SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Two weeks in the life of a fading Hollywood producer who's having a rough time trying to get his new picture made. This is without a doubt the most weird movie Robert De Niro ever starred in although the cast that follows is really great Sean Penn, Robin Wright, Kristen Stewart, John Turturro, Catherine Keener, Stanley Tucci and Bruce Willis this movie was definitely made just in order to show the inside of the big shiny Hollywood life and sure it's slow paced and boring at times but it's a fun, dumb and stupid movie with a great cast and if you turn off your brain you might like it who knows. I'm going to give What Just Happened a 7/10.

Ben (Robert De Niro) is a Hollywood producer struggling to stay on top. His film Fiercely has a horrendous test screening with an ending of the villains shooting the dog in the head. Director Jeremy Brunell (Michael Wincott) insists on keeping it but studio exec Lou Tarnow (Catherine Keener) forces him to cut it or she pulls it from Cannes. Ben's latest movie is threatened with a shutdown unless he can get Bruce Willis to shave his beard. He has two ex-wives. He's jealous of the recent ex-wife Kelly (Robin Wright) who may have a new lover. Zoe (Kristen Stewart) is the daughter from his first marriage.Robert De Niro is being too serious. There are times when the story has good satire. It either doesn't take it far enough or De Niro gives it too much gravitas. It becomes a series of tired ugly unfunny situations. This is probably funnier on the page than on the screen.

is a satirical inside-look into the cut-throat politics behind Hollywood film productions.Based on Hollywood producer Art Linson's novel "What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line", this film adaptation is a day in the life of a powerful Hollywood producer, and his unending struggles to remain both powerful and active as a film producer. Hollywood producer Ben (Robert De Niro) is at the peak of a mid-life crisis in a frustrating act juggling personal and professional problems, one after the other. As a producer, his new film "Fiercely", is not well received at a test screening especially due to its violent ending of the main character (Sean Penn playing himself) and the character's pet dog. When the test screening receives bad reviews (because "the dog never dies"), studio executive Lou Tarnow (Catherine Keener) threatens an independent final cut if director Jeremy Brunell (Michael Wincott) does not edit the dog's violent death. Now finding himself as the lowly middle man, Ben has to either convince his emotionally unstable British director to let the dog live or risk being fired by the studio chief, in addition to having his film pulled out of the Cannes premier lineup. On the other hand, Ben finds it hard to reconcile with second wife Kelly (Robin Wright Penn), and when he does make an honest attempt to do so, finds that Kelly may be sleeping with a screenwriter whose script he once rejected. Back in the editing room, Ben's persuasion seems to get through to Brunell when the latter edits the film to have the dog live. But his stress levels shoot up again with the studio's new project, where the leading man (Bruce Willis as himself) won't shave off his grisly bear beard. In the end, Ben finds himself thrown into the centre of a crap pit by an egotistical leading actor, a tantrum throwing director, a two-timing ex-wife and a female studio chief itching to end his career.Casual moviegoers seated in a cinema are most often oblivious to the power play behind the making of the very movie they have come to watch. While most movie enthusiasts have little understanding as to what a film producer does, acclaimed producer and director Steven Soderbergh may have inadvertently blown the lid in a recent televised interview marketing "What Just Happened". According to Soderbergh, a major film may have up to fifteen producers involved in the making of that film, but only four of these producers are actually involved in the production. Strangely, the remaining producers have no clue as to what is happening but end up with a credit, nonetheless. Thousands of miles across the globe, legendry (Bollywood) Indian film maker Yash Chopra has his own opinion, "A film producer is as good as his last film". Considering that Linson last produced the feel-good adventure "Into the Wild", along with his all time acclaim from "The Untouchables", Chopra may be onto something here. The same also holds true for director Barry Levinson which brings to mind his Hollywood themed political satire, "Wag the Dog". As a Hollywood parody of sorts, Linson's script here almost hits the mark but not so much in comparison with Michael Tolkin's very similar script for "The Player". The obvious difference between the two is the Hollywood insider jokes in Linson's satire, while Tolkin's Caricature caters to a general audience. But wrapping up this otherwise decent package is nicely done by Levinson and somewhat salvages what could have been a disastrous plot. On the acting front, the all star cast delivers as expected, with De Niro, Wincott and Willis proving their ability in comedy, having taken for granted these actors usually opt for action-thriller films. While the Penns share limited screen time in their individual roles, John Turturro as Bruce Willis' casting agent also contributes towards some of the hilarious one-liners with some palpable chemistry in supporting De Niro's lines.The dual climax of the film and also some of its intentionally funny suspense is whether or not the dog lives in the final cut and Bruce Willis shaving his enormous beard, each determining the fate of Ben's career amongst the 30 most powerful producers to appear on "Vanity Fair". While one scenario is predictable, the other will most likely be unexpected and goes to prove that the most powerful force responsible for a film's reception is not the actor or the director or the producer, nor the studio executive. It is us, the audience and the critics.

Hollywood is a culture of extreme narcissism. A film exploring the Hollywood culture of extreme narcissism is going to produce a movie about characters who are extremely narcissistic. Now, hopefully this was done deliberately, in which case "What Just Happened" is a work of genius and honesty. If the filmmakers are not aware that most of America do not like characters like the ones in this movie, then it is just another demonstration of Hollywood's culture of narcissism.I was trying to figure out why I felt so defensive watching this movie and it was more than just the self-absorbed characters. "What Just Happened" is a movie about Hollywood insiders made for the enjoyment of Hollywood insiders. No effort at all was made to let outsiders in on the joke. At a dinner party this would be rather rude! One could get much of the humor, but only if they scoured the industry media such as "Variety" and "The Hollywood Reporter ". Other than that, the average viewer is completely out of the loop! I could not bring myself to like one single character in this movie. The worst part is that movies like this, at the least, usually show Los Angeles as one of the characters and the director failed at that because the camera was too busy focusing on all these annoying self-absorbed characters. Unless you're a Hollywood insider or are ambitious to make it into Hollywood film industry circles and want to know how Hollywood ticks, avoid this movie. It is just not entertaining.