Anything Else (2003)

A dreadful, boring, stupid, inane film, not worth seeing. An embarrassing film, in fact - it made me uneasy to watch it, knowi g that it purports to be a Wody Alen film. This is, I think, an effort by Woody Allen to recapitulate all the romantic comedies of his entire career, unfortunately by the colossally foolish method of culling every bad line, foolish and/or boring scenario he ever constructed and pasting them together to avoid making a new film. To make matters worse, the direction is derivative of, well, Woody Allen...at his worst. Which is not even the worst news, which is that the acting is beyond terrible. Ricci is dreadful. Awful is too generous a word. Horrible comes closer but falls short, ultimately.This movie is flat out horrific.

I was very surprised to see this in the theater after having seen the 6.4 score on IMDb. Maybe my expectations were way exceeded so I mistakenly think this is great, but I don't think that is the case. We had a great time-the movie was thoughtful, funny, ambiguous, thought-provoking, had great acting-about anything you could ask for from Woody Allen. Maybe I don't get out often enough but I laughed pretty hard at some of the jokes (once to tears) and walked away from this movie thinking a lot about life. Christina Ricci did a great job, rising to her potential. Allen also had one of the best roles I have seen him play in a long time. All I can imagine is that there are some people out there scoring subjectively(perhaps disappointed that this is not their favorite Woody Allen movie) and not in any absolute sense.

Simply terrible film from Woody Allen, perhaps the worst he ever made, challenging "Shadows and Fog" and "September" for that dubious honor.Allen's biggest mistake was in casting Jason Biggs as his central character. Biggs is just about as unappealing as actors come, and he's at his most unappealing when he's being asked to be Allen's stand in and deliver the neurotic Jew routine that's really only funny when Allen does it himself. He's not given a tremendous amount of help by Christina Ricci, ordinarily an actress I like but who's hampered by an uncharacteristically boring screenplay. Even in my least favorite Allen films, there's usually a joke or two or a sight gag that I remember, but "Anything Else" has absolutely nothing to recommend it.Grade: F

I am a huge Woody Allen fan who pretty much hated this movie. Out of respect for his usual witty dialogue, I didn't totally savage it, but there is a reason I found it barely watchable.The protagonists are so obnoxious and shallow that it is virtually impossible to feel anything for them.Worst of all is Ricci. Her character was self-absorbed beyond belief. Couple that with her self-conscious mannered acting (as if this was her first movie with an 'important' director...which it wasn't) and I could not find anything that would keep a sane man with her for one day.I realize that Bigg's character is infatuated with her at first glance and waxes, ad nauseum, about her beauty. But that only shows he has a forehead fetish.However Ricci's character is not even the fatal flaw. Scarlett Johansson is an ultra-narcissist in "VCB," but it works there. The flaw is that Biggs, the character we are supposed to feel sorry for, and care about, relinquished all sympathy by dumping his fiancée based upon Ricci's looks and alleged personality. To this viewer, he gets what he deserved.Everyone in this movie is sympathetic and unlikeable. Watching Danny DeVito in this film is actually cringe-worthy.Additionally, the jokes all seem to be recycled. I am trying to recall a moment that even caused me to grin.Keep in mind, I am not a Woody Allen hater. I love his films and own an awful lot of them. As I was organizing my DVDs I noticed that I had not viewed this film since I bought it and was thoroughly looking forward to it.How bad did it get for me? During the Allen/Biggs scenes I was studying their line deliveries and was thinking about how Allen delivers his lines and was comparing it to Biggs' delivery. In fact, even with Stockard Channing, I never saw these characters as real people, but actors delivering their lines.You can't have a movie like this resonate when there are no likable characters....no redeeming values. This was cynical, and at times, torturous.This didn't have to be "Annie Hall" for me to like it, but unlike that flick there was absolutely nothing in "Anything Else" to root for.And learning that the title came from the final line of dialogue, with it's rumination about pointlessness....totally fit.