As a lifelong fan of Woody Allen, I once thought I could never see a bad Woody Allen film. That is, until I saw Picking Up The Pieces, the first horrible film that Woody Allen had something to do with. Here Allen plays Tex Cowley, a man who moves to a small Texas town. On his way driving there, he finds a hand with the middle finger sticking up. When he brings this to town, it starts to grant miracles. The only person a little suspicious of this is Father Leo Jerome (David Schwimmer), who goes to investigate. Meanwhile, a cop named Bobo (Kiefer Sutheland) investigates the case, thinking Tex had something to purposely do with it. Yes, Woody Allen uses some of his neurotic charm here, but even that falls flat. It's a movie that could of delivered on so many levels, but rather is too weird and confusing for its own good. Cameos from people like Eddie Griffin and Joseph Gordon Levitt don't help either. Don't get me wrong, this is a talented cast, but they not only don't show their talents, but show just how untalented they can be. Too weird, too boring, too confusing, and way too long, this god awful movie is definitely worth skipping. Go rent Manhattan or Annie Hall instead.

"Picking Up the Pieces" is one of those nonsense stories that gets morphed into something really neat. In this case, Sheriff Tex Cowley (Woody Allen) tries to bury the body of his wife, but accidentally leaves her hand above the ground. I should identify that her hand has the middle finger sticking out. When a blind woman stumbles upon the hand, she regains her vision, and then the hand starts performing all sorts of miracles.Yes, it's a totally outlandish idea, but they do some really funny stuff with it. I especially liked the scene with "Ortiz". One might say that this movie looks at the interconnectedness of everything. Maybe. But overall, I'd say that it's an excuse to have fun. And it sure is something to see Woody Allen in a small Texas town. Also starring Sharon Stone, Cheech Marin, David Schwimmer, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, and Kiefer Sutherland.

Maria Grazia Cucinotta as the prostitute Desi and David Schwimmer as the priest Leo and their conflicted love story was the best thing in this movie. But unfortunately it's not enough. Woody Allen is boring and unfunny, and both Kiefer Sutherland and Cheech Marin had nothing to work with. The problem with this movie is the script, by Bill Wilson (XI). The persons in the movie doesn't work. He puts one-liners in some scenes where they don't make any sense and therefor makes the persons look silly. Actually the personality of everyone, besides Desi and Leo, are as deep as paper. The best part of the movie is the love story between Maria Grazia Cucinotta and David Schwimmer and it would be great to see a love story just between those two again with a well written script, because they looked great together. and they worked in the script until near the end, where the movie collapsed. But David Schwimmer and Maria Grazia Cucinotta saved this movie.

Maybe it's just the mood I'm in but after a failed first attempt at viewing this film (lasted about 10 minutes) I just finished seeing the "hole" thing and thought "what a great WA film ala the pre-serious Woody phase that he didn't write! This film was obviously not done with the BIG audience in mind, but out of love for the absurd to a sublime degree. Over the top puns abound in a truly profound way. Like for instance, "You can save your ass, or you can save your soul. But you can't save both. You choose, ass....soul...etc.,etc. I can't believe the many stars in this cast (albeit off-ctr types) did this for the money, so they must have had a blast making it. And c'mon folks, tell me you didn't love to see Kieffer hung up and beaten like a pinata with fireworks going off on his body. I hven't seen cast interviews, so I'm not as informed as some of the commenteers here are, but the overall message (last words of Woody)of this movie is not to be ignored: "f__k em if they can't take a joke". Yeah, the production was cheezy, but it fit so well. The patchwork editing just may have been intentional.... I can easily see how people panned this film. But, no offense intended, maybe you take yourself a bit too seriously.PS: the quip about Jesus' party getting out of hand _was_ Lenny Bruce's comment as stated by Woody in the film.Ahhhhhh