Such a frustrating disappointment

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Taking a look at film maker Woody Allen's IMDb page after seeing his wonderful 1989 film Crimes and Misdermeaners,I was surprised to discover,that in 2003 Allen had made a movie with American Pie star Jason Biggs.With a poll being held on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best titles of 2003,I decided that it would be a good time to take a slice of Allen and Biggs team up.The plot:Finding that his client seems to be permanently stuck to working in small-time Comedy clubs,show-business agent Harvey Wexler decides that he's going to give Jerry Falk a helping hand by teaming him up with a new client of Wexler's called David Dobel.Despite there being a 2 decades gap between,Falk finds himself becoming inspired be Dobel's no nonsense view on life.As he starts writing new material with Dobel,Falk's year long relationship with Amanda Chase begins to hit a rough patch,with Chase saying that she is unable to regain the excitement which she wants had for the relationship. Doing everything they can to bring the relationship back to life,Folk begins to wonder if there is anything else left to make this relationship one worth saving.View on the film:Shooting in anamorphic widescreen for only the 2nd time,writer/director/co-star Woody Allen and Darius Khondji superbly use the format so that the sight gags taking place in the background give the foreground a bold appearance.Along with the background gags,Allen also does very well at using corner shots which show (via inner monologue ) the corners that the characters find themselves in.Whilst the screenplay does feature a number of quick one liners,as Falk attempts to break out of his small-time roots,the screenplay by Allen never allows the viewer to fully warm to the relationship between Folk and Chase.Instead of showing the relationship gradually fall apart,Allen decides to start breaking it apart right away,which leads to Chase being shown as incredibly frosty,due to Allen not allowing any warmth in her relationship with Falk to be shown.Despite Allen's screenplay giving the character a bit of the cold shoulder, the alluring Christina Ricci gives a very good performance as Chase,with Ricci really bringing out the quirkiness in Chase's relationship with Folk.Taking on a role that Allen would have done decades ago,Jason Biggs gives a confident performance which allows him to clearly stand out in the movie,with Biggs delivering Falk's inner monologue's with a real sincerity,as Falk and Chase find out if there is anything else left in their relationship.

Actually, awful says it all. Even the character that Woody plays is bad with a few funny one liners. The girlfriend is pathetic and the main character is worse. Don't waste your time. It tried to submit and had to enter 10 lines which is ridiculous because this movie is not worth ten lines. The mother is not very convincing. She overreacts and the scene with her young boyfriend doing cocaine is offensive. It just goes to show how low Woody had gone to try to get laughs and make the movie current. I felt as if the movie were a metaphor for a failing famous old actor dating a 18-year old fawning female fan. All the characters were miscast. It just lacked the magic of earlier films and many later films. Woody is still producing excellent movies. This one is just a bomb. But remember how many great movies Woody has produced and he can be forgiven. And he recovered from this flop and produced many good movies after this one.

I was very surprised to see this in the theater after having seen the 6.4 score on IMDb. Maybe my expectations were way exceeded so I mistakenly think this is great, but I don't think that is the case. We had a great time-the movie was thoughtful, funny, ambiguous, thought-provoking, had great acting-about anything you could ask for from Woody Allen. Maybe I don't get out often enough but I laughed pretty hard at some of the jokes (once to tears) and walked away from this movie thinking a lot about life. Christina Ricci did a great job, rising to her potential. Allen also had one of the best roles I have seen him play in a long time. All I can imagine is that there are some people out there scoring subjectively(perhaps disappointed that this is not their favorite Woody Allen movie) and not in any absolute sense.

It's boring. And if you're accustomed of Woody Allen's world, then it's very boring ! God. Here you are the same characters, places, behaviors, stories, music all over again. I thought at some point that it's just a remake of many clips from Allen's previous movies done with newcomers !Doesn't this man get out much, or see some people other than himself ?!! It's crazy how nearly all of his movies are nothing but rounds and rounds in his so closed, high-strung, one-note self. I'm feeling dizzy already ! And as if it's not enough to have the same Woody in all of his movies, now we have 2 Woodys; the original one along with a clone of him as well. (Jason Biggs) wasn't acting as Woody only, he was acting Woody himself, while the real one was acting (Dobel); which while being a more interesting character, is another face for the same high-strung, one-note man. It can't get more subjective than this ! So, it's boring, I have seen and hear all of that before. It's monotones, it feels all the time like one extended line running uninterruptedly in a screen of Polygraph in some icu (yeah, the one that tells us that the patient is dead!). And it's silly where there is nothing remotely funny about it (even the psychiatrist wasn't utilized as it should). I thought it's a movie about commitment and relationships, but it ended up being about the noisy confusion of Woody Allen about commitment and relationships, with nothing new, thrilling, or amusing along the way; only a song performed by "Stockard Channing", a scene for "Danny DeVito", and a line at the end about listening to the advices of people, AND THAT'S IT ! If this movie says anything, then it says that despite lacking the charisma (Jason Biggs) can actually do things else Hollywood rubbish (none other than American Pie), (Darius Khondji)'s widescreen cinematography did a really rich addition to the same (Manhattan) of Woody, giving it a touch of glaring class and entertainingly aesthetical flavor this time, and finally it says that Woody must change, because clearly, and according to his very movies, he doesn't. He made his lead move on at the end, well dear.. move on yourself ! The truth is Allen wrote (Annie Hall) again, poorly, just to add the character of (Dobel) in it. It would have been much much better if he wrote another movie, with or without (Dobel) in it. So, if you want to experience a negative version of (Groundhog Day), then watch most of Allen's movies lately. As for me, after (Anything Else) I'll stick to anything else for a long time !