YOUNG STARS, OLD PROBLEMS FOR WOODY ALLEN.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic WOODY ALLEN Noun 1. Woody Allen - United States filmmaker and comic actor (1935-) Allen Stewart Konigsberg, Allen doesn't appear anywhere on the poster for his new movie, ``Anything Else,'' and for Allen, that might not be such a bad thing. While this bastard son of ``Annie Hall'' isn't an embarrassment on the level of Allen's last two disasters - ``Hollywood Ending'' and ``The Curse of the Jade Scorpion'' - it isn't very funny, either. It's just further proof that what Allen really needs to do is take a year off, recharge the batteries, maybe lend himself out as an actor for hire (he can still make you laugh) and come up with some fresh material. On paper, the biggest selling point selling point n. An aspect of a product or service that is stressed in advertising or marketing. Noun 1. selling point - a characteristic of something that is up for sale that makes it attractive to potential customers of the movie also turns out to be its greatest weakness. The selling point being that Allen, thankfully, hasn't cast himself as the romantic lead against a much younger co-star. The bad news is that he has cast Jason Biggs as his alter ego A doctrine used by the courts to ignore the corporate status of a group of stockholders, officers, and directors of a corporation in reference to their limited liability so that they may be held personally liable for their actions when they have acted fraudulently or unjustly or when . And whatever you thought of Kenneth Branagh in ``Celebrity'' or John Cusack in ``Bullets Over Broadway,'' you'll find yourself longing for those halcyon hal·cy·on n. 1. A kingfisher, especially one of the genus Halcyon. 2. A fabled bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was supposed to have had the power to calm the wind and the waves while it nested on the sea days while watching Biggs stammer stam·mer n. A speech disorder characterized by hesitation and repetition of sounds, or by mispronunciation or transposition of certain consonants, especially l, r, and s. v. To speak with a stammer. his way through Allen's bottom-drawer neurotic musings. Biggs plays Jerry Falk, an aspiring writer living in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of who wants to produce a great novel about the absolute terror of confronting one's death but instead churns out one-liners for second-tier stand-up comedians Famous stand-up comedians, by country of origin: Australia
The relationship with Amanda gets the bulk of the screen time in this meandering movie. Amanda, as written, is a self-obsessed, messed-up shrew shrew, common name for the small, insectivorous mammals of the family Soricidae, related to the moles. Shrews include the smallest mammals; the smallest shrews are under 2 in. (5.1 cm) long, excluding the tail, and the largest are about 6 in. (15 cm) long. who hasn't slept with Jerry in six months, but Jerry remains oblivious to the fact that the relationship is over. Only Jerry's mentor, Dobel (Allen) another writer-for-hire, can see the writing on the wall, although he also sees anti-Semitic conspiracies around every corner, too. Sound familiar? So will the quips about masturbation, the Freudian analyst, the way a turn-of-the-century (20th) joke is used as a metaphor for the main character's life and all the familiar Billie Holiday songs. It's not only that the Woodman is cannibalizing himself; it's that Biggs and Ricci come off as a couple of children playing grown-up grown-up adj. 1. Of, characteristic of, or intended for adults: grown-up movies; a grown-up discussion. 2. . Biggs as a Sartre-loving intellectual? No. Not here, at least. Watching these two charmless actors skip through Manhattan has all the believability of Elmo in Martin Scorsese's ``Mean Streets.'' When they go see Diana Krall sing at the Village Vanguard (two things, Woody: she doesn't play small clubs anymore and, if she did, you wouldn't be able to waltz up to the ticket window that night), it's like watching the Goo Goo Dolls in a very special guest appearance on ``Beverly Hills 90210.'' Laughable - but for all the wrong reasons. Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com ANYTHING ELSE - Two stars (R: sexual situations, a scene of drug use) Starring: Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Woody Allen. Director: Woody Allen. Running time: 1 hr. 48 min. Playing: Wide release. In a nutshell: The good news is that Woody Allen isn't playing the romantic lead in his new movie; the bad news is that Jason Biggs is. |
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