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Sadly Over-hyped

As Good As It Gets

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is a terrible film, and I did not watch it all. How could director Barry Levinson make such a rambling pointless mess? The man who made the inspired THE NATURAL in 1984 has descended to this? This whole thing seems to have been a chums' project. It's as if Robert de Niro, Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, and Robin Wright Penn all got together one day and said: 'Let's get together and do something funny about Hollywood. With our combined starpower it could not fail. And let's get good old Barry to direct us.' Well, that's exactly how not to make a movie. They might as well all not have been in it. It might just as well not have been made. Nobody would have missed it. I want my money back. And worst of all, it was not funny.

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.

On its poster you can read this opinion : "Outright Hilarious", being written by someone from the "Washington Post" ! Well, that lie is Outright Hilarious, rather the only funny thing about that film ! Honestly, with other hands, the same story could have been good comedy, even if black one. Imagine (Billy Crystal) as the lead; WAW, that would have been more interesting than what we watched ! So it's not a comedy while it has some potential for it. OK what is it then ? I can answer that, it's a movie about "change is good". The crazy director doesn't want to change his end, the self-obsessed movie star doesn't want to change his face or body's features, while the fading producer does change his love, he doesn't want her to change him and love others.. and so on. However, what was the movie's point of view towards its issue ? Forget that. How the movie could be beautiful while doing anything ? Now that's what I can't forget since I had hard time watching it !In fact, it is poor and sullen film, without much to deliver. It sure fails at leaving an effect. I don't recall very good, or just good moment. It's like a boring reality show about boring life. (De Niro) did nothing but walking and driving all the time with bland face. That script has so little to present else couple of problems a Hollywood prouder might face. Then director (Barry Levinson), one of my favorites once, was so cold (the word is spiritless) in dealing with everything too. So what's left to catch or watch ?? Sadly none ! Big part of this film's condition got a lot to do with the horrible fact that (Art Linson) wrote it. By the way (Linson), old Hollywood producer, is the writer of the book which this movie is based on. So obviously he was retelling his story, yet by a way makes him the only person to understand or see what just happens. As you see that script needed another, more talented in cinematic writing, eye to make a complete, or at least anyway effective, script. Sorry that (Levinson), who wrote once (And Justice for All. – 1979) and the screenplay for (Sleepers – 1996), wasn't that eye. I feel even more sorry when he, as a director and producer, makes a movie such as this. Fairly, I loved the last scene; with the embarrassing photo session, and maybe the surprise of the unseen doctor's identity (who the lead and his ex go to). Save that it's a few dull shots of someone's life that ultimately formed unexpressive and unimpressive picture. In brief, if this film says something then it's that (Barry Levinson) made his worst film yet !

This movie is an adaptation of film producer Art Linson's tales in the book "What Just Happened: Bitter Hollywood Tales From the Front Line," and as a movie, it's not completely boring, but it doesn't feel like I'm watching anything new. Making movies about movie-making is an old, old subject of films, and to me, it feels like a collective of actors masturbating to their industry-worship. I personally think they should have left this project alone; it works much better as a book, making anecdotes of the past instead of trying to make this Robert De Niro's producer-character life seem interesting. They use the term "melancholy-comedy" to describe what this movie is, referring to what this character is going through, much like Kevin Spacey in "American Beauty" (which coincidently has a tie to his work on "The Negotiator," and in this movie, De Niro's character refers to himself as a master negotiator of many projects). There are great lines like "In the end, no director, no stars, not even a title...just a number" (as De Niro looks towards a movie poster with nothing but a dinosaur eye and the amount they got for the film). Insider movies aren't for everyone, and this one is no exception. As a De Niro fan, I had to watch it at least twice, but I don't see myself going back to it anytime soon.