Bullets Over Broadway

Starring:John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Tilly, Chazz Palminteri, Mary-Louise Parker, Jack Warden, Joe Viterelli, Rob Reiner, Tracey Ullman, Jim Broadbent, Harvey Fierstein, Stacey Nelkin, Malgorzata Zajaczkowska, Charles Cragin, Nina Sonja Peterson, Edie Falco, Hope W. Sacharoff, Debi Mazar, Brian McConnachie, Tony Sirico
Director: Woody Allen
Studio: Miramax
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

One of Woody Allen's best films of the '90s, Bullets over Broadway stars John Cusack as a virtual Woody surrogate, a neurotic, Jazz Age writer whose new play sounds wooden and unrealistic to a low-level mobster (Chazz Palminteri) assigned to watch over his boss's actress-girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly). When the hood starts contributing better story ideas and dialogue than what the official playwright can conjure, questions (not unlike those of Amadeus) about the price we pay to make art at the expense of other responsibilities are intriguingly raised. Palminteri gives a very interesting performance as the enforcer waking up to the desperate (and almost feminine) demands of his own creative psyche, and Dianne Wiest (who won an Oscar), Tracey Ullman, Jim Broadbent, and Jennifer Tilly are very funny together playing the ensemble cast of Cusack's play. --Tom Keogh

Description

Big city mobsters and the Broadway stage collide hilariously in this side-splitting all-star comedy that had audiences and critics rolling in the aisles! John Cusack (SERENDIPITY, HIGH FIDELITY) stars as David Shayne, an idealistic young writer who'll do anything to get his first Broadway play off the ground -- even if it means teaming up with the mob! Surrounded by a wacky cast of characters including a gangster's ditzy girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly, LIAR, LIAR), a tipsy actress (Dianne Wiest in her Academy Award(R)-winning performance -- Best Supporting Actress, 1994), and a mob hit man (Chazz Palminteri, THE USUAL SUSPECTS), Shayne's got to pull it all off before the curtain falls and bullets start to fly!

Customer Reviews:

Woody's Best Light Comedy?.......2007-04-18

For the most part, you can fit each of Woody Allen's movies into one of three categories: serious drama, dark comedy, or light comedy. "Bullets Over Broadway" definitely falls into the third category. Though some critics have suggested there are allusions to Allen's own life and beliefs (a recurring them is that an artist makes his own moral code), the movie mostly ignores the darker, philosophical things that Allen typically covers in his more introspective comedies.

"Bullets Over Broadway" is the story of a struggling playwright from Pittsburgh (John Cusack). In order to get his play financed in New York, he accepts funding from a gangster and in turn casts his talent-less girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly) in a major roll. As an added bonus, he has to deal with her bodyguard (who takes an interest in the play) and troublesome actors. The leading man has a constantly expanding waistline, the leading lady is a manipulative, alcoholic has-been (played excellently by Diane Wiest), and Tracy Ullman plays temperamental supporting actress with a yapping dog.

As a writer, Allen is at his best when he's dealing with darker subject matter, but that doesn't mean he's not capable of creating a flawless, sophisticated comedy when he wants. "Bullets Over Broadway" is probably too fluffy to be considered among Allen's best, but it's definitely in that second tier, along with "Zelig" and "Radio Days." In terms of tone, it's probably most significant to "Manhattan Murder Mystery," although Allen doesn't make an appearance in this film.

"You better get in the mood, honey, 'cause he's payin' the rent.".......2007-03-07

Set in 1920's New York City, "Bullets over Broadway" (1994) tells the story of a young playwright David Shayne who tries to produce his first play. He "stands on the brink of greatness. The world will open to him like an oyster. No... not like an oyster. The world will open to him like a magnificent vagina" but he needs to find money for production first.

The money comes from the gangster Nick Valenti on one condition - Nick's stunningly untalented bimbo girlfriend Olive ("She ruins everything she's in. She ruins things she's not even in") has to play a psychiatrist. Olive is accompanied to each rehearsal by hit-man/bodyguard Cheech who knows how the real people talk and turned to be a greater writer than David. David's leading man, Warner Purcell eats compulsively every time he gets nervous (and there are plenty of reasons for him to get nervous). David's relationship with the girlfriend Ellen suffers when he begins an affair with the talented leading lady Helen Sinclair ("I'm still a star. I never play frumps or virgins.") who is "in the last couple of years... better known as an adulteress and a drunk."

"Bullets over Broadway" is one of my favorite comedies by one of the favorite directors/writers, Woody Allen (I love you Woody, always have, always will - please make your gems, and I will be there to watch them). It has everything I look for in a comedy - brilliance, wit, clever writing, hilarious and sinister twist in the plot, amazing performances, authentic feel of the era and great musical score. "Bullets over Broadway" is pure delight from the beginning to the end. The best I could describe the film - to paraphrase the famous line from John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address: "Ask not what Art can do for you -- ask what you can do for Art".

9.5/10

Toot, Toot, Tootsie it's good!.......2007-01-30

This is a very entertaining Woody Allen farce (with no acting appearance by Woody) that will especially appeal to anyone who loves the Roaring 20's, gangster movies or backstage stories. John Cusack is perfect as David Shayne the young writer desperate to get his play produced and though the whole cast of offbeat characters is great Chazz Palmanteri deserves special mention as a mob hit man with literary flair. The soundtrack of period 1920's music is excellent and this is all around a very entertaining film. Warning though it is a dark comedy so not everyone gets a happily ever after ending.

A Classic that alot of people over look.......2006-07-21

Lets face it Woodey Allen has produced so much a few of his things sort of slip past some of us. I have found this one did for many people.

It's the kind of movie you watch more then once you have to wonder did the actors fill in some of those lines 'improv' or were those w. allens?

Everything is a Trade Off.......2006-07-09

A neurotic struggling writer (John Cusack playing a young Woody) makes a deal with the devil when he begins to collaborate with a genuinely talented amature playwrite (Chazz Palminteri). The fact that the amature playwrite happens to be a mob hitman and bodyguard is merely a minor complication until the amature decides to take over the play's production and starts whacking the less talented cast. Woody makes his best comedy when he is darkly comic. Here, both Broadway and mob stereotypes get the treatment. Woody seems to be saying: everything comes at a cost. All successes and all loves are, in the end, products of compromise and longing. What do you want most and what part of you are you willing to give up for it.

Charlie Rose with David Levering Lewis; Bell Hooks; Michael Meyers; Stanley Crouch; Douglas McGrath (February 24, 1995)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with David Levering Lewis; Bell Hooks; Michael Meyers; Stanley Crouch; Douglas McGrath (February 24, 1995)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

First, a conversation about race in America with author David Levering Lewis, Martin Luther King, Jr., Chair in the history department at Rutgers University; Bell Hooks, distinguished professor of literature at City University of New York and author of the upcoming Killing Rage: Ending Racism; Michael Meyers of the New York Civil Rights Coalition; and Stanley Crouch, jazz historian, music critic and essayist. Then, Douglas McGrath talks about co-screenwriting, with Woody Allen, the new movie, Bullets Over Broadway.

Average customer rating:

Woody's Best Light Comedy?
"You better get in the mood, honey, 'cause he's payin' the rent."
Toot, Toot, Tootsie it's good!
A Classic that alot of people over look
Everything is a Trade Off

Bullets Over Broadway [Region 2]
Starring: John Cusack , Dianne Wiest , Jennifer Tilly , Chazz Palminteri , and Mary-Louise Parker
Director: Woody Allen
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video