moonspinner55 It can't possibly do Albert Brooks' ego any good to know that he co-wrote, directed and stars in such a limp comedy as "The Muse" which, looking back, might be pinpointed as a stalling-point in his career (actresses Sharon Stone and Andie MacDowell don't come out of it unscathed, either). Mystery-neurotic (and movie-kooky) lady seems to bring good luck to a blocked Hollywood screenwriter. She claims she's a descendant of Zeus; he doesn't care as long as he can sell his next script. Having never found her footing once she became a star, Stone made it an unfortunate habit of churning out a string of big-budget movies that were artistically no better than the B-grade, direct-to-video titles she started out in. "The Muse" is a step backward for all concerned, an immature, minor offering from a man who used to know the difference between silly-smart and smarmy. *1/2 from ****

Newsense Albert Brooks is funny. A good comedic actor and voice-over talent. Some of the funniest scenes involve Mr. Brooks. But what a total piece of doodoo is this.Why? 1. PRETENTIOUS. I hate movies that show people living perfect, rich lifestyles with syrupy families. How many shots of Albert driving a $75k black Mercedes to his mansion in BH do we need? 2. Shameless cameos by middle-aged bloated actors. Gee, aren't I cool? I'm making a movie about the movie business, wanna do a walk on? We'll nosh after wards. Don't schwitz it! 3. Sharon Stone. Is there a more selfish, untalented actress who forced her way on to the screen that this lady? Yeesh. She's stinks as an actress and her looks are the kind of scary, barren ice queen variety that reminds me of a parasite who sucks the life force out of stupid men in Porsche's. Hideous choice.4. The story. Gee, do I care that a Hollywood screenwriter is having writer's block and can't crank out the same drivel and trash that is making America even dumber so he can support his completely vapid, boring and lazy trophy wife (nothing against Andie McDowell just talking about the story line kids)? Not to mention the weak 2nd story line of his wife becoming a cookie making sensation! Wow how novel. Another yenta wife of a rich Hollywood star making cookies! Writing a cookbook! Wow! How super! Never mind that it happens in second. Never mind that trying to sell a new chocolate chip cookie in a completely saturated market would be harder than achieving cold fusion in your garage.Anyhoo.5. Albert Brooks is one arrogant guy. He loves to be the smartest guy in the room, doesn't he? He thinks he's Einstein. Yeah, I know.6. Did I mention how completely selfish, arrogant, phony and unsympathetic the characters and the entire situation is? Just checking.If you want to see Albert Brooks at his best, see Defending Your Life, Lost in America, Broadcast News or Finding Nemo. But forget The Muse.Unless you want to waste over an hour watching obnoxiously insipid rich people cavort around LA whining about their little club of film making members. Ha ha ha. NOT.

Robert J. Maxwell Albert Brooks, who wrote this and acted in it, is a Hollywood screenwriter who's being rejected with every script he submits. He lives in a mansion with his wife, Andie MacDowell, and is going nuts because he won't be able to support his family. A successful writer friend, Jeff Bridges, puts him in touch with a muse, a Greek spirit known for inspiring artists. The muse is Sharon Stone. And she is some work of art. She not only impinges on the lives of Brooks and his family. She takes them over.She has demanding tastes, grows quickly bored with the suite at the Four Seasons that Brooks is paying for. She has a whim of iron, sending Brooks out for Waldorf salad from Spago in the middle of the night. She's friendly towards Brooks' wife and urges her to begin the commercial cookie-making career that she's discarded over the years. MacDowell follows Stone's advice and finds self-fulfillment before the oven.Meanwhile, Brooks is going nuts. He's spending money and time keeping Sharon Stone satisfied but he's getting very little inspiration out of her. An occasional, off-the-cuff suggestion -- that's all. Brooks develops a script based on her hints but reaches a block at the end of Act II, with his protagonist owning an aquarium and nowhere else to go. He presses her abjectly for an idea and she suggests that, since they must use drilling equipment to build the foundation for the aquarium, why not have them strike oil? Right out of "The Beverley Hillbillies."In the end, Stone turns out to be not a muse but a multiple personality who has escaped from a private psychiatric hospital in Ohio. Last time out, she was Picasso's daughter. Brooks of course is a neural shambles by now, but -- Lo -- Paramount buys his script and everything is fine -- except that the producer at Paramount turns out to be Sharon Stone in another disguise.There are a lot of cameos in the film, some easily recognizable, others not -- from Wolfgang Puck to Martin Scorsese who does a hilarious turn as himself, planning a remake of "Raging Bull," only this time the guy is really THIN. "You see it? Can you see it?" Scorsese speaks faster than a normal person can think.Overall, it's mildly amusing, and that's about it. Nothing wrong with the professional players. Brooks is the anxiety-ridden middle-class character that he's perfected by now. Sharon Stone is seasoned. Andy MacDowell is beguiling. But the script is full of logical holes. This is okay in a comic fantasy, in itself, but there are so many of them here that they become noticeable. We can contrast "The Muse" with a comedy like "Groundhog Day" to illustrate when I mean. In "Groundhog Day," with an equally preposterous premise, one thing follows inexorably from what has happened before, so the film DEVELOPS. That sense of inexorability is lacking here. If Stone is really not a muse at all, but just a psychiatric case with an occasional shopworn notion, then what are people like Scorsese and Ian Cameron and Rob Reiner courting her for? And, shortly after she escapes from the doctors who have come to fetch her back to the institution, how does she suddenly show up as a producer at Paramount? It's good for a laugh but nothing has set the situation up, so it's a shallow chuckle rather than the conclusion of any plot thread. It's like: A man walks along the street, slips on a banana peel, and falls on his bum. Ha ha, but so what? Another instance: When he brings that Waldorf salad back to Stone's suite at night, she's lost interest in it and turns him away. Still holding the big bowl of salad, he backs into another hotel guest and crashes out of sight to the floor. We see the guest's face looking down as he asks, "Are you alright?" Well, we already KNOW what the gag is going to be. But instead of keeping the camera on the guest's face and hearing only a moan from the floor -- or seeing Brooks' salad-covered head very slowly emerge from the bottom of the screen -- there's a cut to Brooks on his back, decorated with salad. Where was the muse when she was most needed? The best feature of the film is Albert Brooks' performance. He's done it before just about perfectly, and here he does it again. It may be that no one in the history of movies has better expressed astonishment mixed with self-righteous indignation. What a terrific whiner he is.

S.R. Dipaling Writer/Director/Star Albert Brooks and co-writer Monica Johnson's somewhat jaundiced view ofachievement and success in Hollywood is the inspiration for this movie. While a bit gimmicky and aimless,it is still quite funny and satisfies in a way he's known for doing(Lost in America,Defending Your Life and Mother spring to mind for me personally).Writer Steven Miller has won what seems to be his umpteenth Humanitarian award for his work in the industry,and being a longtime veteran of penning scripts that get critical acclaim but receive little or no commercial reward,he finds himself at a crossroads for his career. In a moment of personal breakdown in front of his friend Jack(Jeff Bridges,very good in something just a little bit more than a cameo here) recommends that he use the services of a beautiful and spoiled woman named Sarah(Sharon Stone,very fine here),whose exact job is to be a Muse,or inspiration,for artists to do their most successful work. Reluctant at first,Steven takes the Muse in and,after running through hoops for her in ways that seem not worth the effort,his script inspiration takes a commercial(if not quality)turn for the seemingly better. Things complicate when Steven's wife Laura(Andie MacDowall,who rarely seems different in any role she does anymore)ferrets out Sarah,thinking he's husband is having an affair with her. He isn't,and the two become friends,and Sarah's artistic inspiration rubs off on Laura as well.A skewering of the Hollywood industry is served up in the first half of the movie,followed by the last half being somewhat of an actualization story. Uneven? Sure. But the material is kept light enough to please anyone's dry grown-up humor,particularly one who value's Brooks' style.