Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby, Mono Audio
Academy Award-winning director Woody Allen takes a side-splitting look at the bumpy course of true love--Hollywood style--in this highly-acclaimed romantic comedy that John Anderson of Newsday calls "his funniest movie in years." Woody stars as Val Waxman, a neurotic, once-great director who desperately needs a comeback vehicle to jump-start his fizzled career. But when opportunity finally knocks, it's his ex-wife Ellie (Tea Leoni)--with the handsome, rich studio head she dumped him for--at the door! Also starring Debra Messing, Treat Williams and Tiffani Thiessen, Hollywood Ending will satisfy everyone with its "inspired hilarity" (Gene Shalit, The Today Show).
"...a gem..." Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"...it's smart and sly, and the blindness is an audacious idea." Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"A 40-carat cinematic jewel..." Rex Reed, New York Observer
"...funny and sometimes distinctly sweet..." Brian Webster, Apollo Guide
"...Allen has surpassed himself..." Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
"Woody Allen is good for his funniest screen romp in a while..." Mike Clark, USA Today
Editor's Note
In HOLLYWOOD ENDING, Woody Allen stars as Val Waxman, a onetime hot director who now gets fired from deodorant commercials in the frozen north. He is desperate for a comeback, but when he is at last offered a deal--for a $60 million blockbuster--it's from his ex-wife producer, Ellie (Tea Leoni), and her lover, Hal (Treat Williams), the studio head who had stolen Ellie away from Val ten years earlier. At his agent's (Mark Rydell as Al Hack) urging, Val takes the job, but Val is struck with psychosomatic blindness on the eve of production. Yet he is still determined to direct the picture.HOLLYWOOD ENDING is a return to form for Allen. He is excellent as the fading auteur struggling to find his vision. His dependence on Al and Ellie is both pathetic and hysterical. Leoni and Rydell are outstanding, as is the rest of the eclectic cast, which includes Isaac Mizrahi as a production designer, Debra Messing as Val's chippie girlfriend, George Hamilton as a vain Hollywood tagalong, and Tiffani Thiessen as a sexpot actress. The film is filled with wonderful New York City locations, including Central Park, the Plaza hotel, Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle, Balthazar, and more. HOLLYWOOD ENDING is a funny, poignant look at a filmmaker fighting public and professional scrutiny to craft his art, not unlike what Allen himself has gone through in his career, especially in the 1990s.
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