The Muse (1999)

That was an excellent one.

Sorry, this movie sucks

Blistering performances.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Talky fantasy-comedy with the sardonic Albert Brooks playing a struggling screen-writer who re-discovers his mojo after he's introduced by buddy Jeff Bridges to a mysterious muse (Stone) who holds the power to inspire creativity and success - at a price.The only trouble I had with this picture were some of the performances, Brooks & Stone in particular, which seemed self-indulgent and more than a little sarcastic in their delivery of the wry dialogue. Bridges seems fairly sincere in his role as a journalist whose career nose-dive has been recovered by Stone's influence, while Andie MacDowell plays the neurotic Brooks' savvy wife with assurance, the two coming off as the film's more likable characters.It's an interesting concept and the script is full of smart one-liners in a very hit and miss affair; low key, a sort of "inside" Hollywood story that's perhaps more for the actors and the audience.

Brooks is the West-Coast doppelganger of Woody Allen, despite the fact that he's about twenty years younger & takes on characters decidedly white-bread Middle American Gentile. All of Brooks' movies are about him entering a critical transition period of life (or death). Like Allen's films, his variations on this familiar theme range in quality. 'The Muse' is a solid effort. Most Brooks films have funny zingers; this one has a whole filmful plus a clever story to boot, and a big-budget cast. The more you know about Hollywood and the motion picture industry (I recommend 'The Big Picture' by Epstein), the more true-to-life you understand the film to be, and thus the funnier the jokes become.I'm not sure why it did poorly, and reading others' comments yields little insight. All I can say is that Brooks is never a fully sympathetic character--he is always at least partly to blame for his predicament--never quite the "aw-shucks" underdog. At least this time he and Johnson introduce other characters who are even more sympathetic to generate audience goodwill. Not to mention that the two leading ladies are both stunningly good-looking. Plus the whole Hollywood self-referencing is a lot of fun. Bottom line is, I believe that this is among the best of Albert Brooks' films. It has many winning qualities which permit it to transcend the Brooks formula. It shares a certain affinity with another wry comedy, "Being There"; both are stories about people being drawn in by the mysterious among us.

Albert Brooks is funny. A good comedic actor and voice-over talent. Some of the funniest scenes involve Mr. Brooks. But what a total piece of doodoo is this.Why? 1. PRETENTIOUS. I hate movies that show people living perfect, rich lifestyles with syrupy families. How many shots of Albert driving a $75k black Mercedes to his mansion in BH do we need? 2. Shameless cameos by middle-aged bloated actors. Gee, aren't I cool? I'm making a movie about the movie business, wanna do a walk on? We'll nosh after wards. Don't schwitz it! 3. Sharon Stone. Is there a more selfish, untalented actress who forced her way on to the screen that this lady? Yeesh. She's stinks as an actress and her looks are the kind of scary, barren ice queen variety that reminds me of a parasite who sucks the life force out of stupid men in Porsche's. Hideous choice.4. The story. Gee, do I care that a Hollywood screenwriter is having writer's block and can't crank out the same drivel and trash that is making America even dumber so he can support his completely vapid, boring and lazy trophy wife (nothing against Andie McDowell just talking about the story line kids)? Not to mention the weak 2nd story line of his wife becoming a cookie making sensation! Wow how novel. Another yenta wife of a rich Hollywood star making cookies! Writing a cookbook! Wow! How super! Never mind that it happens in second. Never mind that trying to sell a new chocolate chip cookie in a completely saturated market would be harder than achieving cold fusion in your garage.Anyhoo.5. Albert Brooks is one arrogant guy. He loves to be the smartest guy in the room, doesn't he? He thinks he's Einstein. Yeah, I know.6. Did I mention how completely selfish, arrogant, phony and unsympathetic the characters and the entire situation is? Just checking.If you want to see Albert Brooks at his best, see Defending Your Life, Lost in America, Broadcast News or Finding Nemo. But forget The Muse.Unless you want to waste over an hour watching obnoxiously insipid rich people cavort around LA whining about their little club of film making members. Ha ha ha. NOT.

This stinker rightly deserves to be in the bottom of the barrel. I have given a rating of 1 only to five movies ever (even Clone Wars doesn't get this honor), movies so repulsively bad your very will to live deteriorates (shallow blockbusters usually get away with at least a 3 or 4). This movie is a 1 if there ever was one.Let's get a few things straight. Barring that I haven't seen too many movies from the good ole 30's, 40's and 50's, this movie is the most sexist movie I have ever seen. If American males had any "equipment" they wouldn't have anything to do with any women that liked this movie, period! I don't even want to talk about guys who LIKED this movie. The basic premise is that men are incapable and should be treated like dirt, women are powerful and should do whatever the heck they want, norms of human decency aside, and that this is (supposed to be) cute and funny. Blah!Worst of all, the movie is just painfully dull. It is definitely not a guy flick, it is not even a chick flick (by its content it would definitely be a retarded 2-year-old flick). It is not a movie for anyone. Nothing of any significance happens in the movie. Pure boredom.The premise of the movie is simple, to understate it. A hapless scriptwriter struggles to come up with inspiration for a script. Being that he lives in a fairytale, he is talked into hiring a muse. Except, as one tentatively suspects, this muse is more spoiled than one-year-old milk and has expensive tastes, to put it mildly. So the confused and insecure scriptwriter wastes his life savings so that the muse can reside in a luxurious hotel and be properly stocked with crystal and caviar. The muse doesn't really do anything for him; her presence is supposed to inspire him. And just when you think this is segueway into the meat of the story it turns out that the movie never really moves anywhere from that point. Yeah, one more thing, the muse spreads the "virus" into the head of the writers wife and she gets the idea of emancipating herself from her husband by opening her baking factory (mwahahahaha!). Naturally, she is an instant hit. Oh, but the guy does somehow write his scenario in the end. This movie makes about as much sense as someone's invasion of Iraq.Cheers.Rating 1/10Scale: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK, 6 Adequate, 5 Average, 4 Mediocre, 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE