Anything Else (now with impressions!)

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So another year, another Woody Allen flick. His newest one, called Anything Else, is coming to theatres on September 19. The 19th, as a good portion of TNL members should recognize, is the same day that Underworld is released, along with Secondhand Lions, The Fighting Temptations, and Lost in Translation. It's a busy weekend so the box office curse of Woody Allen films is 99% likely to continue.

In fact, so bad now is the very on-screen presence of Woody Allen, that the trailer (featured on the Anything Else website, along with a gallery, clips, and interviews) doesn't feature him at all. Instead, it opts to focus on the verbal play between Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci, making the film look like a more typical New Yorker teen romantic comedy (which it may very well be; you never know).

Danny DeVito and Stockard Channing co-star, Glenn Close is rumored to be in the movie, and Jimmy Fallon is along for the ride (I was surprised he wasn't featured in the trailer). So what is Anything Else about? The plot is pretty vague, but for sure it's about Jason Biggs and his relationship with the high-maitenence Christina Ricci. He turns to Woody Allen for help and Danny DeVito (along with Stockard Changing, I assume) play Ricci's parents.

The movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 29 to good critical reception. The movie looks funny and charming so far (I would also say warm, but I don't find Ricci to be easy on the eyes at all and very alien) and is Woody Allen's chance to show again that he can be on-screen though not necessarily having everyone around him play to his obsessions or have everyone call him too old and aged. What a sad reminder of one's mortality...

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Originally Posted by Sqoon

So another year, another Woody Allen flick.

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*sigh*

I was thinking about renting small-time crooks.

It's a rental for me.

Funny cause Jason Biggs character in this Movie seems exactly like his other roles playing a sweet guy.

I'm not a fan of Woody Allen, but I really enjoyed Manhattan Murder Mystery, good stuff.

Screw Woody Allen, that child molesting bastard, and everything he does. Especially since none of it is funny.

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Originally Posted by Calliander

Screw Woody Allen, that child molesting bastard, and everything he does. Especially since none of it is funny.

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:yuck:
Jeez, did he stick his hand down your pants, or what? Try seperating fiction from reality in the future.

Did anyone see his skit from celeberty death match? :D

Eh, his last three movies were only mildly funny. I'm looking forward to Lost in Translation, though, didn't know it's coming so soon.

Lost in Translation sounds like a more ambitious movie, but I don't know when it'll hit wide release (Sep. 19 is its NY/LA engagement).

I haven't seen Hollywood Ending, but Jade Scorpion and Small Time Crooks I thought were still really entertaining.

Was it Curse of the Jade scorpian that marked the end or am I missing an earlier film? Woody Allen's early stuff > Woody Allen's newer stuff. Though with Ricci in the cast I may give it a shot. She has a lot of untapped talent just waiting for the right film to showcase it.

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Originally Posted by ShineAqua

Was it Curse of the Jade scorpian that marked the end or am I missing an earlier film? Woody Allen's early stuff > Woody Allen's newer stuff.

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It really depends on who you ask. I don't think you can really think Jade Scorpion as the beginning of the end, since there's only one movie after Jade Scorpion and that shouldn't be reflective of where he's going.

I'm pretty sure a lot of people will probably say anything post-Husband and Wives has been his downfall era since that was the same time as the Soon-Yi scandal and the stuff he's been doing this past decade has been much lighter.

Personally, I think he's a consistent director (ups and downs but he always evens out in the end) but people are a lot more critical because he's been around for such a long time and his style doesn't have the same impact it once had. But whatever, I think he has universal qualities.