Woody Allen, where'd you go?

Rating: 4/10 (15 February 2013)

This is probably one of the worst Woody Allen films made to date. This movie lacks all of the quirky, weird and generally unique sensibilities that make a Woody Allen movie a Woody Allen movie.
The characters are all under-developed, and un-relatable; Their corresponding plots are either predictable or just incomprehensible. An example of this would be the plot line to Jesse Eisenberg's story; while watching you know that it won't work out between himself and Ellen Page. She's too flighty for a sensible man such as he, and what was up with Alec Baldwin always hanging about them? He was with them for days, was Jesse Eisenberg's character imagining him, was Alec Baldwin reminiscing? What the heck was all of that about? And what was with that average Joe all of a sudden famous, and then not famous?
The story lines were just all over the place. He lacked solid ideas, and the few that he had were not elaborated upon to actually produce something worth watching, and the fact that the movie is just under two hours doesn't help its case. There is nothing in this movie that makes you want to sit through it for longer than you have to, and when it passes the ninety minute mark, it's longer than you have to.
Now I don't think that this movie was all bad--just mostly bad; mainly bad. There were a few laughs, but they weren't of the odd joke or Woody Allen kind. They were simple, plain jokes that usually have no business in a Woody Allen movie. And I feel that if some of the storyline's were given an entire movie length, say about ninety minutes, then they would have had something to go on, but condensed to about half an hour each and scattered in-between the other stories just hurt what little they had to give in the first place.
Overall this movie is a tedious viewing and not at all worth watching for substance. Perhaps if you are looking for something to watch to kill time you can allow it to play, but other than that I would pass over it to watch one of the more classic Woody Allen films such as Annie Hall, Match Point or Midnight in Paris.