Scoop

Some films require that viewers suspend their attachment to reality, to be drawn into a place of intrigue or enchantment. Or both - which is what this film signals to the potential viewer a comedy, mystery thriller no less.

The movie is pretty nice to watch and really entertaining. I personally disliked Woody's acting.

'Scoop' is a comedy set against a thriller in the backdrop. Plotwise, it's nothing new but the comic situations and lines do provoke some laughter.

As a long time Woody Allen fan, I have to say I was disappointed with this film. His acting was unconvincing, he seemed to have lost the ability to inhabit the part he was playing, it was rather like he was just going through the motions, reading the lines without the emotion and humour that he always had before.

Yikes! Woody Allen seems to have taken inspiration from a 1976 episode of Scooby-Doo and, with a few alterations (few being the operative word), made a 90 minute movie supposedly for intelligent adults.

There came a point, as I watched this movie on a dull Sunday afternoon, when I realised I might as well watch it to the end seeing as I'd managed to get so far without quite mustering the energy to switch it off. You'd never have thought someone as experienced as Woody Allen could have turned in something so amateurish.

With a cast that included Ian McShane, Hugh Jackman and Charles Dance, I expected a lot from this movie. It was dreadfully disappointing.

I came to this movie by a circuitous route... I had a girlfriend who reviewed films for a famous newspaper.

I'm allowing this film 1 star only because it's brave enough to employ some pretty theatrical plot devices like a dead journalist intervening in the lives of the living from his journey to the afterlife. At least, not many filmmakers would try it.