Let me start off by saying that this movie is Allen's best since "Everybody Says I Love You". Forget "Small Time Crooks", and "Curse of the Jade Scorpion ", although I still have yet to see the latter. This one's a keeper.

      Woody Allen plays Val Waxman, who like Allen, is a film director, and get this, he also has been struggling lately. That's what's great about this film, that Woody has the balls to admit that his career has been taking a vacation.

      This movie isn't perfect though. Something just didn't seem right about the way it was shot. Some of the outdoor scenes had too much glare (although that may have been the intention), and the pacing was off. Some scenes just seemed way too long and others weren't funny at all. But the more I think about it, I realize that this is the perfect way to make a Woody Allen movie. Since we all know him as "The Nervous Jew", what better way to tell his story then to pace the movie a bit off.

      Despite the scenes that were a little boring, there were still plenty of laugh-out-loud-funny scenes (in which yours truly did LOL). I found it amusing how they made fun of the industry. Now, Allen isn't the first to do this, far from it, but he still pulls off those classic one-liners we all have come to know and love from him.

      The acting is top notch. And that starts with Allen himself. For the majority of the film, in which he was suffering from "psychosomatic blindness", he had to refrain from looking at people directly, because he's supposed to be blind. Now, if you've ever tried to play a game like this at home (and who hasn't?), you know when you purposefully try to hold a conversation without looking at the person and they have no idea about your master plan? It's difficult. Woody Allen showed A LOT of discipline in this film, and his supporting cast was just as great. They (the actors) know that Allen is not really blind, but they have to pretend (act) that he isn't. Keeping that up is not as easy as it sounds. Props to Allen, and kudos to Tea Leoni, George Hamilton, Debra Messing, Mark Rydell, Treat Williams, and surprisingly Tiffani Amber-Theissen.

       Recommendation: I'd have to recommend it, but there's a lot of inside jokes about the industry (for instance the one about the dailies), so some might not find it as funny as others, but that's always the case with any comedy. So check this one out, you may not like it as much as I did, but you'll still like it.