Skip over navigation

Help

What Just Happened? (2008)

What Just Happened? cover art
Play What Just Happened? trailer
Average rating: 64%
5101015201510
3.0
from 17 members
 
Starring: Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, John Turturro, Kristen Stewart, Stanley Tucci
Director: Barry Levinson
Studio: Pathe
Run time: 107 mins
Certificate: 15
User collections: The Worst Films Ever
Genres: Comedy, Drama
Languages: English
Released: unknown

Showing in 236 cinemas

Brief synopsis of What Just Happened?

"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...

Screenshots

Related

Critics Reviews

Rating of 2 stars out of 5 David Jenkins, Time Out

Barry Levinson is not a director known for his down-with-the-kids credentials, and as such has fashioned an... Read more on www.timeout.com

Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 2 starsWhat just happened indeed

Eyesrsore from Glasgow , 22/09/2008

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.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Report offending content.

Read all reviews

Rated - 4 starsWhat Just Happened

A customer from Manchester , 29/11/2008

I hate to admit this, but I'm in the business.. It may only be the small screen business, but that too does scream out just as loud!

This movie is a great idea.. A damn good watch.. I was taken..

'Just What Happened' is unrealistically, realistic... It’s funny too, And to agree with that you have to have lived those moments in the business..

Can’t wait to see it again.

My WoW factor: Yes!

Report offending content.

Read all reviews