That was an excellent one.

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Woody Allen doesn't make bad films. At his best he makes films that are absolute treasures of the filmmaking craft, made all the more memorable by the writer/director's sonorous one-liners and punchy zingers. He can also make films that are strikingly ordinary; held together only by a few frivolous if easily relatable quibbles and the charm of its cast. Scoop is not one of Woody Allen's finer films. In-fact despite hosting the effervescent charm of Scarlett Johansson as its lead, it's barely even passable.The story begins with former journalist Joe Strombel (McShane) standing along the shores of the river Styx with death himself. He strikes up a conversation with Jane (Woolgar) a recently deceased secretary who swears she had her coffee poisoned by her boss. She's convinced her employer Peter Lyman (Jackman) is the "Tarot Card Killer," who has been terrorizing the citizens of London for months. Enter journalism student Sondra Pransky (Johansson), a good girl from Brooklyn who takes in a magic show hosted by bargain-bin magician Sid Waterman (Allen). While volunteering for one of Sid's chintzier tricks, she accidentally summons the spirit of Joe whom may have the biggest tip she's ever received.Woody's reaction to the box office returns of Irrational Man (2015) By the sounds of it, Scoop has all the familiar trappings of your average Woody Allen gig; an ensemble falling in and out of love, working- class insecurities played against a backdrop of high-class social circles, the inevitable specter of death played for laughs. Adding in the convoluted plot of murder and betrayal and a fine performance by Hugh Jackman, Scoop had a story to rival Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). Unfortunately due to two big glaring errors, Scoop remains relegated to the Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) pile.The first error was casting the rapturous Scarlett Johansson as the endearingly classless Sondra Pransky. The very name conjures a Midwestern milk-maiden thus the character calls for being charming in her own pedestrian flightiness; She talks of being Katharine Hepburn sure, but she's ultimately the type of girl who one could easily talk to and share your secrets. Far be it for me to limit the range of Ms. Johansson. She has played the femme fatale and the permissive interloper to great aplomb in Match Point (2005) Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) respectively, yet ordinary she certainly is not. Not even a masters course in at the Sorbonne and Monster (2003)-style makeup could have made her blend to the degree Allen needed her to.The other problem is Allen himself whose still pulls the same shtick that's served him well since the days of the 1960's late-night talk show circuit. It still works but as a vessel for quick quips and erudite wordplay, Woody Allen the man looks like dotty old man clinging to his comedic career like the Great Calvero. Are we truly meant to believe that Sid Waterman's tired magic show is enough to warrant Ricky Jay level audience attendance? Even in his prime, Allen had the stage presence of a salamander newt. In may ways that was part of his charm.Yet beneath a few casting missteps there is still a good story to be told. Allen aptly balances the more morose themes with a light touch proving that even at his worst he can mix the bleakness of Ingmar Bergman with the absurdity of a David Ives. And you can tell by the subtle visual motifs that Allen still has a sharp cinematic literacy, calling back to classics like Suspicion (1941) and A Place in the Sun (1951).Woody Allen doesn't make bad films. I write this knowing that as an unabashed fan and completest, I will one day have to sit through Anything Else (2003). Yet if anyone is more deserving of a pass it's Woody Allen. He's made a feature film every year since 1969; most of which are not only good but award worthy. Scoop won't win any awards and certainly won't be anyone's favorite but with a breezy and fun little story, at least it's not a total failure.

Pretty awful. Probably the worst movie of Woody Allen's career. I fully accept that Woody Allen is a creep in real life, but I try to separate the art from the artist, and it's hard to deny that Woody Allen has made many excellent movies. This is not one of them. Scarlett Johansson is very pretty. That is all you can say about Scarlett Johansson. She is a terrible actress and always has been and probably always will be. Woody Allen as an actor, at this point in his career, is beyond annoying--let's hope he just stays off the screen from now on.The rest of the cast is pretty stilted too. The jokes are lame and lifeless. The story is OK. If you must see all of Allen's movies, you'll have to see this no doubt, but if you miss it, you're not missing much.

Another Allen film that was generally dismissed by critics, but for me was worth seeing. Certainly it's hard to argue that this is up there with Allen's best work, but it still has a lot of funny bits, and Allen and Scarlett Johansson have a great on-screen rapport as a young aspiring journalist and a slightly pathetic aging magician who team up to try and solve a murder case.The two Americans have to fake their way into the snooty upper-class world of London, to chase the young aristocrat who a ghostly Ian McShane (a great reporter who died, but got a tip crossing the river Styx, and came back to tell someone) has informed them committed a series of murders. Allen is very funny in these scenes as he tries to blend in with the lords and ladies, and Hugh Jackman does an excellent job as the suave, likable 'is he or isn't he' object of their investigations, who, naturally Johannson falls for. There are weaknesses; some logic problems with the mystery, and a pay-off that's less than one might hope. But this does a nice job of capturing some of the feel of a witty 1930s comedy. While no masterpiece, if almost anyone else had made this film, it might well have gotten praise as an enjoyable, well made romantic comedy thriller. It just doesn't quite stand up when compared to the heights Allen is capable of.

It has the funny Woody Allen schtick as the master plays a two bit magician who finds himself thrust into a murder mystery. Scarlet Johanssen plays a ditzy young journalism student who is looking for a story. Her hackney junk is going nowhere when a famous reporter, who has died, escape the boat to the underworld, and informs her that a well known, rich man, played by Hugh Jackman, is a notorious serial killer, the Tarot killer. He is so charming that she falls for him and sleeps with him. Meanwhile, Woody, who initially wants nothing to do with this case, becomes protective of the pretty young woman and continues the pursuit when she is no longer interested. This is not Allen's best work. There is no suspense to speak of and it is more of a format for one liners. Johanssen is stiff and not very believable as a character. The conclusion is not very interesting. I did like the death ship with all the people heading for the underworld. It reminded me of a much funnier movie, Love and Death, where Death become corporeal and visits Allen in prison.