As shallow experiences go, this movie is one of the best

Rating: 8/10 (2 February 2003)

This is a great fun movie, in which Woody Allen tried out many ideas, most of which are terrific and some of which cringe-making. I have just revisited this film after 20-odd years and still like it.
The terrific ideas are many. From the ha-ha humour section for example, the scene where the Russian soldiers are practicing formation charging is a classic, as is the scene at the opera where Woody flirts with the Countess, as is the scene where Diane Keaton flirts while her herring-merchant husband appears to be taking a herring upstairs to bed with him......... There is also the parody/pastiche section - all those Bergman references (I got far more of them this time than I did the first time round) and the Eisenstein parody using Alexander Nevsky as the music is great.
On the cringe-making side, the literature references did not always work for me - the dialogue which throws in every Dostoevsky title under the sun is a little sophomoric for my taste. There is also a reference, at one other point, to liking 12-year-olds which is utterly repellent in its own context, let alone Woody's.
But this film scores more often than it misses and is still great fun after all these years. No deep meaning here, but as shallow experiences go this film is one of the best.