I like some latter-day Woody Allen films like 2005's excellent "Match Point" and even 2006's "Scoop," which is amusing, but I don't like 2008's "Anything Else" too much. It stars Jason Briggs as Jerry, a fledgling New York writer with an inept agent (Danny DeVito). As Jerry starts a relationship with a loose girl (Christina Ricci) he gets counsel from an older writer with a great vocabulary named Dobel (Allen), usually while walking Central Park. Stockard Channing plays the girl's irritating mother and a young Jimmy Fallon has a cameo.While Briggs is a quality protagonist, the only parts of "Anything Else" I actually enjoyed are the ones focusing on Jerry and Dobel's mentee/mentor relationship. The movie's dialogue-driven and Dobel uses a lot of obscure terminology so I recommend using the subtitles to keep up with it, as well as the low-key humor, which is quite entertaining. It's also great seeing Erica Leerhsen in a small role.Unfortunately, the movie's done-in by a couple of thoroughly unlikable characters, particularly Ricci's character. Christina looks great and is a fit as can be, but her slutty character is a mass of conflicting impulses. Her actions are controlled by whether or not she's excited by her sexual partner and, of course, only a new partner excites her, which means no sexual relations with Jerry once he becomes "old hat." While she's looking to find excitement elsewhere Jerry does everything he can to keep the relationship going, which is hard to do when the girl's obnoxious mother is living in the same apartment. Not only is it frustrating for Jerry to deal with this situation, it's frustrating for the viewer as well. No doubt these types of aggravating people and relationships are the point of the movie, and it IS amusing to a point, but it naturally makes the viewing experience aggravating as well; and few people want that. Not to mention sympathy for Jerry only goes so far; after all, he's the fool who dropped his perfectly suitable mate (KaDee Strickland) to pursue the sexy-but-unfaithful new girl. In short, he's sleeping in the bad he made.The film runs 108 minutes and was shot entirely in New York City.GRADE: C-

Jason Biggs stars with Woody Allen in "Anything Else," a 2003 film written and directed by the prolific Allen.Biggs is Jerry Falk, a young comic who meets an older comic, David Dobel, who talks with him about life, getting together with him in Central Park and waxing philosophically. Dobel is full of big words and big ideas, some of which are good ("You have to watch everything in this world, or else your life ends up as a black and white newsreel with cello accompaniment in a minor key.") and some are out there - like having a gun for every room.Jerry's life is complicated. He has a psychiatrist that never talks, an agent (Danny Devito) who's the laughing stock of New York, and a girlfriend (Christina Ricci) he adores but who for the last six months hasn't had sex with him. But she loves him. Even when she has sex with other men, she's thinking only of him. And by the way, her mother (Stockard Channing) an aspiring nightclub singer, is moving into his small apartment with her rental piano.Dobel attempts to extricate Jerry from some of these situations, but then seeing how Dobel handles things gives Jerry pause. Someone steals his parking space, Dobel goes back and smashes everything breakable on the car.There's really no plot, just some clever dialogue and some fun scenes. Allen is amazing. He can write a heavy drama one day, a sophisticated comedy the next, a woman's picture the next, and then a smallish in between comedy like "Anything Else." If you're a Woody Allen fan, you will enjoy this, even if you get a little frustrated for Jerry. As Dobel will tell you, never trust a naked bus driver. And life? Well, it's like anything else. Think about that.

Actually, awful says it all. Even the character that Woody plays is bad with a few funny one liners. The girlfriend is pathetic and the main character is worse. Don't waste your time. It tried to submit and had to enter 10 lines which is ridiculous because this movie is not worth ten lines. The mother is not very convincing. She overreacts and the scene with her young boyfriend doing cocaine is offensive. It just goes to show how low Woody had gone to try to get laughs and make the movie current. I felt as if the movie were a metaphor for a failing famous old actor dating a 18-year old fawning female fan. All the characters were miscast. It just lacked the magic of earlier films and many later films. Woody is still producing excellent movies. This one is just a bomb. But remember how many great movies Woody has produced and he can be forgiven. And he recovered from this flop and produced many good movies after this one.

It's boring. And if you're accustomed of Woody Allen's world, then it's very boring ! God. Here you are the same characters, places, behaviors, stories, music all over again. I thought at some point that it's just a remake of many clips from Allen's previous movies done with newcomers !Doesn't this man get out much, or see some people other than himself ?!! It's crazy how nearly all of his movies are nothing but rounds and rounds in his so closed, high-strung, one-note self. I'm feeling dizzy already ! And as if it's not enough to have the same Woody in all of his movies, now we have 2 Woodys; the original one along with a clone of him as well. (Jason Biggs) wasn't acting as Woody only, he was acting Woody himself, while the real one was acting (Dobel); which while being a more interesting character, is another face for the same high-strung, one-note man. It can't get more subjective than this ! So, it's boring, I have seen and hear all of that before. It's monotones, it feels all the time like one extended line running uninterruptedly in a screen of Polygraph in some icu (yeah, the one that tells us that the patient is dead!). And it's silly where there is nothing remotely funny about it (even the psychiatrist wasn't utilized as it should). I thought it's a movie about commitment and relationships, but it ended up being about the noisy confusion of Woody Allen about commitment and relationships, with nothing new, thrilling, or amusing along the way; only a song performed by "Stockard Channing", a scene for "Danny DeVito", and a line at the end about listening to the advices of people, AND THAT'S IT ! If this movie says anything, then it says that despite lacking the charisma (Jason Biggs) can actually do things else Hollywood rubbish (none other than American Pie), (Darius Khondji)'s widescreen cinematography did a really rich addition to the same (Manhattan) of Woody, giving it a touch of glaring class and entertainingly aesthetical flavor this time, and finally it says that Woody must change, because clearly, and according to his very movies, he doesn't. He made his lead move on at the end, well dear.. move on yourself ! The truth is Allen wrote (Annie Hall) again, poorly, just to add the character of (Dobel) in it. It would have been much much better if he wrote another movie, with or without (Dobel) in it. So, if you want to experience a negative version of (Groundhog Day), then watch most of Allen's movies lately. As for me, after (Anything Else) I'll stick to anything else for a long time !