Movie Review: Hollywood Ending

Stars (Out of 10): 7.5

One Word Summary: Woody

Full Review:

   Hollywood Ending is about a film director who after many years without a successful movie finds himself shooting deodorant commercials in Alaska! Then, his ex-wife, who left him for the executive director of a studio, suggests that he'd be perfect for a movie they're making. He gets the job, and on the night before the first day of
shooting he goes psychosomatically blind.

    Yeah... the plot sounds very dumb, and the it is! It just seems like another front for Woody Allen who'll be the same as he was in his last movie and just like he'll be in his next movie. The truth is, that if the next Woody Allen movie was about the assassination of JFK, we'd still see the same Woody Allen, but different words would be coming out of
his mouth! What he needs to do is find one character that he can ride on for a couple of movies, in a series, because every movie he makes is seeming less and less different.

    On the other hand... it was still hilarious! One thing I liked about this movie compared to other Allen films in recent memory, was that he surrounded himself with some pretty funny actors and actresses. Comedy is a lot better when its coming from all different sides instead of just one source. Allen still made himself the center of attention, he's still funny!

    One comedic element I absolutely loved in the film, was a Chinese translator (Woody's character Val Waxman chose a Chinese director of photography) who acted as Val's eyes for most of the film. Some of the exchanges between the two of them almost brought me off my seat I was laughing so hard.

    As I said earlier, Allen chose a  good cast for this movie. Debra Messing is one of the funniest actresses on television and she was great as a dumb unsuccessful actress looking for a job. Tea Leoni is good in all of her movies, but this was the first time (in my memory) that I've seen her in a comedic role, and she was great. Mark Rydell, who plays Waxman's agent was hilarious in every scene he was in.

    In conclusion, this was a very funny movie, with a very good cast, and a plot that led to very good jokes! It didn't make any money in the box office, but they can blame that on Spiderman!

Conclusion:  

Yahoo! Movies Description:

Comedy
and Drama

1 hr. 54 min. Woody Allen writes, directs, and stars in his latest contemporary comedy, as a once-famous film director who finds his latest job by working for a studio executive (Williams) who is now dating his ex-wife (Leoni). Even as he starts work on what he hopes will be his comeback project, the
director finds, however, that he has gone temporarily blind.