Load of rubbish!!

How sad is this?

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Annabelle Gurwitch is a character actress/comedienne who is not quite a household name (unless that household has watched TBS' "Dinner & A Movie" for the last decade), but has still crafted herself a more successful career than most in her field. Her name may not be well known, but the average movie goer or TV watcher probably see her and think, "Oh yeah, she was in 'The Cable Guy'!" or "Wasn't she in that Marisa Tomei episode of 'Seinfeld'?". Needless to say, she has made a career playing supporting roles, but has not yet to my knowledge taken on a lead role, or even made her own documentary.For starters, she does pretty well with "Fired", a documentary that begins with her being fired from a Woody Allen play and expands itself from there. Gurwitch starts out by saying that being hired for a Woody Allen production is every actor's dream (which it probably is). The scene that comes next is of course inevitable given the title of the documentary, but still painful to hear. Naturally, Allen didn't make a cameo in this scene, but the Woody Allen stand in, the voice-over sound-alike, and Gurwitch's realistic reactions to Allen's supposed words were powerful elements to start this documentary off right.From there, Gurwitch interviews a number of celebrities and asks them about the times they were fired, and so goes the rest of the film. Some of the insights are very funny, others are reassuring, and then there are some which fall a bit flat. I thought Gurwitch picked some great people to interview, such as Jeff Garlin and Tim Allen. The shots of Paul F. Tompkins and Illeanna Douglass performing live on stage were also good add-ins, and they were very funny.With these commentaries, though, came the shifting of focus as to what this documentary was actually about. The documentary's subject was about the pain of being fired. Given how Gurwitch claimed to have been fired (i.e. because Woody Allen didn't think she was a good enough actress, not because of what she did), one would think the film would focus around how people were let go of their jobs despite their best efforts. However, as the film went on, you could see that some of the people being interviewed talked about how they got themselves fired intentionally from jobs they hated. That case was especially true for Andy Dick.I've said it before, and I'll say it again: there should be a rule in film-making textbooks that if you put Andy Dick in a movie, there is a high probability it will suck. Andy Dick is not a good comedian, and is famous more for his outrageous (and often times off-putting) antics, drug use, sketchy behavior, and overall arrogance. Any employers who fired him were probably as annoyed by him as the members of SNL who blame him for Phil Hartman's death (as he allegedly supplied Hartman's wife with the supply of heroin that would ultimately be her last). His presence alone contributes nothing to this documentary.Furthermore, the documentary loses itself to the subject of factory workers and others being laid off, and echos more of Michael Moore than Gurwitch probably intended to do. However, watching this after the recent stock market crash that led the U.S. into a recession, there is some really eerie truth that comes from the interviewed economists (including Ben Stein) which members of the Bush White House probably should have listened to before.Above all, though, the documentary was pretty good. If there's anything to take away from it moral-wise, it's that being fired from anything is not the end of the world. Of course, any career service office could tell you that, but it's good to hear from moderately successful entertainers too. I just wish the movie would have ended with how Gurwitch herself moved on from such a career speedbump, and what kinds of projects she has coming up. It also would have been good to hear more about what she had accomplished before the Woody Allen incident for many moviegoers who don't know.I recommend this movie for its entertainment value and for bringing up a subject more than a few people have experienced (myself included). I find myself torn between giving this film 6 or 7 stars, but I will give it seven stars since I enjoyed watching it.

I took a chance on watching this documentary and it was well worth it. Admittedly, the first 20 minutes (out of 72) are a bit dull, but then it picks up significantly.The experiences, insights and perspectives from those who have been fired were fascinating. Although most of the interviewees are from the movie industry, their openness and humor provided universal insight and comfort that can be appreciated by all. Plus, there were some great segments with a former human resource manager, executive placement director, various politicians, and others.Since all most everyone in the film is discussing past (vs. current) situations, it was uplifting to see that "being fired" is a simple fact of life and that people routinely go through this experience and continue onwards. There were also quite a number of insightful thoughts and "words of wisdom" that come across.Now, the show was not quite "perfect" - there was time wasted on watching people like "Andy Dick" and Richard Kind act zany. However, I think this movie is definitely worth watching if you are curious about the subject of firing.

Annabelle Gurwitch has a certain amount of sadsack charm, but that's not enough to carry an entire film that is mostly about comedians and other performers who regale us with their ever-so-funny experiences about getting fired.This is a one-trick pony of a film that somehow pretends to have much deeper import -- i.e. 'downsizing in America,' which is a truly devastating problem affecting many millions of people in the U.S. and other Western countries. It's isn't light-hearted hilarity to be driven to the sidelines of society, perhaps never to return.I think Gurwitch means well, but I kept wondering how many of the stories in this film were actual or imagined. Call me cynical (which I am, of course), but performers are trained (and paid) to be 'on,' to pretend they're someone else.There's too much 'padding' in this film. The segments with the truly irritating Andy Dick, as just one example, should have been excised or at least shortened. Somebody, somewhere, once told Dick that he was funny and, alas, he took it seriously. And I've never seen Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin and Harry Shearer so UNfunny. How is that possible?Nice try anyway.

They say that when life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade. Well, that's pretty much what actress/comedienne Annabelle Gurwitch did when she was summarily fired from a Woody Allen play. She turned her experience first into a successful stage show, and then into a feature-length documentary, appropriately entitled "Fired!" Gurwitch uses this film not merely as therapy for herself but as a means of comforting other people who have experienced the same situation. In wildly funny terms, the filmmaker reenacts the euphoric moment when she first heard that she had been hired by the great director, then the personally devastating scene when she was dismissed from the production, and finally the initial dark days of depression immediately following the canning. She then chronicles the proactive steps she took to convert her sour experience into a sweet-tasting personal triumph. After seeking solace and advice from an assortment of friends, therapists and clergy (also reenacted here), she decided to delve into other people's stories about being fired and to use them as material for a stand-up comedy stage show of which she herself was the host. When that turned out to be a hit, Gurwitch decided to make a documentary film about the experience.In the movie, she interviews well-known comic celebrities such as Fred Willard, Anne Meara, Tim Allen, Andy Dick, Illeana Douglas and others on their experiences of losing a job and provides snippets of her stage show as well. She also sets up a booth at a local job fair to hear the firing stories of some of the people there. Towards the end of the movie, Gurwitch launches her own Michael Moore-style investigation into some of the dismissal practices of massive corporations like GM, and interviews people whose job it is to "soften the blow" of firing.With this small but entertaining film, Gurwitch and her comic buddies gently apply the healing balm of laughter to one of the most painful aspects of human life.