What Just Happened (2008)

the audience applauded

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Memorable, crazy movie

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

(52%) Without doubt a film that assumes that the audience is as interested in the behind the scenes of the Hollywood movie making industry as it is, yet for all its assumptions I still kind of enjoyed this one. Whether or not you may take anything from this depends on how much you like the idea of following around Robert DeNiro as a typical movie producer for just shy of two hours. Despite this supposedly on the outset to use a more subtle form of comedy, it in fact is full of much more simplistic methods to draw out the laughs, so expect many actor/director based outbursts, people falling into open graves, animal death based black humour, and test screening score cards covered with insults. None of which comes close to ever being subtle, but I thought overall it worked okay. The film in the long run doesn't have enough puff to go the distance, but as successful failures go, this ain't too bad at all.

I am rather frequent movie viewer, but my knowledge of creation and completion process is rather vague and I am seldom interested in related intrigues, picking of the cast etc. What Just Happened caught my attention due to the cast, and they performed their tasks well (in spite of often unfinished characters): Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, John Turturro, Stanley Tucci are excellent character actors always pleasant to watch. The plot, however, had only a few funny/witty moments, and the events became confused at times. Moreover, the creation of something with lots of people and money involved are always followed by contrary opinions, putting pressure, testing, constant modifications etc. - and is it really necessary to depict them even in a mild satirical manner? Alternately, one could really "spin" the events and create a crazy British type of a comedy. Alas, the movie in question did not have those elements and the outcome was mediocre for me - apart from the performances, as stated above.

I really felt like the film was attempting to make an impact, attempting to make a point. Sadly however, it was only an attempt, and a fruitless one at that. Reading the cast list, you'd have thought it would be a gem, and as much as I think De Niro was good, he wasn't at his best. I think, ironically, the main failing in this film was that the producers and director didn't have the guts to make it work. The weren't bold enough, honest enough or original enough to get it to where it needed to be. Perhaps there was an element of high expectation when I sat down to watch it one rainy afternoon, and thus maybe that is why I have been left yearning for something more from it, but yet again, I see Stanley Tucci, a fine actor, a real talent, and an under appreciated one at that, in a mediocre film.

At one time, Art Linson was one of the top film producers working in Hollywood responsible for films like "Fight Club", "The Unotuchables", "The Edge" and others. Some of his experiences in the film business were gathered in a book, and this book became this film starring Robert DeNiro, who plays a film producer that goes under the same issues Linson had in his career. "What Just Happened?" doesn't add much in terms of what we know about Hollywood and their secrets, doesn't have the same sarcasm and bite as Altman's "The Player" but it is watchable, slightly funny and has its moments.It's tough to be a famous producer in Hollywood. You have to deal with egomaniacs actors who don't want to shave their beards to make a film (Bruce Willis plays himself portraying a similar event that happened with Alec Baldwin on the set of "The Edge") delaying schedules and budget; the same holy man has to deal with actors agents, studio bosses, directors who are hard to handle because they want to protect their material, they wanna leave it as it was conceived (here comes the sickest joke of the film when the director within the movie filmed the killing of a dog, which causes a shocked reaction at the film's screening test and DeNiro has to make the editor cut down the scene). And the same producer has to take care of his ex-wives and kids, release more films and work on new developments.The guy is beat down, has a weak influence on the town and even weaker on the people who seem to push this guy down to the ground. He has to step down on everything and even when he thinks he's winning something he gets fooled again. Bottom of line is: everybody wants to move forward, no one can move one centimeter back because the only one who must do that is the producer. But in the end everything gets solved, the picture is made and everybody's happy or at least close to that since you can't embrace all audiences. This movie didn't conquered everybody at all even with a super stellar cast with names like Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Robin Wright Penn, John Turturro, Michael Wincott, Kristen Stewart, Peter Jacobson, Stanley Tucci and the fore-mentioned Willis and DeNiro; the level of discussion about the amount of dislikes here are bigger than the Everest; and with a budget of US$25,000,000, the return was pretty low worldwide. But people missed the point of this film, and there is one if you look real closer. It's all about how a man always closer to end his career by making a giant mistake in one of his films has the ability of surprise himself and others by letting things go. He gets metaphorically beaten up by the system where he's a great star, doesn't punch back so much, seems to have all under control and when you think he's heading for a disaster that might kill his career he succeeds it. But audiences can relate with him or the other characters? Difficult but not impossible. It has its flaws, sometimes Barry Levinson loses the sense for sarcastic comedies ("Wag the Dog" was way better) and makes a film that takes too much time to display a funny moment, I mean, the screenplay doesn't work quite right. The great thing about the film is the performances, all great, most notably DeNiro and Michael Wincott, playing a tough film director that sounds like Keith Richards, the guy mentioned earlier for the dog scene, he steals the show. If the movie wanted to make its audience feel sorry for film producers out there who are trying to make their job done well it failed because they underestimate their audience, specially Hollywood producers, who only want money instead of showing a good spectacle. I don't feel sorry for them, although in this film DeNiro makes of his producer such an nice character compared to other producers presented in other films of the genre that you might feel different about the filmmaking process and how producers suffer a little bit. Good idea but it wasn't something that people really wanted to see it with such a talented cast. 8/10