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List Price: $12.99 | | Label: Dreamworks Video
Salesrank: 35167
Released: September 17, 2002 |
| Our Price: $6.95 |
| Used Price: $1.68 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A has-been filmmaker is hired to direct his ex-wife whos now dating the studio boss. But when he arrives on the set he develops a case of psychosomatic blindness. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/24/2005 Starring: Woody Allen Treat Williams Run time: 114 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Woody Allen
Description of Hollywood Ending:
With Hollywood Ending, Woody Allen good-naturedly bites the hand that feeds him. The modern studio system is a ripe target for Allen’s rapier wit, but the veteran writer-director goes a delicious step further by playing a has-been filmmaker who suffers from psychosomatic blindness--during the production of his big-budget comeback! Rather than sabotage his career, he proceeds to direct the film with guidance from his Chinese cinematographer’s translator, telling his agent (played by another veteran director, Mark Rydell) while hiding the truth from his ex-wife and producer (Téa Leoni), her studio honcho husband (Treat Williams), and his ditzy actress girlfriend (Debra Messing), who has a small role in the film. Chaos ensues--and so does Allen’s predilection for casting much-younger female costars--but Hollywood Ending favors a more contemplative blend of comedy and drama, peppered with memorable punch lines and blessed with, yes, a Hollywood ending that’s as entertaining as the mayhem that precedes it. --Jeff Shannon
Hollywood Ending Reviews:
A mediocre but still watchable effort by Allen 
2009-12-15 - Woody Allen plays Val Waxman who finally gets a chance of redeeming his directing his film career. A film he can direct for Hal Yeager, Played by Treat Williams. The only catch is that Hal is married to his ex wife Ellie played by Tea Leoni. It has she who has lobbied for him to get this film role. Just before the film is going to commence, Allen suffers from psychosomatic blindness. With the help of his agent and then his wife, he proceeds and successfully films the movie after many obstacles along the way. The ending is surprising as well. The movie was plain ordinary for me but there were many situations through the movie which made it viewable till the very end. The writing is sarcastic and translated effectively to the big screen. There are many characters in the movie that make the movie interesting and come alive. The Chinese translator and the camera man are for one a very funny bunch. The reunion scene with son is also very hilarious. Woody Allen is as his usual self, neurotic, self obsessed and witty. Not his best but for a cut above the rest. I gave it three stars121509.
Underrated, hilarious comedy 
2008-11-25 - It appears that not everyone likes Woody Allen films. Well, I can't really
understand those people, especially when the guy makes such vastly entertaining little gems as "Hollywood Ending". It's true that this movie isn't absolutely brilliant, but it's close enough. This one makes for a great double feature when viewed after an earlier Allen classic also about a bewildered filmmaker, "Stardust Memories". So forget the critics who claim that Woody's time is past; it isn't.
NYC-LA Culture Wars, Part II
2008-02-19 - As I noted in a review last year of Woody Allen's classic Annie Hall, that is among other things a defense of New York City as the cultural epicenter American culture such as it is, this is matter that has preoccupied him from early in his career as a director/ writer/actor/comic. Allen is the quintessential New Yorker so one knows where his sledge hammer will fall. In the current movie under review Hollywood Ending that same premise underlies his story line as he, once again, portrays on screen the trials and tribulations of trying to maintain some kind of artistic integrity in the world of Hollywood commercial filmmaking.
The plot here centers on Allen's character Val Waxman, an aging has-been director given another chance by, of all people, his ex-wife getting paralyzed by the prospects to such an extent that he has become temporarily blind. Nevertheless in the interest of comedy and his career (and their careers, as well) Val and his friends con their way through the filming of the remake of a 1940's film about New York City that is to be the key to his comeback. Along the way Allen gets to get his licks in on Hollywood culture, commercial filmmaking and the funny premise that commercial films are so dumb, for the most part, that a blind man is entirely capable of making a bad film, just like most other directors. Interesting film and, as always, full of autobiographical references, Allen's trademark cerebral humor and his extensive use of sight gags. Well worth a look see.
Fun, cute, well-paced 
2007-12-06 - Part of the solid early 90s trilogy along with Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Small Time Crooks. Each one of these is a cute, silly, well-balanced story with a weaving plot that resolves with grace and symmetry. These movies are not laugh out loud funny, but the wise-cracks keep rolling as Woody waxes nostalgic and makes fun of himself. I find them very relaxing and enjoyable. This is Woody's last good movie.
Fairly amusing
2007-08-08 - Like most of his films of late, Woody Allen's "Hollywood Ending" was panned by the critics, but it's actually fairly amusing. One of Allen's self-described "trifles," it casts the Woodman as a down on his luck director whose ex-wife persuades studio boss Treat Williams to give him one last shot at directing a major film. On the eve of production, he goes blind, a psychosomatic response to the way the plot parallels his personal life.
It's popular to suggest that since hitting 60, Allen's comic timing is off, but I laughed frequently as the blind director fumbled his way across the film set and engaged in conversation while facing an empty seat on the sofa rather than the person he's addressing. The movie within the movie turns out to be a disaster, of course, but it's hailed by the French critics. The ending mirrors Allen's own career these days. Once the fair-haired boy of American critics, Allen must now go abroad to find a receptive audience.
Brian W. Fairbanks
