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FILM REVIEW

FILM REVIEW; There's Deceit, And Then There's Deceit

By Elvis Mitchell

• May 1, 2002

When Woody Allen's newest movie, ''Hollywood Ending,'' is spitting one-liners, the picture has the gone-delirious feel of Theolonious Monk crunching notes, a wired, jazzy rhythm specific to this comic. Once the energy from the jokes dies down, we're left with a project so stale you feel like opening a window to let some air in.

In a gruesome way, ''Hollywood Ending'' is evocative of Stanley Kubrick's ''Eyes Wide Shut,'' which felt like a movie made by a man who hadn't been outside in 30 years. It's too bad that ''Hollywood Ending'' doesn't seize more opportunities to riff, because that's when it has the effortless, tuned-in and, yes, somewhat exclusionary vibe of hard bop; if you don't get the picture's derisive slashes at Toronto, France and show business, too bad. And even those jokes come a little too easily, though at this point it's probably too late to expect a huge departure from Mr. Allen.

Most of the acrid remarks come from the mouth of Mr. Allen's character, the maladjusted Val Waxman, a once well-regarded Oscar-winning director who is now reduced to shooting commercials on what seems to him another planet: Canada. Val has thrown his career away; he's so temperamental that the studios are refusing to work with him. Ellie (Téa Leoni), a studio executive and Val's ex-wife, makes a huge pitch to get him hired onto a movie she feels he was born to make: a Manhattan set-period film called ''The City That Never Sleeps.'' Hal (Treat Williams), her velveteen-smooth fiancé and the studio chief, is persuaded, and Val gets the job. When Val commences filming, he comes down with a case of hysterical blindness and has to enlist his agent Al (Mark Rydell) to help.

Is it wrong for Val to deceive a bunch of thieves, low-lifes and no-goods, i.e., the studio? ''Hollywood Ending'' is one of the few Allen pictures that brings to mind the Weimar Republic vigor of Billy Wilder, and it starts off feeling like a classic Wilder film skirting the difference between amorality and immorality; unfortunately it ends up as one of the sweaty flops that ended Wilder's career.

Late in the film, ''Hollywood Ending'' reveals Val's failed relationship with his son (and does nothing with it, but that's another story). We're almost made hopeful because the son, Tony (Mark Webber), is one of those affected neo-punks you see asking for extra whipped cream at an East Village Starbucks. But once Tony gives his vulgar punk name, the tired flailing becomes unbearable.

Also plunging downhill quickly are several scenes with Ms. Leoni, who has the stately physicality and no-nonsense posture of a 1930's comedienne, and she's costumed in beautiful cashmeres that seem to have her in motion even when she's standing still. When the bits centering on Val's on-and-off jealous hostility have him pecking away at Ellie's newfound West Coast calm, Mr. Allen gets his laughs. But as soon as these moments drift into honest emotion, Ms. Leoni and Mr. Allen seem to be in two different pictures.

There's enough promise in ''Hollywood Ending'' that we're initially taken with it. The movie begins with posh splashes of color: a conspiracy of movie executives -- or a pack -- whatever it is they travel in, who are bathed in honeyed, dreamy sunlight, wearing blues and reds as they confidently prowl an executive suite. It's a statement, more hues than Mr. Allen may have employed in his entire career, and this luscious scheme is visually inviting.

Mr. Allen acknowledges here that he does have an understanding of why Satan prefers to live in Los Angeles, despite all of his complaints in ''Annie Hall.'' And that devil, as embodied by Hal (Mr. Williams, taking the conniving unflappability of his performance in ''The Late Shift'' to a frightening and impressive level) resides in Los Angeles, in a home so palatial it brings to mind the joke Bob Newhart made about Johnny Carson's estate, ''Where's the gift shop?''

Mr. Williams is not the only actor who does well. In a brief bit, the fashion designer turned personage Isaac Mizrahi has an aerodynamic Deco profile as the production designer who is more of a spoiled brat than Val. Barney Cheng is surgically precise as the translator for the angry Chinese cinematographer. (Mr. Allen takes a shot at directors who insist on foreign photographers, including himself. His cinematographer is Wedigo von Schultzendorff.)

Mr. Rydell is brisk and funny, giving a Method reading of the solid entertainer's rhythms that Mr. Allen uses to bring home his one-liners. The picture crackles a bit because the disciplined Mr. Allen probably had fun playing a guy who couldn't be further from his own Judeo-Christian work ethic, the new wrinkle the writer, director and star has added to the old, sagging neuroses. For Debra Messing, who plays Val's dim sorta-actress girlfriend, most of her character is in her costumes, which underscore her boutique-shopping shallowness.

Probably the worst thing you can say about ''Hollywood Ending'' is that it has one: it turns out that Mr. Allen wasn't being ironic after all, he just made a comedy that feels ironclad.

''Hollywood Ending'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for the kind of mocking, self-denigrating sexual innuendo and drug jokes that are standard in Woody Allen comedies.

HOLLYWOOD ENDING

Written and directed by Woody Allen; director of photography, Wedigo Von Schultzendorff; edited by Alisa Lepselter; production designer, Santo Loquasto; produced by Letty Aronson; released by DreamWorks Pictures. At the Lincoln Square, 1998 Broadway, at 68th Street. Running time: 114 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.

WITH: Téa Leoni (Ellie), Woody Allen (Val), George Hamilton (Ed), Debra Messing (Lori), Mark Rydell (Al), Mark Webber (Tony), Tiffani Thiessen (Sharon Bates), Treat Williams (Hal), Isaac Mizrahi (Elio) and Barney Cheng (Translator).

A film review yesterday about Woody Allen's ''Hollywood Ending'' misspelled the given name of the composer and pianist to whose crunching notes the movie's one-liners were compared. He was Thelonious Monk, not Theolonious.

How we handle corrections

Hollywood Ending

The ending is pretty amusing -- and so is the beginning, for that matter -- in "Hollywood Ending," Woody Allen's highly idiosyncratic look at an aging auteur trying to make a comeback. For those always on the lookout for the "funny" Allen, this one definitely has its moments, but too much of the picture is flat, dispiriting and frankly unbelievable in fundamental ways that defy the granting of poetic license

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

• Remember Me 14 years ago
• Shutter Island 14 years ago
• Green Zone 14 years ago

The ending is pretty amusing — and so is the beginning, for that matter — in “Hollywood Ending,” Woody Allen’s highly idiosyncratic look at an aging auteur trying to make a comeback. It’s the middle that’s a muddle, a case of Allen taking a chance on an outrageous conceit that might have served nicely in a literary element but just doesn’t play out convincingly onscreen even in a comedic context. For those always on the lookout for the “funny” Allen, this one definitely has its moments, but too much of the picture is flat, dispiriting and frankly unbelievable in fundamental ways that defy the granting of poetic license. Insider nature of the film biz yarn should make this a winner at festivals in San Francisco and, especially, Cannes, where it will generate appreciative guffaws as the opening-night attraction on May 15 due to its French-referencing final punchlines. But despite Allen’s notably heightened profile of late, DreamWorks will have trouble pushing the picture much beyond the filmmaker’s modest B.O. norm domestically.

Self-referential up to a point in that Allen plays a 60ish director whose prime lies at least a decade behind him — but different from Allen himself in that his character, Val Waxman, is a director-for-hire who hasn’t actually made a feature in years — pic is loaded with inside industry jokes that will play to varying success with mainstream viewers. If possible, Val may be more neurotic and hypochondriacal than any of Allen’s previous alter egos. And then there’s the ongoing plausibility problem of Allen, who looks grayer and more wizened than ever, hooking up with and even being propositioned by hot babes 30 or more years his junior. Overall, pic falls in the middle ground where his recent work is concerned, significantly better than “Small Time Crooks,” “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion,” “Celebrity” and “Everyone Says I Love You,” but not as sharp as “Deconstructing Harry” or “Mighty Aphrodite.”

Basic premise is dynamically conveyed in the opening scene, in which Galaxie Pictures exec Ellie (Tea Leoni) persuades her boss and lover Hal (Treat Williams) and all-purpose studio flunky Ed (George Hamilton) that the best person to direct their upcoming $60 million period drama “The City That Never Sleeps” is that consummate New York filmmaker, Val Waxman. Not only are the men surprised at this recommendation because Val is considered a total has-been, but Ellie was married to Val before Hal stole her away.

As for Val, he really is a mess. Discouraged because Peter Bogdanovich just got a TV movie gig he was up for, he quits a commercial shoot in snowy Canada on his first day to return to Manhattan and his unlikely girlfriend, Lori (Debra Messing), an air-headed aspiring actress who’s still waiting for Val to get another picture so he can cast her in it.

When the skeptical Galaxie crew flies into New York to talk with him, Val nearly blows it by morosely detailing all his ailments. Val seems so impossible to work with that one begins to doubt the premise’s validity, a feeling compounded when, during a private drink with Ellie, all he can do is berate her for having left him all those years ago. But even then Allen earns the benefit of the doubt by producing some zinger lines, such as his response to Ellie’s complaint about his intimacy preferences: “Sex is better than talk. Talk is what you suffer through in order to get to sex.”

Once Val gets the job, the haughty auteur in him rises to the fore, as he insists upon changes in the script and hiring a Chinese cinematographer who speaks no English (shades of Allen’s own recent collaboration with Zhao Fei). He also sneakily hires Lori, despite her complete inappropriateness for the role of an upper-class socialite, whereupon she conveniently disappears — to go tone up at a spa — until very late in the action.

Then, some 40 minutes in, comes the Big Twist, the realized fear of any visual artist and the ultimate hysterical response to heavy pressure and responsibility: Val goes blind. It’s psychosomatic, his shrink tells him, without being able to predict when the affliction will lift. A despairing Val is persuaded by his eternally optimistic agent Al Hack (Mark Rydell, excellent) to go ahead anyway, that he will protect him and function as his on-set eyes. There’s only one thing, Al warns: “This can’t get out!”

Device is intellectually funny and might well have been hilarious in an Allen short story or even in the printed script. But the sight of Val bumping around the set and trying to guide the cast and crew while not revealing his secret (and without the benefit of dark glasses, either) generates a queasy feeling that becomes increasingly difficult to live with the longer it goes on. When Al is banished from the set, a Chinese business student working as the d.p.’s translator becomes Val’s confidant, but the awkwardness of the whole situation is augmented by the certainty that what’s being caught on film can’t be any good.

Notwithstanding Val’s rationalization that Beethoven composed great symphonies while deaf, the fundamental ludicrousness of the situation playing out at length combines with sagging inspiration during this long middle section to slow the film to a staggering limp. The studio maintains an amazingly liberal hands-off attitude despite Hal’s grave doubts going in, and even a journalist’s accidental (and pretty funny) discovery of Val’s condition doesn’t bring the production crashing to a halt. Wrap-up isn’t the “happy ending” that might be expected, but it will give film buffs a good laugh or two.

The almost irrepressibly vivacious and sexy Leoni could theoretically be a great Allen leading lady, but here she has the misfortune of alternately being on the receiving end of Val’s neurotic harangues and having to defensively stick up for her ex to her colleagues. Williams is in good form as her shallow but not stupid fiance, while Hamilton is an amusingly baffling presence as a studio rep with no readily apparent function except to carry around a golf putter. A small subplot involving Val’s estranged son, whose punk rock accouterments are painfully dated, accomplishes nothing and could have been usefully excised.

Bathed in golden hues by German lenser Wedigo von Schultzendorff, whose work on “The Thirteenth Floor” caught Allen’s attention, production is well appointed physically, with production designer Santo Loquasto and costume designer Melissa Toth making key contributions. Score consists of a pleasing collection of vintage pop tunes.

Opening Night / U.S.

• Production: A DreamWorks release (in U.S.) presented in association with Gravier Prods. of a Perdido production. Produced by Letty Aronson. Executive producer, Stephen Tenenbaum. Co-producer, Helen Robin. Co-executive producers, Jack Rollins, Charles H. Joffe. Directed, written by Woody Allen.
• Crew: Camera (Technicolor), Wedigo von Schultzendorff; editor, Alisa Lepselter; production designer, Santo Loquasto; art director, Tom Warren; set decorator, Regina Graves; costume designer, Melissa Toth; sound (SDDS/DTS/Dolby Digital), Gary Alper; supervising sound editor, Robert Hein; assistant director, Richard Patrick; casting, Juliet Taylor, Laura Rosenthal. Reviewed at DreamWorks screening room, Glendale, April 17, 2002. (In San Francisco Film Festival -- closing night; Cannes Film Festival -- opening night.) MPAA rating: PG-13. Running time: 112 MIN.
• With: Val Waxman - Woody Allen Ellie - Tea Leoni Ed - George Hamilton Lori - Debra Messing Al Hack - Mark Rydell Sharon Bates - Tiffani Thiessen Hal - Treat Williams Cameraman - Lu Yu Translator - Barney Cheng Elio Sebastian - Isaac Mizrahi Alexandra - Marian Seldes Andrea Ford - Jodie Markell Psychiatrist - Peter Gerety Assistant Director - Greg Mottola Tony Waxman - Mark Webber

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Hollywood Ending Reviews

Hollywood Ending has its satirical charms, but it repeats itself remorselessly, and it has no emotional center.

Full Review | Nov 17, 2015

Ephemeral, Woody Allen. Only for his fans.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 24, 2010

You know a romantic comedy is in trouble when you root for the hero not to get the girl.

Full Review | Nov 1, 2007

Filled with laughs and missed potential for lots more, the film leaves us happy but maybe wishing for something bigger.

Full Review | May 26, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 30, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 7, 2004

Com seu habitual humor auto-depreciativo e seu imenso talento para a comdia fsica, Allen cria um filme divertido, mas que jamais se equipara aos seus grandes trabalhos.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 25, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 76/100 | Mar 16, 2004

For those, like this reviewer, who revere Allen as one of the greats, it's best that Hollywood Ending be quickly buried.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 4, 2004

Que las escenas ms graciosas de una pelcula de Woody Allen sean aquellas en las que se da contra una puerta o se cae de una altura es seal de que ya no es lo mismo.

Full Review | Nov 23, 2003

Hollywood Ending, while not quite as lousy as last year's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, is still fairly mediocre...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 1, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 20, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 10, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 5, 2003

...Even if this isn't Woody's best, it provides generally solid entertainment, which is something of a rarity these days from Tinseltown.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2003

It's getting difficult to watch this old dog trying so hard to pull off the same old tricks; Allen is becoming a caricature of himself, a cartoon, before our very eyes.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 8, 2002

Woody Allen's latest is an ambling, broad comedy about all there is to love -- and hate -- about the movie biz.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 7, 2002

Allen se atreve a atacar, a atacarse y nos ofrece gags que van de la sonrisa a la risa de larga duracin

Full Review | Oct 22, 2002

Uneven: great fun in parts, annoying in others, too familiar in some.

Full Review | Oct 21, 2002

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Hollywood ending, common sense media reviewers.

Ephemeral, Woody Allen. Only for his fans.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Comic peril.

Sexual references and situations.

Some strong language

Drug references

Parents need to know that this movie has some sexual references and situations, including adultery. There's some strong language and a reference to drug use.

Positive Messages

Violence & scariness.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this movie has some sexual references and situations, including adultery. There's some strong language and a reference to drug use. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (1)

Based on 1 parent review

A conformist movie about non-conformism

What's the story.

Movie director who Val (Woody Allen) is brilliant but so neurotic that no one will work with him. His ex-wife, Ellie (Tea Leoni) arranges for him to have one last chance to direct -- a movie set in New York that seems perfect for him. Her new boyfriend Hal (Treat Williams) is reluctant to trust Val with a $60 million movie, but he goes along with it because he trusts Ellie to keep Val under control. But just before the film is supposed to begin shooting, Val develops hysterical blindness. He's persuaded by his agent to go ahead and make the movie. The only people who know the truth are Al and a Chinese student hired to translate for the cameraman, who does not speak English. Despite the fact that the director never looks anyone in the eye and his directions make no sense, everyone keeps talking about his artistic "vision" and his leading lady tells him that she loves the way he looks at her. Various mix-ups and pratfalls later, the movie turns out to be a mess, but there is indeed a Hollywood ending and almost everyone lives happily ever after.

Is It Any Good?

Woody Allen's films seem to get more wispy and ephemeral every year; for all its small pleasures, HOLLYWOOD ENDING is so light it nearly floats off the screen. Allen gets a lot of credit for poking fun at his own reputation, and there are a couple of hilarious movie industry jokes. The movie has some great lines and some funny scenes, especially when Val and Ellie get together for their first business meeting and it keeps exploding into recrimination about their divorce. Will and Grace's Deborah Messing is delicious as Val's airhead girlfriend, who does leg stretches while she talks on the phone and whose only response to hearing that he is breaking up with her is, "Am I still in the movie?"

Overall, though, Hollywood Ending feels a little tired. Not one character is as distinctive as any of Anne Hall's family members or the robots in Sleeper . This is middle of the road Woody Allen -- a pleasant diversion for his fans, but it won't make any new ones.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why people sometimes put up obstacles to realizing their dreams. What made Val decide to reconcile with his son? Why wasn't it possible earlier? Why did Woody Allen name the male characters Val, Al, and Hal?

Movie Details

• In theaters : May 3, 2002
• On DVD or streaming : September 17, 2002
• Cast : Debra Messing , Tea Leoni , Woody Allen
• Director : Woody Allen
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : DreamWorks
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 114 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sexual references and drug use
• Last updated : June 21, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Our editors recommend.

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

Small Time Crooks

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Hollywood Ending

Where to Watch

Woody Allen (Val) Téa Leoni (Ellie) Bob Dorian (Galaxie Executive) Ivan Martin (Galaxie Executive) Gregg Edelman (Galaxie Executive) George Hamilton (Ed) Treat Williams (Hal) Debra Messing (Lori) Neal Huff (Commercial A.D.) Mark Rydell (Al)

Woody Allen

A director is forced to work with his ex-wife, who left him for the boss of the studio bankrolling his new film. But the night before the first day of shooting, he develops a case of psychosomatic blindness.

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Hollywood ending.

2002 Directed by Woody Allen

It's going to be a shot in the dark!

Woody Allen stars as Val Waxman, a two-time Oscar winner turned washed-up, neurotic director in desperate need of a comeback. When it comes, Waxman finds himself backed into a corner: Work for his ex-wife Ellie or forfeit his last shot. Is Val blinded by love when he opts for the reconnect? Is love blind when it comes to Ellie's staunch support? Literally and figuratively, the proof is the picture.

Woody Allen George Hamilton Téa Leoni Debra Messing Mark Rydell Treat Williams Jodie Markell Isaac Mizrahi Marian Seldes Aaron Stanford Tiffani Thiessen Mark Webber Bob Dorian Ivan Martin Gregg Edelman Neal Huff Douglas McGrath Stephanie Roth Haberle Bill Gerber Roxanne Perry Barbara Carroll Greg Mottola Peter Gerety Fred Melamed Howard Erskine Louis Lu Yu Barney Cheng Anthony Arkin Ramsey Faragallah Show All… Olivia Hayman Peter Van Wagner Judy Toma Sarah Polen Amanda Jacobi Steve Hurwitz Ruth Last Robert Lloyd Wolchok Joel Eidelsberg Kenneth Edelson Ted Neustadt Reiko Takahashi Jeff Mazzola Erica Leerhsen Ray Garvey Rochelle Oliver Joseph Rigano Maurice Sonnenberg Mary Samuels Carmen Dell'Orefice

Director Director

Woody Allen

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Richard Patrick Danielle Rigby

Producers Producers

Letty Aronson Helen Robin

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Stephen Tenenbaum Charles H. Joffe Jack Rollins

Writer Writer

Casting casting.

Juliet Taylor Patricia Kerrigan DiCerto Laura Rosenthal

Editor Editor

Alisa Lepselter

Cinematography Cinematography

Wedigo von Schultzendorff

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Larry McConkey Michael Green

Lighting Lighting

Scott H. Ramsey

Production Design Production Design

Santo Loquasto

Art Direction Art Direction

Tom Warren Jonathan Arkin

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Regina Graves

Special Effects Special Effects

John Ottesen Ron Ottesen

Stunts Stunts

Manny Siverio Jay Carrado

Sound Sound

Robert Hein Brian Vancho Lee Dichter Todd Milner Ryan Collison Glenfield Payne Gary Alper Dave Flynch Stuart Stanley

Costume Design Costume Design

Melissa Toth

Makeup Makeup

Lori Hicks Nuria Sitja

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Wayne Herndon Robert Fama

DreamWorks Pictures Gravier Productions Capitol Films

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

Chinese English

Releases by Date

03 may 2002, 15 may 2002, 03 oct 2002, 08 aug 2003, 30 sep 2005, releases by country.

• Theatrical L
• Theatrical 15+
• Theatrical U

South Korea

• Theatrical 15
• Theatrical PG-13

112 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by The Reel House ★★★

Woody Allen : “Why do people think my films are autobiographical ?!” 

Also Woody Allen : writes movies like this.

Review by jeaba ★★½

possibly would've enjoyed this more if i didn't hate looking at woody allen's face

Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★★½ 4

Cinematic Time Capsule 2002 Marathon - Film #59

”This looks like the work of a blind man”

Have you ever had stress dreams about your job? I can only imagine that this story of a director going psychomatically blind must have been an actual neurotic nightmare straight out of Woody’s dream journal.

There’s some great movie making moments and lines throughout, but as much as I love the premise, unfortunately this yarn spins it’s wheels just a bit too long.

BONUS POINTS for Debra Messing, who’s ability to radiate stupidity completely steals the show.

”I’m a natural. Classes would ruin me”

Cinematic Time Capsule - 2002 Ranked

Long Live Physical Media

Review by Will Sloan

I saw this on opening weekend, which was the same weekend that Spider-Man was released. Imagine my excitement seeing a wide-release studio comedy in the year 2002 that featured Treat Williams, Mark Rydell, George Hamilton, and of course the one and only Woody Allen as above-the-line stars. At the time I thought it was really bad, and perhaps I still do, but sometimes when life is hard I just want to kick back with some Bad Woody. And y'know what? I had a good time.

The plot: Woody Allen stars as a washed-up Cimino/Bogdanovich-like director who lands a job directing a big movie... but goes blind on the eve of production! This is his last shot at a comeback, so…

Review by Rodrigo Homsi ★★★

Uma comédia romântica tradicional do diretor, dessa vez a protagonista escolhida para ser seu par romântico foi Téa Leoni. O filme é uma especialidade do diretor, contém bons diálogos e um timing cômico afiado. Frases como: "Falar é o sofrimento necessário para chegar ao sexo" fazem parte do pacote.

Review by Thomas McCallum ★★★★

Performances : 7.9/10 Story : 8.4/10 Production : 7.8/10 Overall : 8.03/10

In one word, I found the overall story of Hollywood Ending touching. It's classic Woody Allen. Yet he's so old and stuttering and over-the-top nuerotic that it comes off fresh for some reason. As far as his performances go I think it may have been one of his best. Tea Leoni was great too, and I'm usually not a fan of hers.

I don't know, I really need to take a break from these Woody Allen films for a while. I'm very close to being done but I've essentially running out of new things to say. It's both a great thing and a bad thing with Allen. Almost…

Review by Caty Alexandre ★★★

Woody Allen always loves to write about nervous, complexed and temperamental characters. Hollywood Ending is another one of those examples and this time he is the one plays it.

Val Waxman was a very well respected Hollywood director until he has lost all of his credibility because of some poor works. The chance of directing a great film after a long time appears by the hands of his ex-wife who cheated on him with the millionaire that is producing the film. Val is not dealing very well with the situation but it's his last big opportunity and he has to accept. After some kind of nervous breakdown he developed a psychosomatic blindness. Now he has to direct the picture without…

Review by Ethan Vestby

Riding the Cry Macho high I wanted something equally relaxing and threw on this. A few laughs and if you're still interested in the Woodman mythology some potentially thorny stuff with him working through his relationship with Spielberg/Katzenberg/Geffen as well as basically admitting that he lets the cinematographer (or their translator) direct the later works. Despite the oddly long runtime, less of a slog than Small Time Crooks or Curse of the Jade Scorpion.

Scumbag X was the hottest role in Hollywood the summer of 2001, with all the biggest young actors Brad Renfro, Nick Stahl, Shawn Hatosy etc. competing for it.

Review by ShawnGlinis ★★★

they say familiarity breeds contempt, but I'm finding the opposite is happening between me and this Late Woody that I once considered his worst film.

though there's a disconnect between its concept and execution, and though the jokes are more often bunts than full swings (not a bad thing), there's something about this film, which opened the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, that I now find a pleasant and charming, if overlong, auto-piloted satire. perhaps most of that is due to the real chemistry between Woody and Leoni (whom Sarris called his best leading lady since 70s Keaton...), and some of those small-stakes jokes earn satisfying chuckles in their purposely overworked style (the Hollywood exec support group for execs who can't…

Review by Jake Alda Coffey ★★★

That Harvey Weinstein joke did not age well

2002 RANKED  WOODY ALLEN RANKED 

Review by Kathan Trivedi ★★★★

“Thank god the French Exist”

Review by Noel Penaflor ★★

A sitcom premise (director inexplicably goes blind has to stumble through a production) that can't sustain an entire movie. Woody Allen plays the Woody Allen we've seen thousands of times before so your enjoyment of the movie depends in how much of that you can take. The film floats along with well-timed zingers until its awful ending. You're not sure what an actual Hollywood ending would have been for this but it probably would have been better than its actual ending.

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Hollywood Ending (2002)

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Hollywood Ending

• Comedy , Drama

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In Theaters

• Woody Allen as Val Waxman; Téa Leoni as Ellie; Treat Williams as Hal; and Mark Rydell as Al; Debra Messing as Lori

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• Woody Allen

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Movie review.

Val Waxman was the bomb, the cheese, a brilliant director on Hollywood’s A-list. Then his eccentricities and perfectionism began to intrude into his professional and personal life. Now, one career and divorce later, he’s reduced to shooting deodorant and Depends commercials (when he can get them). All seems doomed for the down-on-his-luck director until his ex-wife Ellie intervenes. Engaged to Hal, a high level Galaxie Films executive, Ellie champions for Val to direct The City That Never Sleeps, a gritty New York Mob drama. Val’s agent, Al, also steps up to the plate, assuring the powers-that-be that Waxman’s eccentricities and reputation for approaching films half-cocked will not intrude. Hal finally relents. Simultaneously exuberant and wracked with anxiety, Val falls asleep the weekend before the shoot begins, only to awake completely blind. Convinced by the doctor that the ailment is psychosomatic and his sight could return at any time, Al convinces him to direct the film anyway. After all, who would ever hire him if he abandoned the opportunity of a lifetime because of a psychological disorder? Chaos ensues in this biting satire of the movie industry.

positive elements: Ellie goes to bat for Val against a bevy of studio execs, convinced that he’s the best fit for The City That Never Sleeps despite his peculiarities. While occasionally played for laughs, Val and Ellie’s messy divorce is never glamorized. Even though she was involved in an adulterous relationship with Hal, Ellie decries marital unfaithfulness (albeit, hypocritically). While bickering over their breakup, Ellie declares that two-thirds of American marriages survive on inertia, to which Val responds that the rest thrive on love (one gets the impression that he wishes their union hadn’t been part of the majority). Val manages to restore his relationship with his pierced, tattooed, hard-rockin’ son, reaffirming the mutual love they hold for one another. At one point, Elle strongly chastises Hal for lying to Val.

As expected from the film’s title, Allen takes quite a few pointed jabs at Hollywood’s culture and the films it produces. Petty bickering, bloated egos and constant back-stabbing parade across the screen for the moviegoer’s careful consideration. Take Val’s flighty live-in girlfriend who aspires to be an actress yet refuses to take lessons because she’s convinced she’s a natural and “classes would ruin her.” Or the on-set reporter who aims to slaughter Val’s career while telling him how she always loved his work. Or Al and the studio exec who discuss their plastic surgeries and recommend doctors to one another while Val bumbles along blindly.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Actually, the most sharpest barbs are imbedded in the subject of Val’s blindness. As he fakes his way through the filming, the result is a predictable mess. But instead of deciding that he’s completely incompetent (as blindness would render any purveyor of a visual art), the cast and crew conclude he’s a wild new visionary, a celluloid genius. Only when the reporter accidentally unearths his secret and the public views the finished product does his career go down in flames. But then Woody Allen (wearing his director’s hat) abruptly changes tack. In the final five minutes of the film, Hollywood Ending shifts from a stinging satire to a drippy melodrama. Val learns that the French adore his new movie and want him to make a second. He and Ellie are magically reunited and fly off to Paris, fulfilling their newlywed dream of living in France. Allen’s point? Hollywood isn’t committed to kindness, fairness or reality. They want their cash, they’ll trample on those who get in their way and they’ll feed audiences the basest pabulum as long as they’ll eat it.

spiritual content: Val interrupts his agent, Al, during a Jewish seder to inform him that he’s gone blind. When encouraging Val to go ahead with the movie despite his blindness, Al says, “Sometimes God works in strange ways,” to which Val responds, “Like Job.” Ellie says to Val, “Little did I know our marriage would become one of God’s practical jokes.” Later, after she discovers he has directed three-fourths of the film while blind, she prays, “God, may the day June 16th rot in hell for all eternity” (June 16th is Val’s birthday).

sexual content: One only has to have a basic knowledge of Allen’s work to realize that sex plays a central role in much of his work. This film is no exception. In nearly every conversation with Elle, Val mentions some aspect of either their past sexual relationship and her current (extramarital) one with Hal. Recalling the early stages of the affair, he rants, “You were exchanging glances, then suddenly you were exchanging fluids!” He then asks Ellie why their marriage failed. “We didn’t communicate,” she responds. “We had sex!” he yells. “But we didn’t talk!” she emphasizes. Val replies, “Sex is better than talking!” Such conversation about any number of sexual activities (including references to a threesome and masturbation) is constant. Val lives with his much younger girlfriend Lori, a tart who struts around in skin-tight, low-cut attire. Hal talks about a script with Ellie wherein two men invent a machine that can turn women back into virgins.

During a particularly uncomfortable scene, the voluptuous leading lady of The City That Never Sleeps has Val brought into her dressing room in order to seduce him, unaware that he’s blind. After opening her robe (she’s wearing lingerie) and placing his hand on her breast (he thinks it’s a pillow) she blurts, “If I trust a director to direct me, I trust him to make love to me.” Val backpedals, claiming that he likes to “abstain” from such activity until after a film is done, so their professional relationship isn’t compromised. Mollified, she assents and says, “If I trust a director, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do sexually for him.” Val replies, “You’ll never lack work in this town.”

violent content: Val plummets off a scaffold when he makes a misstep. A couple scenes in The City That Never Sleeps involve bloodless gunshots and slaps. Val alludes to his son pushing him down the stairs after a strident conversation about music. His son insists he ate a live rat during one of his hard rock shows.

crude or profane language: Characters use God and Jesus’ names in vain over 30 cringe-inducing times. There are fewer than five other mild profanities.

drug and alcohol content: In order to combat his psychological disorders, Val pops pill after pill, mixing as many as four medications at a time. Interestingly, Val’s son blames his experimentation with drugs on his father’s example and regrets that he ever used them. “Those days are over,” he states. “They were very stupid.” He still smokes, however. After an award dinner in Hal’s honor, Ellie realizes they are both drunk and wishes they wouldn’t imbibe so much at such events.

other negative elements: Allen’s characters prove themselves so dysfunctional that any redemptive aspect of their relationships gets colored by their quirkiness. Take Val’s interaction with his son. At the end of their conversation he says, “I love you, Tony.” His son expresses his thanks, but informs Dad that his name is now Scumbag X. “I love you, Scumbag,” Val very seriously responds. Plus, the creepiness quotient goes off the charts as you watch Allen’s character romantically interact with women less than half his age, twitches, stutters and all.

conclusion: From What’s Up, Tigerlily? to The Purple Rose of Cairo , Woody Allen has shown himself to be unafraid of skewering Hollywood where it needs to be skewered. His critiques of Tinseltown are gratifyingly sharp and witty. It’s a shame that overactive libidos and blasphemous uses of God’s name spoil the show.

Loren Eaton

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"We waste our money so you don't have to."

"We waste our money, so you don't have to."

Movie Review

Hollywood ending.

US Release Date: 05-03-2002

Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring ▸ ▾

• Woody Allen ,  as
• Tea Leoni ,  as
• Debra Messing ,  as
• Treat Williams ,  as
• George Hamilton ,  as
• Tiffani Thiessen ,  as
• Sharon Bates
• Barney Cheng as

Woody Allen and Tea Leoni in Hollywood Ending .

There's something very comforting in watching a Woody Allen movie. From the moment those white on black credits appear on the screen accompanied by the familiar strains of some old jazz piece or musical standard, it's as if you're seeing an old friend you haven't seen for a few years. You know what sort of jokes you're going to hear, what sort of characters you're going to meet, and you definitely know where it's all going to take place. You just know that all the typical Woody Allen stuff will be there; the New York Setting, the angst-ridden characters, and of course a leading lady who will be about forty years too young for him.

Hollywood Ending easily fits the Woody profile. He plays a neurotic New York film director who used to be considered cutting edge, but has since fallen on hard times due to his reputation for being difficult. His ex-wife (played by Téa Leoni (also known as woman too young for Woody #1)) however, is now engaged to a movie studio executive and has come across a movie she thinks Woody would be perfect to direct. After some convincing, she lands him the job for $500,000 and 1/10th of a point after the movie breaks-quadruple even.

Woody, who is now reduced to directing commercials, is living with a young actress (played by Debra Messing (also known as woman too young for Woody #2)). Shortly after he accepts the movie, he begins to clash with the executives. He wants to hire a foreign cameraman; so foreign in fact, that he doesn't speak any English. The set designer that he chooses wants to build Central Park and the Empire State Building (or at least the first 20 floors) in a sound stage.

The first day of the shooting, Woody wakes up only to discover that he is blind. A quick trip to the doctor reveals that it's not physical, simply a psychosomatic illness. At the urgings of his agent, who knows that he will never work again, if word of this affliction gets out, Woody decides to try to bluff his way through the movie.

The jokes start to get a little broader at this point than are usual from Woody Allen, prat falls and walking into furniture, etc. His verbal humor is still there, there's just also a lot more of the physical kind than you normally expect from Woody. And some of it works and some of it doesn't. At one point when he is alone in the dressing room of one of the female stars of the film he is shooting (played by Tiffani Thiessen (also known as woman too young for Woody #3)), and she makes a pass at him by taking his hand and placing it over her breast, he blithely replies, 'No, no, I'm ok, I don't need a throw pillow.'

There's nothing cutting edge about this movie, it's not his funniest or best work, but it's still Woody Allen. Reliably funny and entertaining. And where else but in a Woody Allen movie would you get the line, 'You know my favorite part of masturbation? The cuddling afterward.'

Woody Allen, Barney Cheng, Tea Leoni and George Hamilton.

Scott, I’m afraid a bit of nostalgia and your fondness for the Woodman blinded you (pun intended) on Hollywood Ending . I honestly think this is his least funny comedy since A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy which Eric and I went to see upon its release way back in 1982. I guess when you are as prolific as Woody you are bound to misfire every now and then.

The main problem is the central conceit of a director being stricken with a psychosomatic blindness but somehow still being able to direct a movie. It’s just too silly of a plot device for even Woody Allen to pull off.

And speaking of Woody, his performance is not up to snuff. His timing is off. He stumbles over words and it’s more than just his usual stammering shtick. It happens so much that it begins to seem as if he is trying to remember his lines. I don’t think it’s merely coincidence that he hasn’t made a movie where he played the main character since this one.

Although to his credit there are individual scenes that work. The young Chinese translator (Barney Cheng) is funny. There should have been more scenes with him and Allen bantering on the set. And you can always count on Woody the screenwriter to deliver at least a few memorably funny lines. I laughed when he and Tea Leoni were discussing his hypochondria and she mentions several ridiculous ailments Allen has thought himself stricken with over the years, “Black Plague? An allergy to oxygen? Elm White? Only elm trees get elm disease.”

As Scott pointed out the age difference between Allen and his leading ladies has gotten more and more ludicrous over the years. It is just one of those things you have to accept when watching his films I guess. But that doesn’t make the sight of a shriveled wizened old guy kissing a pretty young woman any less disturbing.

The slapstick doesn’t work either. Allen talking to Treat Williams but looking in the wrong direction just isn’t funny. I mean he can’t tell from the sound of Williams voice that the guy is sitting across from him and not next to him? It is lazy gag writing that sinks like a rock.

SPOILER ALERT: Although his movie within the movie turns out to be crap it is, of course, hailed as a masterpiece in France. This leads to the funniest line of the entire movie when Allen says what Jerry Lewis has been thinking for decades. “Thank God the French exist.”  

Treat Williams, Tea Leoni, Woody Allen and Debra Messing

Scott finds something very comforting in watching a Woody Allen movie. I find it nauseating.  I am not exactly sure when Woody Allen turned into a little troll for me, but it happened.  Perhaps it was that day in 1982 when he bored me to tears with A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy or the long list of disappointing films since.  Maybe it was his personal life of having sex with his foster daughter.  Either way, it is as if I'm seeing an annoying old acquaintance I have not seen for a few years, or ever missed.

Hollywood Ending is a hit and miss.  Many jokes do in fact work.  Then 14 year old Haley Joel Osmet getting a lifetime achievement award is worth a chuckle.   George Hamilton insulting people and then announcing, "No offense," as if that makes the insult alright, is likewise humorous.  Allen's references to Hitler and Himmler are as out dated as can be.  His masturbation joke likewise falls flat as the thought of Allen doing that is one I never wanted to have when he first made a similar joke in Annie Hall (1977).

Allen's clear hatred for Hollywood is obvious.  The fact that Val directs a movie even though he is blind and no one notices is a not so subtle slam on tinsel town's worship of the movie making process.  Everyone thinks his awkward directions are just a sign of his artistic genius.  The joke drags on far too long.

My brothers both already mentioned it and I will ad that I am truly bothered by his leading ladies being so much younger.  Tea Leoni, who plays his ex-wife, is 30 years his junior.  He yells at her dramatically, "How you could leave me for that cheesy windbag!"  As if the answer is not obvious.  Val is a high maintenance, emotional egotist who is older than her father.  The more fascinating question would be what in the hell did she ever see in him in the first place.  

The film has a scene where she mentions that when they first met she was a small town girl and he was cutting edge.  When referring to his current much younger ditzy girlfriend they describe her as trailer park or one step above.  Clearly Allen thinks little of people outside his circle.  I like how he is embarrassed by the producers finding out he is dating the airhead actress who just auditioned, not because he is dating someone forty years younger. 

The most fascinating scene in the entire film was when Val visited his son.  They do not agree on taste and his son is the only person in the film who wants nothing from him.  It is the closest the movie ever gets to a real moment.  Hollywood Ending should have steered away from Allen's relationships with the much younger women and included more scenes with his son. His age would have been less relevant.  It would have also made a more original story and gave Allen someone unique to play off.

Photos © Copyright DreamWorks LLC (2002)

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Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News : Inspired in stretches and offers Allen the actor the best role he's had in ages. Read more

Chris Fujiwara, Boston Globe : Hollywood Ending is a small film, but its ease and grace are virtues that can't be overrated. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press : For a movie considerably longer than Allen's usual 90 minutes, Hollywood Ending is curiously underdeveloped. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald : While Hollywood Ending has its share of belly laughs (including a knockout of a closing line), the movie winds up feeling like a great missed opportunity. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper : Woody Allen can write and deliver a one liner as well as anybody. But I had a lot of problems with this movie. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News : Destined to make Allen's fans around the world giggle, guffaw and shiver with delight. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune : The premise may be outrageous, but the film is full of witty lines, delightful scenes and sharp performances. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times : Once the energy from the jokes dies down, we're left with a project so stale you feel like opening a window to let some air in. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday : Allen is both more scathingly funny and self-deprecatingly vulnerable than he's seemed since Annie Hall. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times : If all late-life male fantasies were as entertaining as Hollywood Ending frequently is -- well, we'd all have more fun at the multiplexes. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution : It isn't junk, but it sure isn't the Allen we used to know. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times : Whether this is art imitating life or life imitating art, it's an unhappy situation all around. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle : With Hollywood Ending, he's made three solid comedies in a row, each a light lark with no hint of morose self-reflection. Read more

Paul Tatara, CNN.com : Though it draws several decent laughs, it's low-cal Woody at best. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post : It's as if Allen, at 66, has stopped challenging himself. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly : For Woody, it's looking more and more like the end of his days of whine and neurosis. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail : Hollywood Ending feels sadly like Woody Allen's ending. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News : Woody Allen used to ridicule movies like Hollywood Ending. Now he makes them. Read more

Manohla Dargis, L.A. Weekly : The frog prince of New York comedy again wallows in the middle of the frame as various familiar faces, namely various princes and princesses from television, dart about him like so many flies with a death wish. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek : Read more

David Denby, New Yorker : Hollywood Ending has its satirical charms, but it repeats itself remorselessly, and it has no emotional center. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture : [Allen's] been making piffle for a long while, and Hollywood Ending may be his way of saying that piffle is all that the airhead movie business deserves from him right now. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer : A 40-carat cinematic jewel for anyone who has ever wondered about the insanity of a movie shot on location. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer : For the first time in several years, Mr. Allen has surpassed himself with the magic he's spun with the Hollywood empress of Ms. Leoni's Ellie. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews : The comedy is perfunctory and rarely worth more than a chuckle, and all of the attacks on the film industry come across as shallow and familiar. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times : I liked the movie without loving it. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com : Hollywood Ending just isn't very funny. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle : Every time Woody Allen seems as if he's through, he comes back swinging. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch : Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star : You'll wonder if the title of the new George Lucas movie -- Attack Of The Clones -- might not have worked nicely here too. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out : Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today : This affable outing wills itself to a higher level on the strength of a few standout scenes. Read more

Dennis Lim, Village Voice : Val's condition mainly facilitates some agreeable (if klutzily staged) pratfalls and a few tepid snickers about artistic 'vision.' Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post : The whole thing feels thrown desperately together. Read more

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Hollywood Ending

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

The Woodman vs. “Star Wars”: Back in 1977, Woody Allen’s Annie Hall beat George Lucas’ Star Wars for the Best Picture Oscar. Now Allen is opening his funny but perilously slight Hollywood Ending in the same month as Lucas’ Clones . Whatever Oscar decides, the French are already in Allen’s corner. Hollywood Ending , in which Allen plays a washed-up filmmaker who directs his comeback movie while suffering from psychosomatic blindness, opened the elitist Cannes Film Festival on May 15th. And to kick their eccentricity up a notch, the French intellects — who famously worship Jerry Lewis — will celebrate Monsieur Adam Sandler, whose film Punch-Drunk Love will compete for the Cannes grand prize. The film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson ( Boogie Nights , Magnolia ), is clearly more seriously intended than, say, Sandler’s Little Nicky . But what’s with zee French and these American comics? As Allen recently joked, “The subtitles must be incredibly good.” Maybe Lucas should try subtitles for Jar Jar.

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Review by Michael Hastings

A funny, promising setup gives way to endless shtick in Woody Allen's well-cast but slack farce. Despite its loaded subject matter -- namely, big-budget filmmaking -- this is no Player: Save for a few throwaway industry jokes, Hollywood Ending is mostly pratfalls and slapstick, centered around a neurotic conceit that even Allen, cinema's neurotic laureate, can't pull off. Once afflicted with hysterical blindness, his Val Waxman spends much of the movie fumbling and stumbling around a movie set, to rapidly diminishing comedic results. Allen has made entire films on such slight premises before -- Zelig and his chapter of New York Stories, Oedipus Wrecks, come to mind -- but those films were at once richer with subtext and more economical. Ending's climax, on the other hand, comes after at least 20 minutes of painfully broad, extraneous comedy, and hinges on a character who's barely been mentioned, let alone seen. All this notwithstanding, Allen evinces spry, witty turns from his supporting cast, including the ever-sharp Tea Leoni, a pleasantly ditzy Debra Messing, and, of all people, the ageless, orange-hued lothario George Hamilton.

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Hollywood ending.

Director Val Waxman (Woody Allen) has two Oscars, but that's past history. In desperate need of a hit, Waxman's been reduced to shooting commercials to pay the bills for himself and his nagging, questionably talented girlfriend Lori (Debra Messing, TV's "Will and Grace"). When Val's given a shot from an unlikely backer, his producer ex-wife Ellie (Tea Leoni, "The Family Man"), the neurotic director reacts with a case of psychosomatic blindness just as shooting's set to begin in "Hollywood Ending."

Laura's Review: B

Writer/director/star Allen makes wry observations on studio filmmaking, the French and his own career in this sweet slapstick comedy. "Hollywood Ending" features a coda that should have the Croisette cracking up when it opens the Cannes Film Festival.

As soon as Waxman gets his wish, everything goes wrong. He's forced to compromise with studio head Hal Yeager (Treat Williams, "The Deep End of the Ocean"), the epitome of the commerciality Val despises, as well as the man who stole his wife. His agent Al Hack (director Mark Rydell), whose office sports a poster for Waxman's "Manhattan Memories," negotiates a tenth of a percent after quadruple break even. His girlfriend uses emotional blackmail in order to get a part, his production designer (Isaac Mizrahi) wants to rebuild the first 24 stories of the Empire State Building, and the studio news department has OK'ed full onset access to backstabbing Esquire reporter Andrea Ford (Jodie Markell, "Safe"). Val can't get through a meeting with Ellie without rehashing her betrayal, which obviously consumes him. Is love blind? Awaking in his apartment that evening, Val discovers he can't see.

Val does get his way demanding a foreign cameraman (Lu Yu), whose Chinese translator (Barney Cheng, "Rollerball (2002)") comes in handy when studio flunky Ed (George Hamilton) bans Val's agent, the only one privy to Val's condition, from the set. Eventually, though, Ellie must be let in on the secret, and her loyalties are put to the ultimate test.

Allen's script is full of delightful filmmaking in jokes, the hilarious NY/LA contrasts first mined in "Annie Hall" and some masterful slapstick (with one glaring exception - Waxman has difficulty facing the person addressing him when he should be detecting the voice easily). In one early, endearing scene, Allen sits in the optometrist's office with glasses removed looking like "The Simpsons'" Millhouse, a child whose features (Woody's signature eyewear) haven't yet developed. A reference to Peter Bogdanovich is particularly well-timed.

Yet, Allen does allow too many story strands to taper off into nothingness. While he has terrific rapport with Leoni, every other female character is given short shrift (this from the man who's directed three Best Supporting Actress performances from his own scripts). Messing's merely a plot point. Waxman's female star Sharon Bates (Tiffani Thiessen, TV's "Saved By the Bell") is used for a throwaway joke. Cheng's character is developed to the point that he becomes interesting, then dropped, while Waxman's son Tony (Mark Webber, "Storytelling") is used for psychological heft that isn't warranted. Hamilton does the most with the least, but it's really only Allen, Leoni and Rydell who are full fledged characters.

German cinematographer Wedigo von Schultzendorff ("The Thirteenth Floor") gives a New York City described as gray the golden glow of tinsel town. Allen's production designer Santo Loquasto uses real NYC locations like the trendy Balthazar and landmark Plaza Hotel.

In an ending that is anything but Hollywood, Allen finally sees the dailies that have cost him a cameraman and his producer's perplexity and forges a funny and unexpected path that finds him redeemed by a place that he's brilliantly both poked fun at and embraced at the same time.

"Hollywood Ending" is a bittersweet mix of the old, funny Woody Allen and the new, smaller-scaled one.

Robin's Review: B

Galaxie Pictures needs a director to head their latest big-budget feature. Producer Ellie (Tea Leoni) is a strong advocate for her ex-husband, Val Waxman (Woody Allen), a neurotic has-been whose recent filmmaking career has been far less than stellar - mainly because of his demands as an "artiste." Ellie's fiancée, studio head Hal Yaeger (Treat Williams), against his better judgment, approves the choice, but no one expects the unexpected when Val is struck by hysterical blindness in Woody Allen's "Hollywood Ending."

This is not the tightest script to come from the word processor of Woody Allen, but it does rep a throwback to the old days when he was more absorbed with slapstick, neuroses and pithy one-liners about such things as Hollywood and life in LA. It begins with a discussion, at the highest levels of Galaxie Pictures, on who will direct their latest mega-budget production, "The City That Never Sleeps." Ellie lobbies for her ex as the perfect choice to direct the high-profile effort. Others, including Ed (George Hamilton), oppose the selection but the final decision rests in the hands of Ellie's paramour, studio honcho Hal. His loyalty to his fiancée clouds his better judgment and he agrees to give Val a chance. More significantly, he decides to honor the director's demand of hands-off and leaves the whole production in Ellie's charge.

Meanwhile, Val is at the breaking point as he plaintively phones his live-in girlfriend, Lori (Debra Messing), from the wilds of Canada complaining about the humiliation of having to do a deodorant commercial. Next thing you know, he arrives at their doorstep to announce that he has quit the well-paying job, despite the fact the he has not worked to any significant filmmaking capacity for a decade. Truth is, he was fired. With Val at absolute rock bottom, his agent, Al Hack (Mark Rydell), throws him the lifeline of the chance to direct "The City?" along with a decent salary (plus the extra perk of 1/10th of 1% of quadruple break even - wink-wink). Nervous of failure, Val takes the job but immediately acts the prima Donna, demanding a non-English speaking Chinese cinematographer (Yu Lu, in an under used capacity) and an art director (Neal Huff) who wants to rebuild all of New York, including Central Park and the Empire State Building (but only the first 24 stories), on a set. Finally at the point of turning his failing career around, Val is struck blind - hysterically blind.

Allen's screenplay follows Val as he and his agent/friend, Al, try to hide the affliction and still make a film. There are complications, though, as the closed production forbids outsider Al from being on-set. The conspiracy broadens as the cameraman's translator (Barney Cheng) is enlisted to keep up the sham but, soon, everyone starts to question just how the acclaimed director is shooting his revival tome. When the translator is summarily fired for not doing his job, Al, in desperation, appeals to Ellie to help get Val through the final stages of the film's production. Their past marriage and honest caring by Val's ex forces Ellie to help out. What transpires is a whirl of chicanery as Val's secret is jealously guarded, even as an Esquire reporter, Andrea Ford (Jodie Markell), snoops around the set (inexplicably, with the head office's permission) for a story.

The idea of being struck by hysterical blindness is an amusing premise, but as the film progresses the idea becomes less funny and more forced. For example, Val, as he tries to cover up his affliction while directing a $60 million budgeted flick, has to communicate with others no matter what. He gazes blankly into the distance, usually in the direction away from the person talking to him. Now, I don't presume to know how a blind person behaves, but I would think that anyone would direct their attention, sighted or not, toward said speaker. This is more a criticism of Allen's acting decision than a problem with the script, but the concept loses its humorous luster early on.

Another big problem is the character of Lori, Val's live-in girlfriend. Keep in mind, Waxman has a history of creating "art" films for himself rather than the audience - one of his colleagues accuses him of artistic masturbation. Why would a man like this, no matter how insecure, even have a relationship with a woman referred to, more than once, as trailer park trash? Plus, Lori is shuffled out of the picture early on and returns only as a device to throw a wrench in the rekindling (expected) relationship between Val and Ellie. Lori is little more than an unnecessary distraction from the main body of the story - a blind man making a film without anyone knowing of the affliction.

There are, however, a number of things in "Hollywood Ending" that are good and well done. The Woodman still has a flair for slapstick and absurdist humor and does his share of funny pratfalls. Woody's decades long persona, in his characters, as a rampant hypochondriac is revisited here to funny effect. His friends amusingly deride him for his imagined illnesses such as the Black Plague, Dutch Elm and hoof-and-mouth diseases. The 40's big band tunes, with the likes of Benny Goodman, Jackie Gleason (yes, the Great One was an orchestra leader before he became a TV icon) and Bing Crosby, are well sprinkled throughout the film (although, a couple of times the volume of the music overpowered the dialog).

The cast, led by Woody, is a collection of seasoned veterans that are equal to the task. Tea Leoni has matured into a solid acting talent, with a comic flair, and comes across as an ambitious and talented producer who maintains affection for the man who made her so crazy she left him because of his excessive self-absorption. Treat Williams fills the bill as Ellie's fianc and boss, Hal Yaeger, who, against his judgment, leaves his significant other in charge of Val and the production, without interference. Filmmaker Mark Rydell ("On Golden Pond") is outstanding as Val's agent and close friend, Al, a man that looks upon his client like a brother, not just a meal ticket (especially with Val's recent track record), and helps maintain the cover-up to the end.

Allen's longtime executive producers, Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe, continue their relationship with the Woody and have included many of Allen's past collaborators behind the camera. Santo Loquasto has earned two Academy Award noms for his production designs on two previous Allen films ("Radio Days" and "Bullets Over Broadway") and continues to provide quality here. While I will forever miss cinematographer Gordon Willis's collaborations with Woody, I have no complaints about first time Allen lenser, Wedigo von Schultzendorff, who maintains the filmic look that has been one of Allen's trademarks for years.

Woody may not have made a homerun with "Hollywood Ending" but he hits a solid double that may turn out to be a winner.

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It would appear that no one at Netflix is willing to shape Ryan Murphy ’s visions in the way they were at FX. The often brilliant TV creator, and one of the hardest working men in the business, has produced two series under his Netflix deal, the frustrating “The Politician,” and this week’s seven-part limited series that reimagines the Golden Age of Hollywood in a way that only Murphy could but no one seems to have asked if Murphy should. I’m a fan of Murphy’s unabashed theatricality and heartfelt compassion for outsiders, but this is the most disastrous project of his career, a limited series that not only fails dramatically but attempts a degree of social commentary that can only be called insulting.

Much like Quentin Tarantino did in “ Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood ,” Murphy blends actual history with his widely revisionist view of it, but the result isn’t as poignant as Tarantino’s, instead coming off as simple-minded and cruel. Murphy’s project seems to suggest that systemic racism and homophobia in Hollywood were primarily the product of marginalized people not trying hard enough to stop it. He actually has the nerve to have a character speak of the “refusal to accept shame any longer,” as if people like Rock Hudson were closeted because they accepted shame . It’s a childish view of deep problems in Hollywood that still exist to this day, made worse by how Murphy treats the real people of the era as caricatures and then surrounds them with boring young performers. At least his divisive “Feud” had some ace scenery-chewing to get viewers through the historically questionable aspects. No such luck here as, with the exception of only a few supporting performances, there’s nothing in "Hollywood" that even hints at the peaks Murphy can reach with the right material. This is a reminder of how much his vision can backfire when it’s not guided into something coherent and consistent.

Set after World War II, “Hollywood” is the story of intersecting young people trying to make it in the industry. It starts with the story of Jack Castello ( David Corenswet , who starts charming but gets lost in the project), a young man trying to find his break but who ends up working as an escort at a gas station run by the charming Ernie ( Dylan McDermott ). Wives of studio heads and closeted men go to Ernie’s gas station for encounters with gorgeous young guys still waiting for their break. One of Jack’s clients is Avis Amberg (Patti LuPone), the wife of Ace Amberg ( Rob Reiner ), the head of a major fictional studio. And one of Jack’s co-workers ends up being Archie Coleman ( Jeremy Pope ), a gay young writer who falls in love with one of his johns, the boy who would become Rock Hudson ( Jake Picking ).

Archie’s latest script, “Peg,” is about the tragedy of Peg Entwistle, a British actress who notoriously jumped off the Hollywoodland sign in 1932. At first, the weaving of the Entwistle story—as well as the one of Anna May Wong ( Michelle Krusiec ), who was notoriously snubbed for the lead role in “The Good Earth,” which ended up winning Luise Rainer an Oscar—feels like a way to reclaim lost performers of Hollywood. It makes perfect sense that Murphy’s love of outsiders would bring him to a tragedy like Entwistle, someone who used the symbol of the system that destroyed her dreams to end her life. But one of many problems with “Hollywood” is how Entwistle’s story becomes mere feed for the mill of Murphy’s focus on his gorgeously cast creations. This isn’t a story about outsiders, but of genetically blessed people finding historic success. If Murphy thinks he’s destroying preconceptions about the Golden Age of Hollywood, why write and cast such dull performers and then make all their dreams come true? Even the talented ones like Samara Weaving get totally lost in the tonal imbalance and lack of character Murphy considered giving them. 

No one fares worse than Rock Hudson, turned into a doofus by Murphy and co-creator Ian Brennan . There’s little evidence that Hudson was the kind of "aw shucks" goofball who doesn’t recognize Vivien Leigh and can’t remember simple lines for a screen test. It’s insulting, especially given how “Hollywood” then later tries to use Hudson’s sexuality as a moment of empowerment. It’s almost as if Murphy is trying to punish Hudson instead of looking at the system that forced him to stay in the closet.

Some of the older performers find moments of truth in the thin scripts they’ve been given, particularly McDermott’s take on a silver fox who knows the system and the great stage actor Joe Mantello as a studio head who has been forced to hide his sexuality. Mantello understands that this issue is far more complicated than refusal to accept shame. And I know that Murphy does too—he has created some of the most complex and nuanced takes on acceptance that have been on TV in the last two decades. It just feels like he got caught up in his own vision here, seduced by the lights of Hollywood into creating something with no consistent tone or vision. 

At the end of “Hollywood,” we should be imagining the better world that Murphy has shown us and what would have happened for the next seven decades if his revisionist history had been a reality. Instead, I just wanted to go watch a Rock Hudson film to reclaim his legacy and seek a more nuanced understanding of what actually was. I'm going with "All That Heaven Allows." 

Premieres on Netflix tomorrow, 5/1

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Hollywood (2020)

420 minutes

David Corenswet as Jack Castello

Darren Criss as Raymond Ainsley

Jeremy Pope as Archie Coleman

Laura Harrier as Camille Washington

Samara Weaving as Claire Wood

Dylan McDermott as Ernie

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Screen Rant

10 most satisfying movie endings of all time.

Sometimes the best way to end a movie is by giving audiences the uplifting conclusion that they want, and this can turn good movies into great ones.

• Endings can make or break a movie, leaving a lasting impact on audiences for years to come.
• From defeating monsters to surprising twists, a good ending can elevate a movie from good to great.
• Whether happy or mysterious, a satisfying finale can create a cathartic release for audiences feeling invested in the story.

A good ending can improve how people see an entire movie, and some of the best endings live long in the memory. Conversely, disappointing endings can ruin a movie . It's important to leave an audience on a high note, whether that means crafting a mysterious movie ending that will keep people thinking about it for a while, or simply giving audiences a happy ending. Sometimes there's no way to beat an uplifting, satisfying finale.

As much as people enjoy a good puzzle, there are times when an unequivocal happy ending is the best option. These endings can create cathartic releases for audiences who have been empathizing with the protagonists throughout their journey. Even some depressing movies can leave the audience with a completely different feeling if they end on an optimistic note

10 Movie Endings That Took The Film From Good To Great

10 the untouchables (1987), al capone is found guilty and prohibition is repealed.

The ending of The Untouchables reveals the true depth of Ness' apathy toward the laws of Prohibition. For him, the fight was all about stamping out gang violence.

Based on the true story of Eliot Ness' pursuit of Al Capone during the Prohibition era, The Untouchables stars Kevin Costner as the leader of a band of misfits who team up to lay down the law. Each with their own motivations, the men are drawn together by a firm adherence to the law, even if the law that they are trying so desperately to uphold isn't unanimously respected. Some of the cops sneak a drink on occasion, but they are still committed to stopping Capone's bootlegging empire.

The ending of The Untouchables reveals the true depth of Ness' apathy toward the laws of Prohibition. For him, the fight was all about stamping out gang violence. Having seen his own men die in the line of duty, and having pushed one of Capone's men off of a rooftop in a fit of rage, Ness wins his court case against the gangster . Soon afterward, he is told by a reporter that Prohibition has been officially repealed. The reporter questions what he'll do next, and he delivers one of the best final lines in movie history , "I think I'll have a drink."

9 Inglourious Basterds (2009)

The basterds kill hitler and several other high-ranking nazis at the movie theater.

*Availability in US

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Quentin Tarantino changes history in Inglourious Basterds, which makes the ending feel like a huge twist, even though it's a fairly straightforward development within the context of the story.

Quentin Tarantino changes history in Inglourious Basterds, which makes the ending feel like a huge twist, even though it's a fairly straightforward development within the context of the story. After constructing an elaborate plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler at a movie screening in Paris, the shocking twist is that the plan works. As the movie theater goes up in flames, one of the American undercover soldiers tears Hitler apart with incessant fire from his machine gun.

Hitler's death is a cathartic fantasy , a brief moment that lets the audience believe that the end of the Second World War came a little sooner and with a more picturesque moment of triumph. It may be typical of Tarantino's love of overblown violence, but the massacre in the movie theater pales in comparison to some of the atrocities carried out by the Nazis on a daily basis during the war. There is just one loose end to tie up. Hans Landa strikes a deal to ensure his safety after the Allied victory, so Aldo Raine etches a swastika into his forehead, marking him forever as a despicable villain.

8 Jaws (1975)

Brody and hooper defeat the shark.

Jaws is ostensibly a monster movie, but it gets most of its narrative thrust from the captivating dynamic between its three main characters.

Jaws is ostensibly a monster movie, but it gets most of its narrative thrust from the captivating dynamic between its three main characters. As they go out to sea together to try and catch the shark that has been terrorizing Amity Island, the wait for it to appear lets them slowly reveal more about themselves, and they form a strange bond despite their obvious differences. The dramatic climax sees Brody and Hooper team up to finally kill the shark, although Quint doesn't make it out alive.

As the action subsides and morning breaks, the two surviving men paddle away from their wrecked boat and back to shore. It's an optimistic ending after such a violent finale. Both men know that they have ensured the safety of the local people, but they have also conquered their personal demons in the process. Brody comments that he has gotten over his fear of the ocean , and the men enjoy their brief swim, knowing that the waters are peaceful once again.

7 Groundhog Day (1993)

Phil breaks the cycle and starts a new day.

Groundhog Day 's ending shows that the mysterious time loop was probably some kind of test for Phil, making the entire story an obscure moralistic fable.

Groundhog Day stars Bill Murray as Phil, a misanthropic weather reporter who is forced by some unseen power to live the same day over and over again. Phil essentially grieves his own death throughout the movie, flipping between deep depression and nihilistic hedonism. The main through line of his chaotic non-linear story is his love for his coworker Rita, played by Andie MacDowell.

Groundhog Day 's ending shows that the mysterious time loop was probably some kind of test for Phil, making the entire story an obscure moralistic fable. Phil only gets to wake up the following day when he spends enough time improving himself and breaking down his arrogant, isolated front. The intense repetition of Groundhog Day makes every little difference in the final scene feel like a miracle , and after Phil has slowly become a character who people might actually want to root for, he finally gets a moment of unfettered happiness.

6 The Incredibles (2004)

The parr family suits up for another fight.

The Incredibles pulls off the difficult trick of making a cliffhanger ending feel completely satisfying.

The Incredibles pulls off the difficult trick of making a cliffhanger ending feel completely satisfying. After the Parr family celebrate Dash's expertly restrained third-place finish at his track meet, a new villain pops up from beneath the ground to once again plunge the city into chaos. The heroes put on their masks, ready to fight together as a family, but the credits roll before showing what happens to the Underminer.

The Incredibles is all about the tension of whether superheroes will ever be allowed to exercise their powers again, and it's especially focused on how the Parr family can function in a world where they have to conceal the most remarkable parts of themselves. The fact that they can fight the Underminer is a huge triumph, no matter how the fight actually goes. The sudden appearance of another outlandish villain also mimics the Saturday morning cartoons which inspired so much of the visual style of The Incredibles.

5 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Andy and red reunite on a beach in mexico.

The Shawshank Redemption is extremely downbeat at times, but it has an unequivocally happy ending.

The Shawshank Redemption is extremely downbeat at times, but it has an unequivocally happy ending. After serving 20 years in prison for a crime he insists he did not commit, Andy finally breaks out by tunneling from his cell to the outside. Later, Red is released from prison having served his time, and he follows Andy's carefully laid breadcrumbs to a small town in Mexico, where the two reunite as free men for the first time.

The Shawshank Redemption 's ending is key to the movie's enduring appeal. It's a hopeful message that good people can still triumph in a corrupt system designed to keep them down. The different ways Andy and Red reach Mexico are also important. Red does his time and comes out the other side, which is more than can be said for some other characters. Andy rejects the system entirely and lives life by his own rules. Both men get to enjoy the warm sunshine on the beach in the end, despite all the horrific injustices they have been forced to endure.

4 The Life Of Brian (1979)

Brian is crucified and has to endure a singalong in his final moments.

Brian's death is the ultimate punch line to his ridiculous ordeal, just as death is the ultimate punch line to anyone's life.

After trying to convince everyone that he isn't the messiah, Brian only manages to do the exact opposite. He becomes the center of a frenzy, with his followers begging him for pieces of wisdom and the Romans seeking to suppress the rising tide of religious fervor. Ultimately, he is sentenced to death by crucifixion, and he becomes a reluctant martyr for a cause he doesn't believe in or even understand.

The Life of Brian is the most popular of Monty Python's movies , and the ending is a big reason for this. Brian's death is the ultimate punch line to his ridiculous ordeal, just as death is the ultimate punch line to anyone's life. The Life of Brian constructs an uplifting finale about a man who is being unjustly executed by the state. The song, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," is the cherry on top , with a whistling section that just seems custom-made for audience participation.

3 Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989)

Indy and his friends ride off into the sunset after defeating the nazis.

The ending enshrines Indy as one of the great cinematic action heroes, and it completes his arc as a pulp adventurer who gradually reveals more emotional depth with the introduction of his father.

The original trilogy for the Indiana Jones franchise ends in style, with Indy and his friends riding off into the sunset after cheating death and foiling another Nazi plot. This is a brilliant ending to the movie, but it's also a fitting end to the trilogy. It enshrines Indy as one of the great cinematic action heroes, and it completes his arc as a pulp adventurer who gradually reveals more emotional depth with the introduction of his father.

Very few franchises, trilogies or eras have ended so perfectly. The Harry Potter franchise, the Star Wars original trilogy and Phase Three of the MCU are three notable exceptions, but there are far more franchises which fizzle out with a whimper. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull faced a tough challenge trying to continue the story after such a perfect ending.

2 When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Harry and sally realize they are meant to be together.

Over the course of 12 years, Harry and Sally go from polar opposites to friends, and eventually to lovers when they recognize their deep connection.

When Harry Met Sally is a perfect rebuttal to anyone who carries a cynical view of love. Over the course of 12 years, Harry and Sally go from polar opposites to friends, and eventually to lovers when they recognize their deep connection. Harry, originally a cold-hearted cynic with sex constantly on his mind, has an epiphany on New Year's Eve and rushes to see Sally. He delivers one of the most emotional speeches in romcom history , and they kiss at midnight.

When Harry Met Sally almost had a different ending , which would have been much less satisfying than the final version. In Rob Reiner's original vision, Harry and Sally remain friends. This anticlimactic ending was inspired by the director's personal life. At the time he wrote the original draft, he had been single for a decade and didn't believe that he would find love again, but he met his next wife while filming When Harry Met Sally.

1 The Truman Show (1998)

Truman takes his final bow and escapes seahaven.

The Truman Show 's ending suggests that life may be messy, but it's a ride worth taking.

The Truman Show is a masterclass in dramatic irony, with the entire plot revolving around the fact that Truman is the only person who doesn't know that his entire world is the set of an elaborate TV show. This makes him very easy to root for, as the audience wants to see him break free from his strange imprisonment and live an authentic life. Nobody in Truman's world is free from blame for his perverse circumstances, so his eventual escape is an extremely satisfying moment of victory.

As Truman takes his final bow and leaves Seahaven, his future is uncertain, but he has managed to break free from the picture-perfect artifice of his own reality show. This constitutes a triumph, no matter what happens next. The Truman Show 's ending suggests that life may be messy, but it's a ride worth taking. As for Truman's viewers, they simply wonder what else is on TV , showing that they haven't been deeply affected by anything they've just witnessed.

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Home » Reviews » Hollywood Movie Reviews

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Movie Review: Godzilla and Kong Come Back Bigger Than Ever In This Globe-Trotting Adventure Film

The two most famous kaijus in history are forced to join forces against a common enemy in what is one of the most fun film of the year so far.

Star Cast: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, and Kaylee Hottle

Director: Adam Wingard

What’s Good: The movie has a firm focus on the kaiju and understands that they are what people pay their tickets for, and it is glorious.

What’s Bad: The film’s story is very simple, and for some audience members this can be a turn-off, as the movie has a clear Saturday morning cartoon vibe to it.

Loo Break: There are breaks in this film, because even when the movie takes its time setting up some things, and never really goes frantic with the pacing, it would be a shame to miss something here.

Watch or Not?: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a must-watch for all kaiju fans out there who have been wishing for a kaiju movie that really puts focus on the creatures, leaving the human characters of a secondary plane.

Language: English (with subtitles).

Available On: Theaters

Runtime: 115 Minutes.

The MonsterVerse just keeps expanding its horizons, or to be more precise, its depth, as the discovery of the Hollow Earth changes everything for humanity and for Godzilla and Kong as well, when a new enemy that calls the Hollow Earth its home gets ready to wage war against the invaders that has trespassed its territory. Only the combined forces of Godzilla and Kong might be enough to defeat this new and powerful enemy once and for all, but can these two old rivals actually work together?

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Movie Review: Script Analysis

When the MonsterVerse debuted in 2014 with the release of “Godzilla” directed by Gareth Edwards, it seemed that the MonsterVerse was choosing to go the path of the dark and serious filmmaking that to this day places the original Godzilla from 1954, as one of the most important filmmaking documents in history. However, as more and more movies started to get released, something became clear, the fact that this western version of Godzilla would follow the exact same route that the original character followed after its debut.

With this, I mean to point out that Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) couldn’t be more different. The original Japanese Godzilla film is a serious and devastating story about the horrors of the nuclear weapons, something only Japan has experienced first hand, but then the following films started to become more and more lighter with their tone, and suddenly the dreadful Godzilla stopped being a horror nightmare, to become a hero, and even a role model for kids all around the world.

If Godzilla (2014) is the original Godzilla from the Showa era, then Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is Destroy All Monsters from 1968, a film that focuses all of its energy in present a huge spectacle, with no regards for story or human characters, and this ends up making Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire one of the most fun experiences of the year in a theater, as the movie clinically cares about each huge set piece and each battle in the same way that other movies would care for characters development and complex storytelling.

The script written by Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, and Jeremy Slater, might not be the most complex, but it is its simplicity what makes it great as it manages to give human characters enough to do, so that they don’t feel completely worthless, but also give our main kaijus the treatment of actual characters in the movie and not just a series of walking disasters, although they are that as well. Not every single movie is meant to be complex, some of them are just meant to be fun, and the filmmakers behind Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire understood the assignment.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Movie Review: Star Performance

More than in any other movie before, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire displays Godzilla and Kong as our main heroes, this means that the human characters are mostly a secondary affair, and this choice is the correct one, people go to this type of movies to see the giant monsters, and so, creating the scenario for that to happen will definitely please many fans of the genre, and even some members of the audience who would never have thought that just focusing on the kaiju could be interesting enough. Godzilla and Kong have each their own personalities and by the end of the film you can definitely feel what kind of people they are if they were humans

The story definitely leans more towards Kong as a protagonist, which makes sense as he is the more human-looking creature of the two, but Godzilla steals every moment he is on the screen, he is the mysterious bad boy, where Kong is more of the kind-hearted classic hero. The visual effect of both kaiju are excellent, and allow the creature to not only be impressive in their presence on screen but also in their performance, and it is proof that this technology can only keep getting better, and there is a future out there where one of these movies will have zero human character, and it will be better for it.

The human cast does the job they are meant to do, and while they are not the focus at all, they are not useless to the plot, and there are some nice emotional bits here and there for the characters, which only enhances the movie. Dan Stevens definitely feels like a welcome addition, and a more grown-up Kaylee Hottle proves she is a solid performer.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Movie Review: Direction, Music

Adam Wingard has definitely felt like salvation for the MonsterVerse, as his Godzilla Vs. Kong managed to be one of the most successful films in theaters during the pandemic, and also managed to inject new life into the franchise, as previous films were having trouble finding what they really were in terms of tone and general direction. Wingard has chosen the path of the goofy and cartoony Godzilla films, which, in their time, made excellent business in Japan. However, Wingard’s films still have that edge that never allows them to go completely into the realm of the cartoony, as you see the film it feels like a nice balance.

Wingard also has a very good eye for the epic, and many of the sequences in this new film are really blood-pumping, and thanks to the uncomplicated story all objectives are clear in the audience’s mind. Some of the battle sequences in here are awe-inspiring, and they are definitely meant to be seen in the biggest theater screen you can find. Wingard has the talent to do this type of spectacular tentpole filmmaking and keep it fun and unpretentious, and he and his team should be proud of it

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Movie Review: Last Word

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire knows what it is and actually excels at it by delivering a spectacular film full of fun set pieces, amazing visual effects, and enough emotional bits to keep you engaged on almost every level. The story might be too simple for some, but this helps the movie to keep focus on what is really important, and while this is not a movie you will remember for its character, you will definitely remember the moments for just how fun they are. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is nothing transcendental, but we need more movies that are willing to be good old fun entertainment and nothing more.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Trailer

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire released on 29 March, 2024.

Share with us your experience of watching Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

For more recommendations, read our Damsel Movie Review here .

Must Read:   Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1 Review: Netflix Brings The Last Airbender World To Life In New Live-Action Adaptation Of Classic Animated TV Series

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‘the walking dead’ stars andrew lincoln and danai gurira explain spinoff’s “amazingly emotional” ending.

The 'Ones Who Live' stars and executive producers also ponder another team-up. "It could be an absolutely tremendous, traumatic reunion of sorts," says Lincoln, who speaks to The Hollywood Reporter along with franchise mastermind Scott Gimple.

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[This story contains major spoilers for The Walking Dead : The Ones Who Live finale.]

And the ones who lived lived happily ever after. The end.

Related Stories

'the walking dead' franchise's best characters, ranked, 'the walking dead: the ones who live' stars break down that surprising cameo and violent twist.

“I think it was very clear we needed [to survive] the epic journey,” Gurira tells The Hollywood Reporter about the season’s happy ending. “It couldn’t be easy, but that was always where they needed to land.”

Many elements of The Ones Who Live changed along the way, including its transformation from film trilogy to limited TV series.

According to executive producer and franchise mastermind Scott Gimple, however, the finished product is very different from what was initially imagined for the unproduced Rick Grimes movies. But the happy ending for Rick, Michonne and the Grimes family was never in doubt.

“I don’t think that was ever on the table,” Gimple says about any conversations about killing Rick and Michonne. “I think we knew our end point. It was the journey on how to get to that end point and really how they save each other even after they find each other, and how they turn each other around from certain places they’ve gone in their identities, which in some ways is a beautiful love story. When people do that for each other, they might have found each other physically, but they need to find each other even within each other.”

Adds Lincoln, “We wouldn’t do that. That would be cruel. Besides, it’s going to take more than six episodes to kill me.”

“We wanted it to feel like a dream come true,” says Gurira. “You can’t say there’s just never going to be happy moments in this world. There will be, and this is one of them. The characters have gone through hell and high water getting to that moment.” 

“It was lovely,” Lincoln says, remembering the day of shooting, in which he worked with his onscreen kids for the very first time. “It was this brilliant afternoon of reunions, and finding a very intimate, simple, direct scene, hopefully emotional. And it was amazingly emotional.”

While Rick and Michonne are alive and well for now, there’s reason to wonder if they’ll stay that way. While Lincoln, Gurira and Gimple all stopped short of confirming plans for future collaborations, the ending of The Ones Who Live leaves that possibility wide open.

After all, what’s going to happen when Rick finds out Daryl and Negan are out there in the universe ?

“That’s very astute, and something we spoke at length about,” says Lincoln. “There are a few surviving personalities still in the universe, and it would be extraordinary to have them all breathe the same air at some point. It could be an absolutely tremendous, traumatic reunion of sorts.”

“What I’ll say is, I cook up my own dreams and fan fiction and we see whether it happens,” says Gimple. “But we have a track record of dreams becoming realities. This show was a dream. I think of the Willy Wonka line: ‘This is where my dreams become realities and some of my realities become dreams.’ I don’t think it’s a crazy thing if that happened and we really are gratified with the reaction to the show.”

Whatever the future holds, whether it involves Rick and Michonne, all parties involved agree their next steps within the Walking Dead universe all revolve around the same central need: compelling, character-driven storytelling.

“There’s something really so satisfying about this character and what I’ve been able to do with her over the years,” says Gurira. “I know it’s not all the time that you get these sort of characters and the way the writing has allowed her to evolve as a person and come to a whole different place than where she was when we met her in season three. And so that is something I’m really deeply grateful for. And honestly, genuinely at the end of this, I was happy for her. I was just really happy for my character. She’s been through it and her risks and her gumption and her courage have paid off and I love that for her as a character. What’s in the future? I cannot speak to that. But I’m very thankful for the journey that she’s had so far.”

Head here for  a refresher on Rick and Michonne’s story .

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HOLLYWOOD ENDING

"blatant parody".

What You Need To Know:

HOLLYWOOD ENDING is extremely funny in places, one of Woody Allen’s most humorous movies in a long time. In the story, Woody plays a neurotic, has-been director named Val Waxman, who’s given one last stab at glory from his ex-wife, who ran off with a slick Hollywood producer. On the eve of the shoot, however, Val goes psychosomatically blind. His agent convinces Val, however, to fake it by relying on the help of the translator for the Chinese cinematographer hired by Val. Comical complications result, but Val’s main desire is to get back with his wife.

Unlike the very subtle and poignant FESTIVAL IN CANNES, Woody is painting a humorous portrait of vile Hollywood filmmaking practices, with broad brushstrokes. The humor comes from the contrast of the vileness in the reality and the moral constants which should be the norm. Sometimes, however, the immorality of the situations and characters overwhelms the moral principles of the movie’s moral worldview. The acting is very good in HOLLYWOOD ENDING, the direction is better than other movies Woody Allen has done lately, and the scriptwriting is sharp, but there is just enough immorality to demand an extreme caution.

(BB, Pa, LLL, V, S, A, DD, M) Moral worldview with lots of immoral people, some of whom are rebuked, some of whom are just humorous characters, but some of whom seem to be affirmed in their immorality; a few positive references to God and many profane utterances including five obscenities, three strong profanities regarding Jesus and 24 mild profanities such as My God or Oh, God; slapstick violence, including one fall off the second story of a set, many bumping into objects by blind director; female star offers herself to director, director discusses masturbation, adulterous relationship and implied fornication, but nothing portrayed except for a few intense kisses; woman in lingerie and low-cut clothing; alcohol; smoking, director takes pills, references to drug use by son; deception, dishonesty, breaking one’s word, gossip, and tons of sarcasm.

More Detail:

HOLLYWOOD ENDING is extremely funny in places, one of Woody Allen’s most humorous movies in a long time. Unlike the very subtle and poignant FESTIVAL IN CANNES, Woody is painting a comical portrait of vile filmmaking practices in Hollywood, with broad brushstrokes. The humor comes from the contrast of the vileness in the reality and the moral constants which should be the norm. Sometimes, however, the immorality of the situations and characters overwhelms the moral principles of the movie’s moral worldview.

The movie opens at Galaxy Studios, where studio head Hal Yaegar, played with great subtlety by Treat Williams, is trying to find the ideal director for a new movie they’re producing, THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS. Hal’s live-in fiance, Ellie, recommends her ex-husband, Val Waxman, a washed up, once upon a time great director, who is known to be difficult and to ruin many a shoot through his psychosomatic problems. Business manager Ed, played by George Hamilton, does not like the idea of Val directing this project.

Cut to Woody as Val in a snow storm in Canada, reminiscent of W.C. Fields’ scene with the snow in the short THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER. This phony snow scene shows Val/Woody Allen at his neurotic best. Val gets fired, comes back to his trailer trash girlfriend, Sharon Bates, and gets a call from his agent that he’s being considered for THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS. Against everybody’s better judgment, Ellie convinces them to hire Val.

On the eve of the shoot, Val goes blind, a blatant metaphor if there ever was one for the condition of some directors in Hollywood. Rather than drop the shoot, Val and his agent, Al, conspire to do the whole shoot and the rest of the movie highlights the ridiculousness of this conceit.

There are some brilliant pieces of dialogue in HOLLYWOOD ENDING, including a very apt homage commending France for recognizing talent that isn’t there. The truth cuts deeply, from the starlet who wants love and recognition so badly that she says that she will do anything the director wants sexually. Woody tells her to take an ad in the Directors Guild Journal and she will never go without a job. Woody even mocks his own sexual narcissism and notes that he likes the cuddling afterwards.

These statements are humorous because they puncture the politically correct lies which are prevalent in our media-obsessed society. However, some of them go over the top. Also, some of Woody’s dissertations would have played better if he had trimmed his language a little bit. He often leaves it up to the audience to see the moral edge, but in doing so, he probably forgot his dictum in the movie that audiences aren’t as smart as they used to be, having been dumbed down by entertainment produced by entertainment industry committees that are probably blind.

At some points in the movie, every other word is a mild curse under the character’s breath. At other points, the movie seems to accept situations that are immoral, including Val’s son Tony, who is in some desperate need for boundaries in his life. His claim to fame as a grunge drummer is biting the heads off rats.

The acting is very good, the direction is better than other Woody Allen films, the scripting is sharp, but there is just enough immorality to demand an extreme caution. For a less offensive insight into the same topic, see FESTIVAL IN CANNES. For a more offensive insight, see THE CAT’S MEOW.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

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Movies | Review: ‘Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of…

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Movies | review: ‘do not expect too much from the end of the world’ — but do expect one of 2024’s best movies.

I don’t know he did it, exactly, but filmmaker Radu Jude has conjured a rarity: an angry, clear-eyed satiric flaying of modern capitalism and humankind’s infinite capacity to disappoint that doesn’t settle for a tone of “well, that’s the way things are, might as well give up.”

Direct from Bucharest, with tough love, the film carries the title “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World,” opening this week at the Gene Siskel Film Center. It is a bracing and chaotic and memorable experience. Writer-director Jude’s previous feature was, too: “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” about a Bucharest high school teacher whose sex tape leads to a series of bureaucratic, hypocritical and institutional nightmares. Jude hasn’t toned down much with “End of the World” but the result feels more purposeful, its scope wider, its empathy more fully invested in its hardy female protagonist and the workday she’s up against.

Her name is Angela, played by the extraordinary screen presence Ilinca Manolache. Her story amounts to a workplace serio-comedy on wheels. Working long hours as a production assistant at a film production company, Angela’s job requires her to bomb around Bucharest, with her aggressive and uneven driving skills, interviewing seriously injured factory employees for possible inclusion in a heavily lawyered workplace safety video.

Along the way, Angela fights back her fatigue and her creeping sense of something very wrong with the ethical core of the video in progress by turning herself into another person entirely. Using a gender-swapping filter, she’s Bobita, a swarthy uni-browed reactionary blowhard and misogynist and fan of Vladimir Putin. She’s making fun of all the real-life Bobitas she’s known, probably, but she knows how TikTok draws all kinds, half of them happy to miss the joke.

Is Jude’s film kidding, or serious? The answer’s yes. It’s kidding and it’s serious, and the mundane particulars of Angela’s interview sessions with the safety video “contestants,” or the painfully relatable pre-meeting banter of a Zoom session with management, keeps all 10 toes of “End of the World” in the world as we know it, right now. And, in fact, briefly, right here in Chicago: Nina Hoss of “Tár” enters the narrative on Zoom camera with the Chicago River and Trump International Hotel and Tower behind her, reminding us all that we’re still paying for the allure of “Wall Street’s” greed-is-good mantra.

Jude bounces Angela’s travails against scenes from an earlier Romanian film, the 1981 Ceaușescu-era “Angela Moves On.” The taxi driver of that story mirrors, to some degree, the Angela of Jude’s story. But times have changed; the insistent, placating sweetness of the older film becomes the uncomprehending parent of the one we’re watching. “End of the World” culminates in revealing stasis: a long, long fixed shot of the maimed factory worker chosen for the video, on camera with his family. How the true account of his injuries gets massaged, gradually, insidiously, into an entirely different story gives Jude’s film its true nerve, and teeth, without polemics.

It works, I think, because we taste ashes in the mouth. But because Angela never leaves the film for long, we know — we hope — she is a voice of dissent, finding her way to action. Trained in the Romanian theater, Manolache has fantastically dry comic timing. As Angela, her every move, every pop of bubble gum, every trash-talk insult to someone she’s just cut off on the road, every under-compensated indignity of the character’s workday adds up, detail by detail. Most anti-capitalist screeds are just that: screeds, nothing more. This one’s more essay than screed, full of discursions, but it’s unpredictable, vital and a lifeline for adventurous Chicago filmgoers.

“Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” — 3.5 stars (out of 4)

No MPA rating (language, some nudity)

Running time: 2:43 (in Romanian and English with English subtitles)

How to watch: Opens March 29 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; siskelfilmcenter.org

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

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'Monkey Man' review: Underestimate Dev Patel at your own peril after this action movie

In his directorial debut “Monkey Man,” Dev Patel gifts action-movie fans with a multilayered, hyperviolent narrative. Sure, he pulls off a deep dive into Indian mythology, yet he's pretty darn good at attacking goons with fireworks, platform shoes and all manner of sharp objects too.

More “Rocky” than “John Wick,” the gritty and gory revenge thriller (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) is a love letter to his two-fisted influences, from Bruce Lee movies to Asian cult flicks like “Oldboy” and “The Raid.” But the underdog story, produced by Jordan Peele, also shows a bunch of new sides to Patel, who knuckles up as a legit action star and a guy who can make a movie that’s totally cool, occasionally amusing and impressively thoughtful.

'Monkey Man': Dev Patel got physical for his new movie, and he has the broken bones to prove it

Patel also co-wrote the screenplay, a modern take on the mythos of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. Kid (Patel) competes in an underground Indian fight club, though his job is mainly to take a bloody beating while wearing a monkey mask and hope his colorful boss Tiger (Sharlto Copley) doesn’t stiff him on pay.

At the same time, our hero is also haunted by the murder of his mom and a traumatic childhood, which fuels Kid’s mission of vengeance to take down those responsible. He gets a chance to infiltrate a repressive political system by working in a high-end brothel and starts causing problems for power players including a narcissistic, no-good celebrity guru (Makarand Deshpande) and a corrupt police chief (Sikander Kher).

With the holiday of Diwali on the way, as well as an important election, they don’t need someone like Kid messing things up. He becomes a wanted man and ends up left for dead in the street, where he’s found by a tribe of trans women who like Kid have been marginalized. Their leader Alpha (Vipin Sharma) nurses him back to health yet also imparts a key lesson: Instead of enduring pain and suffering as his primary existence, Kid needs a purpose in life.

While the piecemeal rollout of Kid’s backstory and bits of the Hanuman tale muddy the plot at first, “Monkey Man” swings into a groove when the main character is at his lowest point. Kid gets himself (and the movie) into gear in a lively montage where he uses a bag of wheat for punching practice as Alpha offers up a nifty percussion accompaniment. (It’s the next best thing to Survivor songs psyching up Rocky Balboa back in the day.)

Thusly inspired and trained, Kid goes on a righteous rampage and literally fights his way to the top floor of the villainous big boss. Patel can craft a mean action sequence, whether between ring ropes as masked men duke it out for crowds, a speedy car chase involving a tuk-tuk named after Nicki Minaj, or Kid kicking, stabbing and brawling his way through hordes of bad guys. As the guy at the center of these battles, the Oscar-nominated Patel ("Lion") never seems or looks out of place, even borrowing Keanu Reeves’ fashionable panache when it comes to gnarly combat couture.

The fact that “Monkey Man” includes social-cultural context, as something meaty to chew on rather than a throwaway thematic thread, is the cherry on top of Patel’s bloody sundae. He’s managed to craft a rare action movie that makes you think and also will joyfully plunge a metal rod into a dude’s brain.

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The Best Movies of 2024, So Far

By Richard Lawson

Though some high-profile duds may have given the impression that the year in film is off to a rocky start, our list of the best movies of 2024 so far reveals a wealth of worthy, (mostly) smaller fare released since January. Some are available to stream, while others are playing in theaters (or soon will be). We’ll keep updating this list all year, so be sure to check back in the coming months for more recommendations of what to watch in between Traitors seasons . 

The End We Start From

Killing Eve breakout Jodie Comer (who recently won a Tony for her staggering solo performance in Prima Facie ) further proves her talent in this somber but never lugubrious survival drama from Mahalia Belo. As floodwaters overtake London, a new mother must head north in search of safety and sustainability while a nation credibly collapses around her. Finely observed and avoidant of melodrama, The End We Start From is a thoughtful, occasionally profound manifestation of a collective anxiety, the shared feeling that the fabric of the world is rapidly fraying to a breaking point. Belo steers through all that fear and calamity and finds something like hope on the other side. 

The Promised Land

Nikolaj Arcel ’s robust, lushly mounted film is an old-fashioned epic, a settler Western unfolding on the barren heaths of Denmark rather than the American frontier. Mads Mikkelsen is sternly magnetic as Ludvig Kahlen, a longtime soldier seeking the favor of the Danish crown by cultivating a harsh landscape long thought to be an impossible wilderness. Through that struggle, Kahlen cobbles together a ragtag crew of waifs and cast-offs, and goes to bitter battle with a preening local lord played with perfect movie-villain sliminess by Simon Bennebjerg. Neither subtle nor overstated, The Promised Land reverently restores old forms to past luster, while paying stirring tribute to the resolve and fortitude of the simple potato.

How to Have Sex

A spring-break-esque holiday in Crete, booze-soaked and sun-baked, takes a grave turn in Molly Manning Walker ’s striking debut feature . As a young woman who experiences a dire violation of consent, Mia McKenna-Bruce is a revelation, intricately mapping her character’s struggle to process, and name, what’s happened to her. Manning Walker stages a party gone to ruin with bracing realism, resisting sensationalism by leading with compassion instead of alarmism. True to its title, How to Have Sex is instructive in at least one crucial way: It yanks certain predatory behavior into the light, refusing to let it hide in supposed gray areas.

Dune: Part Two

Denis Villeneuve ’s massive sequel mightily improves on its predecessor by infusing the franchise’s stunning aesthetics with actual plot and meaning. The empty beauty of the first film now keens with megalomaniac prophecy and religious fervor; the ministrations of a universe-spanning empire are brought terribly to bear on our revolutionary heroes and their worrisome messiah. Dune: Part Two functions equally well as either a bridge to further films or as the closer of a two-part franchise. It’s an all-too-rare IP blockbuster that is sturdy on its own feet while leaving open a door to further grandiose adventure.  

A true-story tearjerker of the highest order, James Hawes ’s rousing film is a memory piece about an elderly Nicholas Winton—a stockbroker who organized the rescue of nearly 700 Jewish children as the Nazis approached Czechoslovakia in 1938—recalling his boggling feat 50 years later. It’s a process movie too, as we watch a younger Winton use various bureaucratic and legal maneuvers to ensure safe-ish passage for each group of refugees. Anthony Hopkins continues his recent run of terrific work as the older Winton, crafting a portrait of heroism as a humble act of decency, of recognizing a mounting tragedy and simply doing what can be done to stop it. A worthy message for this or any era.

The Shadowless Tower

This quiet but sweeping drama, from director Zhang Lü, is a delicate romance, a sweet story of unexpected friendship, and a softly heartbreaking family reunion. It is also, in Zhang’s elegant framing, a winsome tribute to the old quarters of Beijing, their narrow streets and hole-in-the-wall eateries. Xin Baiqing, playing a rumpled, middle-aged food critic, is the soulful center of the film, while Huang Yao gamely plays the young photographer who coaxes him out of his stasis. Zhang’s modest narrative gradually builds toward a poignant conclusion, capturing the sound and sensation of time swiftly passing.

Another of Alice Rohrwacher ’s folksy curios that are actually saying something rather deep about modern-day Italy, La Chimera concerns unlicensed excavators of antiquity, a band of rogues who dig around in the ancient soil to see what evidence of history they might find. Among them is a British man, Arthur ( Josh O’Connor, speaking almost entirely in Italian), who is mourning a lost love. As La Chimera whispers and clatters along, the film contemplates what it means to go about the business of living when we are forever surrounded by reminders of the dead—people who came before us and made their own music, had their own romances, and left their own trail of debris before becoming it themselves. (In US theaters March 29.)

Housekeeping for Beginners

Macedonian Australian filmmaker Goran Stolevski ’s third feature is a rambling, sometimes bruising found-family drama about a home shared by an interconnected crew of misfits in Skopje, North Macedonia’s capitol city. The great Anamaria Marinca plays a health care worker who finds herself taking on the role of den mother following a tragedy, working to formalize some of the bonds holding her motley clan together. Among other things, Housekeeping for Beginners is a sober look at the realities of Roma life in the Balkans, especially for those contending with the additional stigma of being queer in a bigoted society. Stolevski—one of the most exciting emerging directors on the world scene—manages a controlled chaos, keeping his film loose and lively while driving toward a stirring finish. (In US theaters April 5.)

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Richard Lawson

Chief critic.