Very disappointed :(

The greatest movie ever!

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Just one of several dozen movies to be musicalized for the Broadway stage since the beginning of the 21st Century, "Bullets Over Broadway" is already musical enough even without being a musical. The 1930's razz-a-mattaz atmosphere comes alive in Woody's love letter to the great white way that is up there with "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and "Radio Days" in his tributes to nostalgia, a genre known today as "pastiche". Woody's Broadway isn't filled with innocent chorus girls who become stars, just a dumb gangster's moll (Jennifer Tilly) who tries to become an actress after baring practically it all in a mob owned nightclub, and ends up paying for it dearly thanks to the sudden snobbery of her bodyguard, Chazz Palminteri. Writer John Cusack is having a difficult time truly understanding the characters he's writing about for the play being produced, and Palminteri begins helping him out as a ghost writer, ultimately getting his taste of being a Broadway baby, a la one with a machine gun instead of a pacifier. A group of typical Broadway eccentrics surround Cusack in his desire to see his art make it to the big time, and while they all have good intentions (with egos of varying styles attached), they end up causing him more headaches both professionally and personally. Of course, the most memorable is the diva star of the show, Dianne Wiest, as far from her kindly mother roles and previous neurotic Allen characters as she can get. Helen Sinclair is Tallulah without the Southern drawl, a boozy broad who sweeps into the theater as if she were Norma Desmond back on the set. Wiest deservedly won her second Oscar (two for Allen films!) for this showy performance that made legendary the simple lines of "Don't speak!", also comically repeated by Marin Mazzie on Broadway. When she orders two martini's, Cusack is floored by her knowing what he wanted to which she replies dryly, "Oh, you wanted one too?" For this legendary stage star, who never plays frumps and virgins, Cusack is her muse of future greatness, and of course, that lands him in her bed.Tilly typifies the stereotypical dumb moll, although she is not a blonde and quite selfish and nasty underneath her bird brained intelligence. She obviously hates her sugar daddy (Joe Viterelli), a fat old fool of a mobster who loves her in spite of herself, treating him with disdain. Annie Jo Edwards, who refused to be suckered in "The Purple Rose of Cairo", steals every moment she's on as their tough-talking maid who refuses to make anything out of horses when asked to make hor dourves and comments on how their illegal hooch ate threw the bottle. Jim Broadbent appears to eat everything in sight as an aging leading matinée idol who is having a serious weight problem (even eating the dog biscuits of flighty co- star Tracey Ullman) and ends up in an affair with the dumb but horny Tilly. Mary-Louise Parker and Rob Reiner also appear as Cusack's long-suffering wife and his communist best friend who end up betraying him while he's too busy to notice thanks to the stress he's under with everything going on backstage.Allen's most honored film since "Hannah and Her Sisters", it is a delightful valentine to the hard work that goes into the creation of live theater and the dreams of those achieving success that is rarely given. The mixture of artists and the underworld gives it a fun vibe, and everybody delivers the goods. There's tinted effects in the coloring that make it feel very much a part of its era, and that ended up making it the surprise hit of 1994. While the musical chose to use period songs to help tell the story, the few that are heard here are also appropriate to the time as well. Unfortunately, the magic of the movie was missing according to critics for the Broadway version, and it didn't repeat its success on stage that it had found on film. But the cast, while not award winners, were well chosen, and it is a testament to Allen's initial screenplay that it did manage a national tour and a bit of a cult following.

Woody Allen films are not for everyone. Not much happens in them, people keep on talking, there are very few overtly dramatic scenes and the films are generally always quirky. But the fact that he is a master director and a brilliantly artistic storyteller can't be denied. Although his style is very lighthearted, but in a Mozart- esque way, it is deceptively so. He can be hit or miss at times due to the immense rate at which he makes films, but when he is in form, he is absolutely marvellous. Bullets Over Broadway is an example of him being at the top of his form.Bullets Over Broadway is set in 1920s New York which clearly is an era that Allen is fascinated by as he explored it again in one of his subsequent films 'Midnight in Paris' although that was set in Paris. The script beautifully explores both the Broadway as well as the organised crime scene in New York during that time, but in a quintessentially Woody Allen-esque quirky , humorous way. It is the characters and ensemble that make this film fantastic. Every character is colourful, funny and also deep. The central theme that runs through the film is the dilemma that a true artist can experience when he is faced with a decision of picking one option between success or staying true to his/her artistic creations. Should an artist make any compromise just to ensure the success of his work, or should he keep his work uncontaminated even if it is at the cost of commercial failure? Allen also makes a subtle commentary about why we should accept who we are instead of trying to be something that we are not which will ultimately give us fulfillment. While all that might sound heavy, but the film tackles these issues in the most quirky, understated and hilarious manner possible.John Cusack plays the struggling playwright David who is the quintessential Woody Allen character that the director himself has played throughout his life and Cusack is good at it. David is paranoid, neurotic, insecure, slightly delusional and can be manipulated. The character of Helen Sinclair played brilliantly by Dianne Wiest seems clearly inspired by the character of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. She is loud, over the top, at times cranky and also one who still lives in the past and can't let go of her memories. Olive Neal played by Jennifer Tilly arguably provides the most amount of laughs in the film. Tilly is absolutely fantastic as someone trying to be an actor who clearly isn't good at the craft. The character of Cheech played by Chazz Palminteri is thematically probably the most essential character in the context of the screenplay.Palminteri provides great range to the character and makes us like him even though he is a gangster. The ones mentioned along with other characters played by Tracey Ullman,Jim Broadbent,Joe Viterelli,Jack Warden,etc. make the film an extremely colourful experience.The script by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath is beautiful. It essentially captures the aura of the theatre scene in the 20s and the gangster angle serves as a masterful complementary element. The screenplay is witty, sharp and Allen's direction elevates the film to a higher level.Bullets Over Broadway is probably not my favourite Woody Allen film, but it has certainly become of my favourites of his films and that's saying a lot. Allen's style of storytelling is not too dramatic, but it has a serene quality about it that keeps you engaged and makes the film linger in the viewer's thoughts. Bullets Over Broadway is one of his best.

Woody at his best. A movie about artists - not only about writers ( but mostly about them ), but about any artist, who is trapped between his talent and the expectations that other people have about him. A movie about what it takes to make something perfect. I strongly consider John Cusack's ( David ) character and Chazz Palminteri's ( Cheech ) character as different sides of the same person - the bohemian, who sees in art just an excuse for meeting famous people and living like them and the real artist, for whom art and creating are only reasons to live. And the moral? I guess no one can say it better than David's girlfriend - one could not love an artist if he hasn't got enough dignity to be a man in the first place.

Because they would take advantage of you with such positive remark. Artists and criminals and their little and complex worlds of being powerful gods, creatures who can create and destroy at the same time. The power of the criminals, gangsters in this case, are the use of his weapons against their enemies or whoever appears on their way; artists like the play writer/director in this film has the power of creativity, words are carefully chosen, scenes and dialogs are marvelously written in order to make the most fantastic creation of all, and the writer has the final word on everything. Well, almost everything. John Cusack's character is a down-on-luck author who finally gets the chance of developing his play in the way he wants, at first by resurrecting the career of diva Helen Sinclair (Dianne Wiest) and selecting his favorite actors. But his luck ends when the play's financier, a mobster (Joe Viterelli) gives the ultimate that his girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly) must have a part on the show, but she has never acted before. The guy gets toyed by this goofy and demanding new actress, by her tough bodyguard (Chazz Palminteri) who'll try to change the play's script, always bothered by the "irrealism" of it; and at last the less negative interference of Sinclair, of whom he madly falls in love with. As the movie progresses we keep asking ourselves: "There's a real chance of this play ever become a hit?" and "How does this writer will ever make his way through fame with such interferences?". While the work of his life gets deconstructed in a turbulence of confusion we keep laughing at all of his drama, or at the other characters eccentric ways of doing things. Outrageously comical "Bullets Over Broadway" is Woody Allen's sound and fury on the power of artistic creations and how they happen, and the way they're developed, constantly changing from what they used to be. Here's a treasure to be admired; it leaves you in a complete state of amazement, a powerful ecstasy. Hilarious situations are wonderfully created, not a single moment is wasted or let down, everything is a feast for our senses from the magnificent casting to the art direction, costumes and cinematography. Allen at his greatest, so enjoy the spectacle! 10/10