Next up, Woody Allen's DECONSTRUCTING HARRY. It looks like Woody Allen's biggest-budget movie yet, and actually features effects by ILM in two sequences! One features Robin Williams as an actor who becomes "out of focus" to the world (ie, everyone who looks at him sees him, well, out of focus). The CG (or whatever they did) to make Robin out of focus while he's touching people and objects who arent is amazing. The other effects scene has Woody going to Hell to try and get his girlfriend back from the Devil (Billy Crystal). It's a really funny scene.
But what geeks will *really* appreciate is a scene that's sure to become legend--the STAR WARS BAR MITZVAH! Yes, an elaborate SW-themed Bar Mitzvah that is a real triumph of production design. There's a candle-holder shaped like Darth Vader's helmet on every table. Waiters and waitresses dressed like Princess Leia and C3PO. The bartender is decked out as Chewbacca, and the Bar Mitzvah Boy is dressed up in Luke's ANH outfit and cuts a cake with a plastic lightsabre. The scene is packed with detail, and I'm sure there's lots of stuff I missed. There was a Q&A with Woody's production designer Santo Loquasto after the screening who said that Lucasfilm had stringent guidelines about what SW stuff they could and couldn't use, but at least Lucas let 'em do it!
In my opinion, it's the most consistently hilarious Woody Allen film since BROADWAY DANNY ROSE back in the early '80s. The plot itself is way too complicated to describe, but it's funny as shit. In addition to Robin Williams and Billy Crystal (who don't appear together) the cast includes Demi Moore, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kristie Alley, Stanley Tucci, Judy Davis and Eric Bogosian. Bogosian was sitting in front of me at the screening, and not only had he not seen the movie, but Woody had only let him read the script pages his character was on (making up about five minutes of the movie). Apparently, Woody does this with all his actors. It was cool to see a lightbulb going off over Bogosian's head halfway through the movie when he figured out how his character fit into the movie."
Good work Xander, loved the report, and I can't wait to see GATTACA and DECONSTRUCTING ME!!!!
