Fired! (2007)** (out of 4)After being fired from a play by Woody Allen, actress Annabelle Gurwitch turned the experience into a stage play as well as this documentary that takes a look at what it's like to be fired. Gurwitch tells her story and we get appearances from other famous people who share their stories of being let go from their jobs. Some of these people include Tim Allen, Andy Dick (shock), Illeana Douglas, Sarah Silverman, Fred Willard, Andy Borowitz, Fisher Stevens, Jeffrey Ross and Richard kind. I think there might have been a good idea somewhere in the story but sadly FIRED! isn't nearly as funny or charming as it thinks it is. I think there are several problems with the biggest one being that the film bounces back and forth between silly, over-the-top comedy and then it tries to take some sort of serious look at being fired. At just 72-minutes the film seems to go on even longer because we get some pretty boring and silly scenes like when Gurwitch is talking to her Rabbi about being fired by Woody Allen and we get another bit where she talks to a grief councilor. Towards the end of the film we start to get more dramatic tellings including the issues in Detroit where thousands of people have lost their jobs to save companies money yet the companies give their CEOs raises. The entire film just feels very uneven and the mix and comedy and drama doesn't work. Plus, it doesn't help that the majority of the time the comedy doesn't work. We basically get celebrities talking about what they did to get fired and while watching most of them I kept asking myself why I should care. Even the main story, Gurwitch getting fired, seems to be a forced issue because if it wasn't Woody Allen who fired her then she really wouldn't have a story or a message. It's because she got fired by a famous person that allowed her to make this. It's too bad she couldn't have interviewed Allen.

This movie is a documentary about how rough it can be to be fired. The movie has a woman going around the country interviewing people who were fired. This goes on for way to long and gets to be very uninteresting after a while. The idea that being fired can be traumatic is not very shocking. Another gripe is there were a few unfunny stand-up comedy acts to make this movie even worse.I found this movie to be long, tedious, and didn't really make any huge points I haven't already heard. Plus the main character wasn't very good. (Makes you wonder why Woody fired her)

They say that when life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade. Well, that's pretty much what actress/comedienne Annabelle Gurwitch did when she was summarily fired from a Woody Allen play. She turned her experience first into a successful stage show, and then into a feature-length documentary, appropriately entitled "Fired!" Gurwitch uses this film not merely as therapy for herself but as a means of comforting other people who have experienced the same situation. In wildly funny terms, the filmmaker reenacts the euphoric moment when she first heard that she had been hired by the great director, then the personally devastating scene when she was dismissed from the production, and finally the initial dark days of depression immediately following the canning. She then chronicles the proactive steps she took to convert her sour experience into a sweet-tasting personal triumph. After seeking solace and advice from an assortment of friends, therapists and clergy (also reenacted here), she decided to delve into other people's stories about being fired and to use them as material for a stand-up comedy stage show of which she herself was the host. When that turned out to be a hit, Gurwitch decided to make a documentary film about the experience.In the movie, she interviews well-known comic celebrities such as Fred Willard, Anne Meara, Tim Allen, Andy Dick, Illeana Douglas and others on their experiences of losing a job and provides snippets of her stage show as well. She also sets up a booth at a local job fair to hear the firing stories of some of the people there. Towards the end of the movie, Gurwitch launches her own Michael Moore-style investigation into some of the dismissal practices of massive corporations like GM, and interviews people whose job it is to "soften the blow" of firing.With this small but entertaining film, Gurwitch and her comic buddies gently apply the healing balm of laughter to one of the most painful aspects of human life.

This entertaining, informative documentary takes the concept of "something good coming out of a negative situation" to the max: Annabelle Gurwitch was fired from a play by none other than Woody Allen, and rather than moving to Las Vegas and drinking herself to death, she decided to turn the experience into art.The film cleverly opens and closes in the style of a Woody Allen movie, complete with jazz music and his trademark stark black and white credits. In between, many "real life" people and celebs appear, some of them onstage in a production that Gurwitch created, and some in interview form, sharing their tortured stories of being canned from their positions, in show biz and otherwise, and who hasn't been fired at some point in their lives?The movie is funny - the best comedy, after all, does come out of pain; humor, as we all realize, is one of the most effective coping mechanisms known to mankind - but the movie is more than merely amusing, it has depth. While not overtly political or heavy-handed like a Michael Moore joint, Gurwitch does include interviews with people who were fired by GM "through no fault of their own" - corporate restructuring crap - and government layoffs are included as well. This isn't a profound movie by any stretch, but it does have some good insights from real people about what it means to be out of a job.