Prismark10 The joke with What Just Happened is that its a mainstream film with big stars and they want to pass it off as an independent film. This is a satirical look at the chaos of Hollywood and film making based on the memoirs of film producer Art Linson and directed by Barry Levinson.Robert De Niro is the frazzled producer balancing his precarious personal and professional lives. He has to deal with a prima donna Bruce Willis who refuses to shave off his beard and a highly strung British director who wants an uncompromising ending to a Sean Penn film where a dog meets a nasty fate much to the chagrin of the film studio boss.Its fun poke at Hollywood filled with star turns who are in on the joke and seem to enjoy themselves especially Willis and Penn. I liked Catherine Keener as he studio head who has given an ultimatum to De Niro to fix the film ending and Michael Wincott as the sly director.However we have seen this before and also its been more funnier, bitter and cynical in films such as The Player, The Big Knife, The Big Picture or Sunset Boulevard. Levinson and De Niro wielded a sharper knife when they made Wag the Dog but their effort is more hollow here.

David Allen "What Just Happened" (2008) is a good "behind the scenes" movie about Hollywood big shots.I screened a used DVD of "What Just Happened" (2008) starring Robert DiNero last night alone in my living room in my Lancaster County PA apartment, and concluded it was a good, intelligent "insider" movie about "behind the scenes life" in Hollywood."What Just Happened" (2009) stars and was produced (and probably mostly owned) by Robert DeNiro, directed by Barry Levinson, originally from Baltimore MD USA...my home town.... (directed WAG THE DOG with DeNiro, who likely also owned that movie, too).Curious movie about two weeks in the work and personal life of a major Hollywood studio movie producer, prima donna movie stars and directors he has to coddle and coax, his two ex-wives and children from each he still visits and misses (wives and children), politics with studio big shots, his trip to Cannes Festival to show a controversial movie he produced, etc. etc.The movie was made cheap (33 days, reported cost was $25 Million) with cameo roles by Sean Penn and others, but comes in a DVD package with two discs....a second "bonus" disc I haven't screened yet....what could be on that? Story (WHAT JUST HAPPENED) is based on two movie producer memoir books written by a now aging (born in 1942) producer, Art Linson. who spent 30 years in Hollywood, was the producer of CARWASH (1970's?) cult movie starring Richard Pryor and others.In 1995, Linson published his first book, A Pound of Flesh: Perilous Tales of How to Produce Movies in Hollywood. His second book, What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales From the Front Line, was published in 2002.Linson states in the "special features" interview part of the "What Just Happened" DVID that he originally wrote a book of anecdotes he thought would make interesting and scandalous reading, and Robert DeNiro (interview provided with DVD..."Special Features") read the book, asked the author to write a screenplay with DeNiro playing the aging producer dragging around baggage of two ex-wives and children from each (all still housed in big mansions the producer paid for....the wives got when divorces happened), weirdo Hollywood personalities including movie stars, agents, writers, VIP major studio execs who ride around in chartered jet planes, etc. etc."What Just Happened" (2008) was one of many movies I screened recently about "how movies are made, what goes on behind the scenes" Other movies of the "movie movies" type screened recently for the first time include "The Player" (1992) directed by Robert Altman (MASH, NASHVILLE, etc.), "The Stunt Man" (1978) starring Peter O'Toole, and "Wag The Dog" (1997) starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert DiNiro (about a Hollywood producer who goes to Washington DC to help the US President, and is murdered by the people who hired him for his trouble!...."Nice guys finish last," eh?) I also got "White Hunter, Black Heart" (1990) starring Clint Eastwood (about a John Huston type movie director making a movie in Africa and hunting big game on the side), and "The Last Stunt Player" (1993) starring ex-California Governor, Arnold Schwartzenegger before his Governor days.Addional "movies about the movies" include: "Sullivan's Travels" (1941), "Sunset Boulevard" (1949), "The Bad And The Beautiful" (1953), "Get Shorty" (1995), "Hollywoodland" (2008), and "Hollywood Hotel" (1937).I've already seen (often) "The Last Command" (1928), The Life And Death Of 9413: A Hollywood Extra" (1927), "A Star Is Born" (both 1937 and 1954 versions), and "Singin' In The Rain" (1952). Also "The Last Tycoon" (1970's) starring young Robert DeNiro and Robert Mitchum.There are many other similarly themed movies to see, no doubt.So many movies, so little time! I find these movies are very edgy and not a bit restful....just like Hollywood and just like the movie making biz I've been part of so long (BTW, I'm a SAG-AFTRA movie actor who started Hollywood paid actor work in 1970).All very educational and cathartic....but not restful or edifying.Back to better, classic movies for me after the current "festival" is over. (I'm like a retired sea captain or sailor who buys a cottage on a hillside overlooking the ocean, and stares out over it and remembers his days at sea.) Many "movies about the movies have been made over movie history including "The Last Command" (1928) starring Emil Jannings and also starring William Powell, directed by Josef Von Sternberg, set in silent movie big studio Hollywood.Many "movie movies" followed "The Last Command" (1928) quickly, including "A Star Is Born" (1937 and the Judy Garland version in 1954), "Singin' In The Rain" (1952), and many others, including important good movies never famous (e.g. "The Life And Death Of 9413: A Hollywood Extra" (1927) silent experimental movie by then young Greg Tolan, who went on to help film "Citizen Kane" (1941)."The Life And Death Of 9413: A Hollywood Extra" (1927) is one of several "movies about the movies" included in the Library Of Congress National Film Registry List.Four of the movies on the list were stories about "extras" (background actors) who rose to movie stardom or died at the end of the movies (the two silent era movies had tragic ends about the "extras" starring in them, and the two sound era movies had happy endings....the "extras" became movie stars!).I started work as a paid Hollywood movie actor 43 years ago (1970) and am now sort of retired.I still work on major Hollywood studio movies shot "on location" on the East Coast of the USA, also major TV drama projects, when I get called, but mostly I'm retired these days, thankfully.------------ (Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for a detailed list of SAG movie credits since 2004....).Email Tex at [email protected]

Lloyd Bayer is a satirical inside-look into the cut-throat politics behind Hollywood film productions.Based on Hollywood producer Art Linson's novel "What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line", this film adaptation is a day in the life of a powerful Hollywood producer, and his unending struggles to remain both powerful and active as a film producer. Hollywood producer Ben (Robert De Niro) is at the peak of a mid-life crisis in a frustrating act juggling personal and professional problems, one after the other. As a producer, his new film "Fiercely", is not well received at a test screening especially due to its violent ending of the main character (Sean Penn playing himself) and the character's pet dog. When the test screening receives bad reviews (because "the dog never dies"), studio executive Lou Tarnow (Catherine Keener) threatens an independent final cut if director Jeremy Brunell (Michael Wincott) does not edit the dog's violent death. Now finding himself as the lowly middle man, Ben has to either convince his emotionally unstable British director to let the dog live or risk being fired by the studio chief, in addition to having his film pulled out of the Cannes premier lineup. On the other hand, Ben finds it hard to reconcile with second wife Kelly (Robin Wright Penn), and when he does make an honest attempt to do so, finds that Kelly may be sleeping with a screenwriter whose script he once rejected. Back in the editing room, Ben's persuasion seems to get through to Brunell when the latter edits the film to have the dog live. But his stress levels shoot up again with the studio's new project, where the leading man (Bruce Willis as himself) won't shave off his grisly bear beard. In the end, Ben finds himself thrown into the centre of a crap pit by an egotistical leading actor, a tantrum throwing director, a two-timing ex-wife and a female studio chief itching to end his career.Casual moviegoers seated in a cinema are most often oblivious to the power play behind the making of the very movie they have come to watch. While most movie enthusiasts have little understanding as to what a film producer does, acclaimed producer and director Steven Soderbergh may have inadvertently blown the lid in a recent televised interview marketing "What Just Happened". According to Soderbergh, a major film may have up to fifteen producers involved in the making of that film, but only four of these producers are actually involved in the production. Strangely, the remaining producers have no clue as to what is happening but end up with a credit, nonetheless. Thousands of miles across the globe, legendry (Bollywood) Indian film maker Yash Chopra has his own opinion, "A film producer is as good as his last film". Considering that Linson last produced the feel-good adventure "Into the Wild", along with his all time acclaim from "The Untouchables", Chopra may be onto something here. The same also holds true for director Barry Levinson which brings to mind his Hollywood themed political satire, "Wag the Dog". As a Hollywood parody of sorts, Linson's script here almost hits the mark but not so much in comparison with Michael Tolkin's very similar script for "The Player". The obvious difference between the two is the Hollywood insider jokes in Linson's satire, while Tolkin's Caricature caters to a general audience. But wrapping up this otherwise decent package is nicely done by Levinson and somewhat salvages what could have been a disastrous plot. On the acting front, the all star cast delivers as expected, with De Niro, Wincott and Willis proving their ability in comedy, having taken for granted these actors usually opt for action-thriller films. While the Penns share limited screen time in their individual roles, John Turturro as Bruce Willis' casting agent also contributes towards some of the hilarious one-liners with some palpable chemistry in supporting De Niro's lines.The dual climax of the film and also some of its intentionally funny suspense is whether or not the dog lives in the final cut and Bruce Willis shaving his enormous beard, each determining the fate of Ben's career amongst the 30 most powerful producers to appear on "Vanity Fair". While one scenario is predictable, the other will most likely be unexpected and goes to prove that the most powerful force responsible for a film's reception is not the actor or the director or the producer, nor the studio executive. It is us, the audience and the critics.

Derek Williams Hollywood is a culture of extreme narcissism. A film exploring the Hollywood culture of extreme narcissism is going to produce a movie about characters who are extremely narcissistic. Now, hopefully this was done deliberately, in which case "What Just Happened" is a work of genius and honesty. If the filmmakers are not aware that most of America do not like characters like the ones in this movie, then it is just another demonstration of Hollywood's culture of narcissism.I was trying to figure out why I felt so defensive watching this movie and it was more than just the self-absorbed characters. "What Just Happened" is a movie about Hollywood insiders made for the enjoyment of Hollywood insiders. No effort at all was made to let outsiders in on the joke. At a dinner party this would be rather rude! One could get much of the humor, but only if they scoured the industry media such as "Variety" and "The Hollywood Reporter ". Other than that, the average viewer is completely out of the loop! I could not bring myself to like one single character in this movie. The worst part is that movies like this, at the least, usually show Los Angeles as one of the characters and the director failed at that because the camera was too busy focusing on all these annoying self-absorbed characters. Unless you're a Hollywood insider or are ambitious to make it into Hollywood film industry circles and want to know how Hollywood ticks, avoid this movie. It is just not entertaining.