"What Just Happened" is about two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a middle-aged Hollywood producer--as he tries to juggle an actual life with an outrageous series of crises in his day job. This is the tale of a man besieged by people who want him all to be sorts of things--a money maker, an ego .. Read more
| Starring | John Turturro, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Stanley Tucci |
|---|---|
| Director | Barry Levinson |
| Genres | Comedy, Drama |
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"What Just Happened" is about two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a middle-aged Hollywood producer--as he tries to juggle an actual life with an outrageous series of crises in his day job. This is the tale of a man besieged by people who want him all to be sorts of things--a money maker, an ego buster, a bad news breaker, an artistic champion, a loyal husband, an all-knowing father, not to mention sexy, youthful and tuned-in--everything except for the one thing he and all the preposterously behaved people he's surrounded by really are: bumbling human beings just trying to survive by any means necessary. Ben is already in over his head trying to balance the tug-of-war of having two ex-wives and two different families with his latest business venture--the boldly "visionary" movie "Fiercely," starring Sean Penn--when everything that can go wrong goes completely screwy. Somehow amidst all the madness, treachery, deceit, runaway egos, rampant commercialism, personal politics and atrocious behavior of America's dream-making machinery, Ben has to find a way not just to make it to Cannes with a finished film, but to cope...
| Starring | John Turturro, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Stanley Tucci, Kristen Stewart |
|---|---|
| Director | Barry Levinson |
| Studio | 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 47 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Most Wanted |
| Genres | Comedy, Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 27 Apr 2009 Production year: 2008 |
| Format | DVD |
Barry Levinson is not a director known for his down-with-the-kids credentials, and as such has fashioned an... read more on Time Out
I went along to see What Just Happened, which was probably the reaction of most of the audience. I've thought about it quite a bit and still don't really know what to make of it. I'm not sure at all that the makers knew what kind of film they were making. I thought the tone was all over the place, that the pacing was wildly erratic - in fact I think there's two different films in there trying to get out. I realise what they were trying to do, to make a film that shows someone with an incredibly busy life, full of stresses, trying to cope but for me it didn't work. For example, one of the first things he did was pick his two young kids, from his first wife, and take them to school. We never saw them or his first wife again. There wasn't even a reference to them in the remainder of the film.
I loved some of the scenes where he was trying to reconnect with his second wife. No spoilers, but there is a film in this alone. It just got cluttered up with ..... the clutter of the film. What was the reason for the manic scenes with Bruce Willis? He was a caricature of himself, as was the Director. The film could have done without them, it would then probably have been regarded as an 'intelligent satire ' on the film industry, instead it seems to be a film that lost it's way and ended up as drama that turned out to be a comedy or a comedy that turned out to be a drama but really is neither.
Gave up after 20 minutes as I didn't want to waste 2 hours of my life !!!