It's to be said that sometimes the viewer -- us -- can view a picture and think, "How idiotic was that film's screenwriter to have had this-or-that character behave in this-or that way, or say those awful things? It completely stops the movie dead in its tracks." It's why there's a critic in all of us, writers and movie goers alike, it's why those who can watch will be able to judge accordingly even if we may not be totally right or even able to reproduce what we are seeing.
Now, the premise of BULLETS OVER Broadway is just that: a playwright finds a producer for his play in the Roaring Twenties. The catch is, the producer in charge for the plays financing is a mobster. The second catch is, he wants his outrageously stupid moll to play the lead. But the third has to be the strangest of them all: one of the mobster's henchmen happens to know this play better than its very own playwright. He thinks that the moll makes a terrible actress. He literally... takes over.
And that's it. Woody Allen thankfully is not present in this movie other than its writer and director -- it is becoming something of a stretch to see Allen, who is about as visually inviting as an eyesore and has those ticks in speech that were cute in the Seventies but now amount to little more than hiccups laced with mothballs. John Cusack, seen in SHADOWS AND FOG, takes over the "writer" in this story but doesn't try to act like Allen (a tendency every actor who's subbed for Allen has done since Michael Murphy mirrored Allen in MANHATTAN, Michael Caine did in HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, and so on). Chazz Palmenteri, however, really takes over and drives the movie through and through, being the brains behind the play in production and a thoroughly masculine presence that somehow becomes more and more feminine as the movie walks towards its conclusion. Jennifer Tilly, the moll patterned (at least in the likeness of) Clara Bow, is the bimbo and plays it to the hilt. Dianne Wiest is again on board, this time playing completely against type as a self-absorbed stage actress who throughout the entire movie makes "Don't speak!" hilarious. A fun ride with a shoot-'em-up finale, this was one of Woody Allen's best films of the Nineties after the Mia scandal, because after this one his movies began a sharp decline in quality and what had been up until then been an anticipated wait -- to see a release of the new Woody Allen film of the year -- had by the end of the Nineties been an "Eh... whatever" thing.
Now, the premise of BULLETS OVER Broadway is just that: a playwright finds a producer for his play in the Roaring Twenties. The catch is, the producer in charge for the plays financing is a mobster. The second catch is, he wants his outrageously stupid moll to play the lead. But the third has to be the strangest of them all: one of the mobster's henchmen happens to know this play better than its very own playwright. He thinks that the moll makes a terrible actress. He literally... takes over.
And that's it. Woody Allen thankfully is not present in this movie other than its writer and director -- it is becoming something of a stretch to see Allen, who is about as visually inviting as an eyesore and has those ticks in speech that were cute in the Seventies but now amount to little more than hiccups laced with mothballs. John Cusack, seen in SHADOWS AND FOG, takes over the "writer" in this story but doesn't try to act like Allen (a tendency every actor who's subbed for Allen has done since Michael Murphy mirrored Allen in MANHATTAN, Michael Caine did in HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, and so on). Chazz Palmenteri, however, really takes over and drives the movie through and through, being the brains behind the play in production and a thoroughly masculine presence that somehow becomes more and more feminine as the movie walks towards its conclusion. Jennifer Tilly, the moll patterned (at least in the likeness of) Clara Bow, is the bimbo and plays it to the hilt. Dianne Wiest is again on board, this time playing completely against type as a self-absorbed stage actress who throughout the entire movie makes "Don't speak!" hilarious. A fun ride with a shoot-'em-up finale, this was one of Woody Allen's best films of the Nineties after the Mia scandal, because after this one his movies began a sharp decline in quality and what had been up until then been an anticipated wait -- to see a release of the new Woody Allen film of the year -- had by the end of the Nineties been an "Eh... whatever" thing.