I recently flipped through my long list of capsule reviews and saw I had foolishly called "Shadows and Fog" Woody Allen's worst film. I made the same silly mistake with "Deconstructing Harry." I did the same thing again with "Celebrity." However, I feel relatively safe in proclaiming once and for all time that "Hollywood Ending," a pathetically unfunny farce about the movie business, is the Woodman's worst film. If only for his sake, I pray I won't be proven wrong again. Woody Allen's decline has been astounding, but perhaps not without precedent. Woody always said Bob Hope was one of his main influences, and I can certainly see parallels between his career and Bob Hope's career. The funny Bob Hope of the 1940s and 1950s, who made wonderful films like "My Favorite Blonde," slowly decayed into a sad self-parody by the 1960s while making duds like "I'll Take Sweden." I think that's what we're seeing here with Woody. I remember when I anxiously looked forward to seeing the new Woody Allen film. Now, when I bother to go, I find myself squirming embarrassingly in my seat. Sad to say, but after "Hollywood Ending," I doubt I will see another one of his films in the theater again. Ironically, the main problem with Woody's recent films are the scripts. They appear to be little more than unpolished and unrealized rough drafts. The structure is sloppy. The characters are unfocused. And, most importantly, the gags simply aren't funny. Also, he has to stop casting young beautiful women as his girlfriends. It just makes him look pathetic. Yo, Woody, word to the wise: Don't you remember how Bob Hope used to look standing beside Brooke Shields? She didn't make him look virile, she just made him look old.
Review of Hollywood Ending
