What Just Happened Movie Review 21

What Just Happened is a movie starring Robert De Niro who we all love as an actor, well I love him anyway!! He plays a hollywood producer trying to hold everything together as he is going through a divorce.He is desperately trying to get his movie finished and wrapped up so he has to sit through the test screenings and hope they go well.Any changes to be made he has to ensure they get done even if the director does not want them.So you can see it is a wheeling and dealing type of movie as he has to try to keep all around him happy.We can tell straight away that De Niro's character is having trouble with his career and that he is on the down slope trying to hang on.
This movie is written by Art Linson and is based on his own book about his experiences of being a producer in hollywood.I knew nothing of this movie before I saw it and did not even see a trailer or know the story.I did see the end of a review on TV where the reviewer said De Niro was back on form in this.I was not aware that he was off form as I think he is nearly always good.This film is directed by Barry Levinson who executive produced one of my favourite shows OZ.On that note I am watching the whole collection of OZ at the moment and I am on season 5 now.I recently discussed OZ here if you like that show too.

So going into this movie I had high hopes and I only knew it was a comedy. If you see the above trailer you would think this could be a great movie as it seems good.It all starts very well where we are at a screening of Fiercely,Ben's new movie.Ben is the producer and is played by De Niro and he waits anxiously in the audience.Sean Penn is the lead of Fiercely which is the movie within What Just Happened.Hope you are following this! Penn's character helps his girlfriend or wife escape (its not made clear what exactly the relationship is but we can guess) The only thing is he gets caught by the bad guys and is promptly shot dead.He rolls down an embankment and lies there dead.His dog comes over and licks his face and just when we expect the credits to roll, the bad guys blow the dog's head off!!! Ughh....yes it is as bad as it sounds and naturally people in the test screening are disgusted with it and it is only now the credits roll.Naturally this ending bombs and this is where Ben has to try to sort it out to keep everyone happy.

From that note at the start of the movie things go downhill from there.He goes to the director to get it changed and he has an english accent that reminded me of the guy in Dawson's Creek when Dawson goes to hollywood.Do you remember that guy who is the maverick english director who has time for nobody? It is the same here.Wait a minute........Yes........It is true........Dawson's Creek WAS a great show and yes I liked it!! Dawson should have kicked Pacey's rearend for stealing Joey away!!!!! OK, if you did not watch that show then forget the last few sentences!!! The rest of the movie felt like a hollywood injoke where Ben originally only let the director put that end in to get other violence in the movie past the eye of the studio.Bruce Willis pops up in another injoke where he has a thick beard that he refuses to shave off and Ben is told by the studio to get him to shave it.Of course Willis plays himself in this as a cranky,spoilt actor who refuses to do what the network wants.I was thinking at this time that the movie is like a train headed for that well known station called Cliche Central and what happens? Yes, it is the main character having marriage problems!! It was not just a train going to Cliche Central, the whole movie is at Cliche Central!! They always put that story into nearly every movie these days.Do you remember hearing that loud noise recently? It was me as you heard me groan very loudly as this was revealed!!!!!!!! As you can tell I did not like this movie and do NOT recommend this to anyone unless you are a masochist and enjoy pain!! I have noticed some people like to know everything that happens in a movie so if you do not want to know then skip the next paragraph but just know this movie is very boring and I give it a 2/10 as I like Robert De Niro! If you really want to know what happens then read on here.I am giving you warnings if you do not like spoilers!!!!!
The director of Fiercely relents and the movie end is changed to the dog just licking Penn's face.Ben realises that his wife is having an affair with a screenwriter so things are getting worse for him.Ben tries to get Bruce Willis's agent to get Bruce to shave his beard but the agent only ends up being fired! Thankfully though Bruce shaves his beard and the movie can now go ahead as the studio are happy.At the Cannes film festival everyone is enjoying the movie but when it comes to the end, the director has done a third edit where Penn and the dog still get shot but this time there is complete overkill with a hail of bullets going into ther bodies!!! The movie ends with a photoshoot for Vanity Fair of all the top producers and Ben suffers the indignity of being pushed way out to the outside of the shot.So really he is nearly out of hollywood but is just hanging on to his position.

For a comedy I did not laugh at all and found the whole thing a big injoke.If you know the inner workings of hollywood or even care about them then you might like this.It felt very similar to that old movie starring Tim Robbins called The Player.I know this is meant to be a satire too but I found nothing funny.Other than the dog getting shot in the head there was not much else in this so I would not want to see this movie again.The 2 out of ten is because I like Robert De Niro and not much else!!!!! The only good thing about this movie was Moon Bloodgood which is a very strange but memorable name and while she is only in it for a few minutes you can tell from her pic here that she will get your attention!!!!!!! If you were basing it on her then this would get (10/10)!!!!!!!! What Just Happened (2/10)