When Neil Met Woody

Rating: 3/10 (13 May 2004)

Man, 127 comments so far and all but two are breathless raves. I just saw this movie for the first time, and I gotta say, Woody Allen should be getting royalty checks. I'm stunned how many Allen trademarks were "borrowed" for this film (starting with neurotic Jewish male / flakey Shiksa princess romance all the way on down to the use of "It Had To Be You" -- ANNIE HALL's theme song). I can just imagine the pitch meeting: "It's like ANNIE HALL, only re-imagined by Neil Simon as a sitcom pilot!" I mean, it's a sweet movie, but I think its classic status is way overscaled. Plus, the notorious fake orgasm scene was rather, uh, anticlimactic. It was so over-the-top (anyone really behaving like that in a public NY establishment would be escorted out immediately), it felt more like an SNL sketch than a romantic comedy.