Watch An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn For Free

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

People are voting emotionally.

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

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Anyone who doesn't like this film, and there are a lot who don't, obviously has no idea of how Hollywood works. It's a funny film, it's got a lot of pace, good performances and lots of stars. The story is quite good, and the reversal of fortunes quite believable.You don't have to work in Hollywood to understand this movie, a bit of imagination is all it takes. If you liked "The Player" you will like this. It's Robert Altman type funny. I would also compare it to the Larry David Show.Also don't stop watching once the credits roll, there are some great parts all the way through to the end.

OK, so we all know that Alan Smithee is the name that directors use when they want to disassociate themselves from their bad movies, and that Joe Eszterhas is one of the people most associated with such movies. But in this case, a real director named Alan Smithee (Eric Idle) makes a movie so downright God-awful - it stars Whoopi Goldberg, Jackie Chan, and Sylvester Stallone as kick-ass mother****ers - that he destroys it. The rest of the movie portrays interviews with insiders putting in their two cents about the whole ordeal.This is certainly a devastating look at Hollywood, and they pull no punches here. I think that when "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn" came out, some critics said that it was as bad as the movie portrayed. But I thought that they did a good job. A particularly funny scene...well, I'll just tell you that it's associated with Keith Moon.So why is it that Hollywood likes to make fun of itself so much?

"A mockumentary of a mockumentary" is the best term I can think of describe this random, self-conflicted attempt at Hollywood self-parody.Supposedly, a first-time director whose real name is Alan Smithee directs a huge summer blockbuster called Trio. But he thinks his movie stinks, so he steals the film canisters. Cue lots of faux interviews with studio heads, big-budget stars, family members, and random other people who wander in and out of the story.The movie is supposed to be a lampoon of Hollywood. But everyone in this picture acts like they're afraid to reveal too much information about what they're supposed to be lampooning, as if too good a roasting of executive-Hollywood hubris might cost them a future role. Sylvester Stallone and Whoopi Goldberg in particular seem terrified that anyone might find out that A-list movie stars like themselves really ARE as demanding and arrogant as the parody script portrays them. Gasp gasp.So the whole thing has a tone of "let's make fun of the boss but we're not sure if he's watching or if he'll think it's funny so let's tone it down." Compromise comedy never works.On top of that, the real movie Burn Hollywood Burn seems to have suffered all the calamities that the fictional movie Trio did. You've got your petulant cast, a script that's been over-written into a nonsensical blob, and a director who removes his name from the credits. Everything except the master copy being stolen. Unfortunately.As a result of all these conflicting forces, Burn Hollywood Burn becomes a mockumentary of a mockumentary. It's Hollywood making fun of Hollywood making fun of Hollywood. It's self-parody taken to a new extreme of recursiveness.And as final tribute to the complete insincerity of this production, there are outtakes in the final credits. Outtakes, in a movie where everybody plays parody versions of themselves. Shouldn't the outtakes BE the movie?

This film is actually a rather intelligent, if cynical, satire of the shallow and idiotic nature of Hollywood. More cameos than you can shake a stick at. Ryan O'Neal is great as an amoral producer. Eric Idle is even better as an unfortunate director named Alan Smithee whose movie is corrupted by the studio. He wants to remove his name from the movie, but since Alan Smithee is the pseudonym used for directors who want to remove their name from a picture, he is out of luck and becomes... unbalanced. Very dry, but very amusing. If you liked Last Action Hero and Purple Rose of Cairo, you'll probably like this.