 |
||||||||
l
|
||||||||
- Wanna submit something?
|
FiyaStarter RATING =  (3½)FiyaballsMovie Review Scoop
With Scoop, Allen is again bumbling, stumbling and stuttering into familiar territory, as he plays a neurotic (of fucking course) magician named Sid Waterman, who’s helping a hot young piece of ass Sondra Pransky (hot young piece of ass Scarlett Johannson) solve a murder mystery, which may or may not involve a handsome rich guy, played by half-wolf/half-show tuner Hugh Jackman. And while its plot and characters are decidedly recycled, Allen’s execution was deft enough to make the film enjoyable. The dialogue, always the star of a Woody Allen film, is some of the best Allen has written in years, with Sid constantly complementing his audiences by telling them they are “a credit to your race,” which, if audience reaction means anything, is sure to become a catch phrase among self-defined intellectuals. Johannson’s performance as Pransky, an ambitious student journalist, justifies Allen’s current fascination with her. She has impeccable comedic timing and a certain goofiness that can, when she wants, downplay her outlandish fuckability. She is obviously his latest muse, after he has searched young Hollywood high and low for years looking for one (Drew, Juliette, Charlize…them girls just didn’t cut it). Pransky cozies up to rich boy Peter Lyman (Jackman), who she suspects of murdering a call girl believed to be the latest victim of the notorious “Tarot Card Killer.” Why does she suspect him? Because a dead journalist, played by Ian McShane (Deadwood), visited her and told her so. Who says Woody’s out of ideas? Well, everyone. But, who needs plausibility when the laughs are there? If you want to see a funny Woody Allen movie and have all the pretentious conversations that inevitably follow the experience, do yourself a favor and see this one.
|
FIYA NBA Ranks: #9 |
||||||
Every
great artist must reach their creative peak and persevere through
their years, maybe decades, of rapidly declining creativity.
The artist who is the subject of this review, Woody Allen,
probably fulfilled all of his potential as a filmmaker with
1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters, the culmination
of an incredible 20 year run that started with What’s
Up Tiger Lily and gave us the classics Sleeper, Annie
Hall, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Broadway Danny Rose and
The Purple Rose of Cairo. 