recommended

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The people who made this movie should have sat down and taken some Ritalin before they began.The story concerns the efforts of Bobby Myers (Matthew Modine), a Canadian lawyer in 1979, to make a movie out of one of his homeland's most beloved novels. It fancies itself as a funny and slightly biting critique of the business and art of making movies and it could have been that if it had just been able to calm the heck down. It seems like when they wrote the script they just threw in every single possible idea anyone could come up with that fit the movie's theme, with the result being a film that can't give any story element the proper attention.Here's a list of the things Hollywood North tries to take on – the distorting effect big stars have on how a movie is made, the Canadian film industry as a tax write-off, how well meaning filmmakers are changed into manipulative bastards by the demands of just getting the movie finished, the capricious and totally nonsensical way scripts are rewritten, the dominance of Hollywood over filmmaking in Canada, a big American star (Alan Bates) who's jingoistic and paranoid over the Iranian hostage crisis, a leading lady (Jennifer Tilly) who lives and dies on the set and dislikes real life, the lure of celebrity and the evolution from a good-hearted and hopeful filmmaker to a toady and enabler of the big star, a young actor (Fab Filippo) getting his first big break and an old director (John Neville) trying to prove he can still cut it, an aspiring filmmaker (Deborah Kara Unger) trying to shoot a documentary of the big budget production while also filming her own movie on the weekends, a scam to use the big movie's resources to get the small movie made, the reasons for on set romances, an out-of-left-field romance between Modine and Unger's characters, the unending stream of rationalization that is used just to keep a film project moving forward and a happy ending that doesn't relate to any of the other things in the movie.That's just too much weight for an 89 minute long comedy to carry. There's not enough time, so almost everything in the film is either too short or too fast to develop in any way. Characters have to say out loud what scenes are about, things that should be important moments in the story come and go and are never heard from again, Matthew Modine's character has to change from frazzled and overwhelmed movie neophyte to cynical and fast-dealing shark and back again at least 3 times because that's what a scene demands.If they could have just relaxed and decided to leave some things out, this could have been a much better film. When Alan Bates character goes nuts at the end and starts punching out extras because he thinks the movie is real, it's pretty funny. John Neville has a really nice scene as the old director trying to pump up the confidence of his nervous young star. There could have been a very nice dynamic between Modine's naïve first-time producer losing his innocence and Unger's more hard-headed artist trying to preserve her self-respect. But is all gets sort of lost in the jumble.Hollywood North lacks a central purpose. Instead of being a movie about one thing, it tries to be everything anyone could ever think of and ends up being something that very few folks would ever want.

"Hollywood North" is an euphemism from the movie industry as they went to Canada to make movies because of tax breaks and cheaper costs in a civilized city like Toronto, in this case, later in Vancouver. Peter O'Brian, the director, probably saw a lot of the invaders from California that this movie seems to be the right way to deal with the arriving personalities trying to capitalize on the economics that Canada presented.Needless to say, "Moon Lantern", the successful novel written by a Canadian author is turned into "Flight to Bogota", which has nothing to do with the original film. A great egotistical has-been, Michael Baytes, who is obsessed with what is happening in Iran, is offered the lead part, which turns to be a disaster.The film seems to be saying that too many cooks have spoiled the broth, which seems to be the case with the ultimate product, which is saved by its producer, Bobby Myers. With the help of Sandy Ryan, who has been around making a documentary of the film being shot in Toronto, parts of the film are transformed into a cohesive movie at last.The filming process is hilarious, and the acting, in general, is good.

A mock documentary about a pair of Canadian producers, Bobby Myers (Matthew Modine) and Paul Linder (Saul Rubinek), trying to make their first film in the late 1970s. Hollywood North is the comic tale of their struggle to pull everything together, despite a number of conflicting threads.Hollywood North works as a film in a way very similar to why This Is Spinal Tap (1984) works so well. Namely, although exaggerated in some ways, it is very close to the truth, and the truth consists of "behind the scenes" facts that are very different than the public face of the industry. It isn't easy to make a film, and it must have been especially difficult in Canada in the late 1970s. Films involve tens, if not hundreds, of people. Many have incompatible desires, motivations and personalities. Especially crucial are the financiers and the on-screen talent, as if either drops out or becomes undependable at any stage while the film is in production, it could jeopardize the whole affair, either necessitating extensive reshoots or abandoning the film altogether.So it's not surprising that Hollywood North focuses on those kinds of relationships. The result is an excellent film that is both hilarious and tragic at the same time. The script is flawless and the performances are top notch. This is a must-see for any budding filmmaker and anyone with a serious interest in the craft of film-making. It should also be more than entertaining for any viewer with a modicum of intelligence and a sense of humor.A 10 out of 10 from me.

I saw Network the night before I saw Hollywood North, so I went into it expecting something along the same lines. As a satire, Hollywood North doesn't swipe its targets with a scalpel; the movie doesn't commit to its subject matter enough to cross the line from comedy to satire. This is too bad given the great performances in this movie. This is the first movie I've seen where I didn't hate Matthew Modine, and the rest of the cast is great, especially Deborah Kara Unger and John Neville. . The faults with this movie are in the writing, which failed to take very many chances.But this movie is well worth sitting through for the finale. After the funniest armed standoff I've ever seen, the big American star, modelled on John Wayne, blows up his own trailer, bringing the production of the movie within the movie to an end.