AN ALAN SMITHEE FILM: BURN HOLLYWOOD BURN RATING: 1 / 10 --> So bad it hurts to watch
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PLOT: Token director Alan Smithee steals the only copy of his film "Trio" from the studio, after they complete the "final cut" without him. He threatens to burn the film reel if they do not allow him to keep his vision.
CRITIQUE: Wow. I really can't remember the last time a movie sucked on so many levels! The "comedy" in this film is pathetic, obvious and dated (OJ Simpson jokes galore). The plot is uninteresting, boring and bad. The structure of the film is annoying, repetitive and pretentious. The acting is pretty bad, especially Jackie Chan, who can't act to save his life. The cameos are lame and seem forced, and the ending blows chunks.
All in all, this movie believes itself to be a clever, humorous and edgy look behind the closed doors of Hollywood, but comes across as a boring, stupid and completely unentertaining piece of shite. I love to see movies about Hollywood shenanigans, but this one bites the big one. See it if you like to watch really bad movies, otherwise skip it, because it will just have you hating every star that makes an appearance in it. Luckily for us all, this mess only lasts about 80 minutes, and Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein plays a lead-faced detective. By the way, is there any reason why the studio or the producer couldn't have cut another version of the film by the way of all the filmed stock that was left over? Who knows, who cares, this "satire" sucks the bag.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Ironically, the original director of this film, Arthur Hiller, also requested his name be taken off the credits and replaced by the DGA's Alan Smithee moniker. This was after the film's production company, Cinergi Pictures, preferred the cut made by producer/writer Joe Eszterhas to his. The original script of this film included Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. Eszterhas announced through the media during post-production that Cinergi Pictures didn't have the money to pay for soundtrack. He said that he would finance the soundtrack from his own money and asked to submit tracks for it to him. He received 9,200 CDs and cassettes from mostly unknown and unsigned artists, listened to all that was sent (at least a couple of tracks from each record) and compiled the soundtrack. This film practically swept the "Razzie Awards" in 1999, given out to the worst of all movie categories of the year, with no less than the "Worst Picture" award, the "Worst Screenplay" (Joe Eszterhas), the "Worst Supporting Actor" (Joe Eszterhas), the "Worst New Star" (Joe Eszterhas tied with Jerry Springer) and the "Worst Original Song" ("I wanna be Mike Ovitz!" as written by Joe Eszterhas).
Review Date: June 12, 1999
Director: Alan Smithee (really Arthur Hiller)
Writer: Joe Eszterhas
Producer: Ben Myron
Actors: Ryan O'Neal as James Edmunds
Richard Jeni as Jerry Glover
Eric Idle as Alan Smithee
Genre: "Comedy"
Year of Release: 1998
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(c) 1999 Berge Garabedian
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