i have and always will enjoy woody allen's use of beautiful black and white. however, many of us have spent thousands of dollars on surround sound equipment for our home entertainment centers. why bother releasing a film on d.v.d. if it is going to be recorded in mono? here was an elegantly filmed piece of cinema and it comes out of one speaker. i thought woody might have learned his lesson when he did the same thing with "everyone says i love you"...i mean, come on...a musical comedy in mono??? get with it "wood" man... otherwise, "celebrity" was so-so. my favorite scene was the lunchtime television show at the restaurant. donald trump talking about buying st. patrick's, making some renovations and putting up a nice, magnificent high rise. what a hoot!
Rating: Summary: Woody Allen at his best!!! Review: I'm a big fan of Woody Allen and have seen about 20 movies created by this great director and for me Celebrity is one of his greatest. So I just can't understand why many people find it annoying.It has everything a good movie needs.Kenneth Branagh gives a good performance so you don't miss Woody Allen at all,and the supporting actors are all very good, for example Leonardo DiCaprio who gives one of his best performances and also Charlize Theron who looks so great in this movie,that you nearly can't believe it and so it is with Winona Ryder.The story is very interesting, too.Celebrity is one of those movies which have wonderful moments and scenes that you remember for years.If you loved Deconstructing Harry, you will like this one,too.For me the really disappointing Woody Allen films are Hannah and her sisters or Annie Hall from which the first one was so boring, that I wouldn't even recommend it to my biggest enemy.But don't say now, that I didn't understand those two films.Manhattan for example I liked very much and I don't think that Woody's slapstic movies are his best, as you can see in Love and Death which has its good and its bad moments. My favourite movies reach from The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari(1920),to American Beauty (1999)and I like movies from all genres , like 2001-A Space Odissey, The Good The Bad and The Ugly or City of Angels. So if you are a Film-Freak and like movies that aren't so "typically Hollywood" as Titanic or Pretty Woman,and you want a good script AND good actors-I mean good actors, not such as Julia Roberts who deserved for her performance in Erin Brockovich a Razzie-award-this is a movie you will like to see.
Rating: Summary: Dull Review: I'm a Woody Allen fan. Yeah, I like his neurotic genius, how he writes such intellectual dialogue between real people. But this movie was so freaking dull. Geez. And to be in black and white too. That makes it even duller. I was really disappointed. The story needed to be a little more compelling. Nothing interesting seemed to happen.
Rating: Summary: Good, not great, but good Review: I've seen many Woody Allen films, and while this isn't the best, it's not the worst either. Some complain that the film is in black and white, but it didn't really bother me at all. In fact I think that it helps support the premise by giving the media driven Hollywood a very dark tone. Pretty much the only thing that bothered me was Kenneth Branagh's performance. Through out the whole film he attempts to imitate Woody's acting style and it starts to get on your nerves after a while. However the other great characters and rich plot can help you see past that. In the end I really wish I could give it a 4 ½. I'd recommended to fans of other Allen films, but I don't think the average movie fan would enjoy it.
Rating: Summary: Annoyingly Typical Woody Allen Review: I've tried to watch Woody Allen movies before, but his neurotic style simply gets on my nerves. I just want to say "Shut up and quit whining" while watching him. I laughed when Kenneth Branagh's character's manuscript was thrown into the harbor. He deserved it. Some statements about how this country picks celebrities were insightful, but overall I was ready for the movie to end. It seems that Allen wants to live out his fantasies with unattainable women through movies like this. Woody, get a life!
Rating: Summary: Woody Allen's worst? And Brannagh - oh dear Review: If Manhattan holds a strong claim to be the ultimate New York comedy, Celebrity is equally in danger of being considered the worst. It covers many Allen themes - divorce, complex relationship issues, anxious, furrow browed, tweed jacket wearing intellectual men pursuing and sleeping with implausibly attractive women etc.
This is Allen's natural territory that he has made his own in classics such as 'Manhattan' and 'Hannah and Her Sisters'. Celebrity takes the familiar themes but intertwines them into the self absorbed, brutal world of Manhattan intellectual celebrity life. Just how vicious this world can be is highlighted by the plight of Lee Simon (Kenneth Brannagh), who consciously adopts a Woody Allen style persona, as he divorces his wife and plunges into headlong into socialite society, desperately wooing supermodels, actresses and book editors. Brannagh casts a rather pathetic figure in his Allen guise - with Woody Allen the nervous intellectual conceit works and it is possible to see why women find him esoterically charming. With Brannagh he just comes across as a middle aged stammering wet. No woman, let alone celebrities, would engage in the type of tumultuous affairs Brannagh manages to embroil himself in during the film.
Woody Allen films normally guarantee sharp dialogue and some on the button jokes. In Celebrity, the dialogue is often unconvincing and flat and, although there are some good jokes (for example Brannagh's ex wife Robin, when asked what goes through her mind during oral sex, replies, 'The Cruxifixion', these are rare occurences. Two or three genuinely funny scenes is a poor return from an Allen film.
The cinematography and score parallels 'Manhattan' in its measured, black and white sequences and classical soundtrack. But these Allen hallmarks are painful reminders of a time when Allen made some of the funniest romantic comedies of all time. Celebrity - with its viciousness, poor characterisation and unconvincing plotting, represents a nadir in the Allen cannon.
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