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Woody mauled by US critics
By Alexa Baracaia, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 01.08.06
Scoop: Woody Allen's latest film, starring Scarlett Johansson, has been panned
He claims to be miserable because a 'masterpiece isn't in me'. Sadly, with his latest work, Scoop, it seems Woody Allen may well be right.
The film-maker has garnered scathing reviews for his second London-set movie, starring Scarlett Johansson.
Since it opened in the US on Friday, the critics have damned it variously as 'an exercise in laziness', 'feeble', 'lackadaisical' and 'dull'. One dubbed it 'Pooper Scoop'.
The film stars Johansson, 21, as an American journalism student in London who gets a big scoop and begins an affair with an English aristocrat, played by Hugh Jackman.
It features a string of British actors, including Meera Syal, Charles Dance, Ian McShane and Buffy The Vampire Slayer star Anthony Head. Allen himself stars as an ageing American magician.
Allen, 70, whose films include classics such as Annie Hall and Manhattan, confessed he was less than happy with the result.
He added: 'I'm not so great as I thought, or hoped, I'd be. I was sad when I faced up to that. The only thing standing between me and greatness is me. A masterpiece isn't in me.'
Entertainment Weekly described Scoop as a 'companion piece' to Allen's first London project, last year's Match Point, also starring Johansson - but said it 'suffers all the more in comparison'.
Rolling Stone dubbed it little more than a 'beguiling trifle', while LA Weekly critic Scott Foundas said: 'The direction is lazy and the script is thoroughly witless.'
The New York Post added: 'Scoop sadly demonstrates that Allen has lost much of his comic timing both as a director and an actor.'
The Washington Post bluntly branded it 'the worst movie Woody Allen has ever made'.
Village Voice described it as 'culturally adrift, like some bewildered tourist trying to read a city map held upside down'. Many derided it as a cheap imitation of Allen's 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery. Slant magazine rechristened it 'Pooper Scoop'.
According to film review site Rottentomatoes.com, the overwhelming judgment of US critics - bar some exceptions - is that Scoop is a 'tiresome dipper ... rehashing old plotlines and characters'.
According to recent reports, Scoop has struggled to find a UK distributor after Match Point failed to meet high hopes - and a release date outside the US is yet to be confirmed. Poor reviews in the US will not ease the situation.
Allen is filming his third English movie, as yet untitled, starring Colin Farrell and Ewan MacGregor.
One film website this week warned: 'Allen's doing a third movie set in London. It would be nice to have something fresh ... that didn't come off as a rehash of a story he's already told, and told better, on the streets of New York.'
