ChicRawIdol
A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Tayloriona
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Neive Bellamy
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Eric Stevenson
I admit that I miss not seeing Woody Allen himself in the movies he made, but this was just fine. This movie tells the story of the problems a group of people go through when trying to make a play. It's kind of weird that this would be qualified as a comedy, because it really wasn't. There were definitely funny bits in it. My favorite was when Helen said she hadn't drank since New Year's. That is, Chinese New Year's, which was a few days ago.I'm just so impressed at how authentic this movie is. They really wanted to set the mood for what life was like in the 1920's. I didn't even recognize Jennifer Tilly at first, but I did recognize her voice. This film is lit up by great conversations, especially the one where they talk about how they don't feel much when they kill a person. It's not as big a classic as "Annie Hall" but is still great. Don't speak, I know just what you're saying. ***1/2
oOoBarracuda
Aside from what may have been my first Woody Allen viewing (I can't decide if I saw Midnight in Paris in theatres before seeing Annie Hall) I am not yet used to Woody Allen movies that don't also star Woody Allen. I was disappointed to realize after watching the first two acts of Bullets Over Broadway that Allen was obviously not to appear in this film. Obviously, as there is about half of his filmography that he doesn't appear in, I'll have to get over the desire to see Allen, physically, in each of his films. Bullets Over Broadway, in many ways, was not the brand of Woody Allen film I was accustomed to. The 1994 film explores the Woody Allen character played in an extraordinary way by John Cusack as a playwright who struggles with the casting decisions necessary to get his play produced. When the mob gets involved in influencing his choices in exchange for the successful production of the play, Cusack's character must navigate through maze most artists grapple with in the balance between creating for themselves and creating for the masses of society. Bullets Over Broadway is a fantastic look at artistic struggle that just wasn't as much of a Woody Allen film as I would have preferred.
Anssi Vartiainen
A struggling playwright wants to direct his own play because he believes he's an artist, with a capital A, and is convinced that his previous plays didn't succeed because their directors have butchered his genius words. Unfortunately, the only way for him to get funded is to accept money from a mobster, who in turn demands that his empty-headed girlfriend gets a role in the play. The said girlfriend is of course shrill-voiced, opinionated, utterly talentless and kind of lazy. But then it turns out that the hapless gangster conscripted to guard the girlfriend has a way with words and play scenes. A talent even he didn't know he had.It's an odd scenario for a movie, but director Woody Allen makes it work. I've always liked movies that are about making movies, or in this case theatre plays, because they're such fascinating windows into the business that gives us the stuff dreams are made of. This film being no exception. It's full of glamorous actors, empty stages, rehearsals, costumes, scripts and playwrights. But thrown into the mix are gangsters, which makes the film rather unique. It has a spin of its own.It's also the best Woody Allen film I've seen so far. I have not seen many of them and certainly none of his classics, but so far his style has seemed a bit contrived. Like he's talking about something he doesn't quite understand, or understands incorrectly. But in this I totally buy that he's talking from his heart. He knows and breathes this world. All its upsides and downsides.Definitely a film worth checking out for all those that find the premise interesting or are just interested in theatre as a way of life.
kgdakotafan
This was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. The only other Woody Allen movie I've seen is "Annie Hall", and I liked this so much more! The reason I wanted to see this movie was because Jennifer Tilly stars in it; furthermore, she was nominated for an Oscar because of her performance in it. In the middle of this crime/comedy, I realized why. I predicted that the mobster would shoot her because she wasn't as good as the understudy in the play that she was forced to be casted in because her boyfriend, the mobster (Joe Viterelli) was funding the production for an aspiring and talented writer who had recently made flops because as he claims "I wasn't able to direct them." This play he was able to direct. It's well-known that actors and actresses who play characters who die in film are more likely to be nominated or to win an Oscar. While Jennifer Tilly played the stupid moll, mobster's girlfriend well, her death should have been the addition that made her win. Unfortunately, Diane Wiest won in a very overacted performance. This movie is hysterical, and makes you realize that art can come from the most unexpected of places10/10
