Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31597 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-15
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of Woody Allen's best films of the 90s, Bullets Over Broadway stars John Cusack as a virtual Woody surrogate, a neurotic, Jazz Age writer whose new play sounds wooden and unrealistic to a low-level mobster (Chazz Palminteri) assigned to watch over his boss's actress-girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly). When the hood starts contributing better story ideas and dialogue than what the official playwright can conjure, questions (not unlike those of Amadeus) about the price we pay to make art at the expense of other responsibilities are intriguingly raised. Palminteri gives a very interesting performance as the enforcer waking up to the desperate (and almost feminine) demands of his own creative psyche, and Dianne Wiest (who won an Oscar), Tracey Ullman, Jim Broadbent and Jennifer Tilly are very funny together playing the ensemble cast of Cusack's play. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
David Shayne (John Cusack, in performance his character that of a young Woody Allen) is an idealistic young playwright whose life (and play) is about to be turned upside down as it heads toward Broadway. In order to gain financing for GOD OF OUR FATHERS, Shayne agrees to hire Olive Neal (a wonderfully high-squeaking Jennifer Tilly), the actress/girlfriend of Nick Valenti, a potential backer--who also happens to be a gangster. Unfortunately, the lass proves to be not only talent-free but ditzy to boot, a hindrance since she is supposed to play a psychiatrist. But Cheech, Olive's hoodlum bodyguard, proves to be more intuitive artistically than anyone would suspect, as his contributions improve not only Olive's performance but the quality of the flailing play as well. Meanwhile, Shayne must contend with an odd assortment of actors, including the neurotic Eden Brent, with her omnipresent, yapping dog; the pompous Warner Purcell, a corset-wearing overeater; and haughty leading lady Helen Sinclair (a fabulous Dianne Wiest), the aging, boozing diva with whom Shayne begins a romance. The laughs keep coming like rapid machine-gun fire in this riotous Woody Allen farce.

Customer Reviews

great performances!
why jennifer tilly did not win an academy award for her part is beyond me , this is easily her best performance. this movie makes me howl with laughter every time i watch it. diane wiest's line "don't speak" has become a running joke in my house. recommended, recommended, recommended. if you like comedies don't miss this one! woody allens genius is at its peak . fans of 1920's music will enjoy the soundtrack.

No, don't speak! Don't speak!
Bullets Over Broadway is one of Allen's most accessible films. The intellectual and (deliberately) pseudo-intellectual debate is still there, but even Woody doesn't pretend too much. This isn't a film about exploration, it's not a film about philosophy, it's above good and evil - it's all about laughs.

The "Allen Character" in this film is Cusack, a playwrite whose mass of neuroses drives the engine of the film, but it's Dianne Wiest who steals the film. Playing an aging actress obsessed with her own greatness, Weist manipulates Cusack at every turn and turns in a performance worthy of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar she received in '94.

The emsemble cast - and Allen displays a skill with ensemble casts that can be ranked alongside Robert Altman's - shine, glitter and sparkle with lunacy. Broadbent as the compulsive eater, Ullman as the hysteric animal lover, Palminteri as the homicidal hitman turned co-writer and the others are all brilliant.

Woody Allen has to be amongst anybody's list of the ten greatest comedy film makers of all time. Bullets proves conclusively however that Allen is a much better writer and director than he is an actor - though he's still a pretty good actor.

Bullets is one of my favourite Allen films and deserves a place in the DVD collection of everyone who enjoys wit and the absurd. Don't speak, just buy it (and that joke will become clear to you when you do).

just woody !!
this is a perfect movie, one my favourites. it's nothing more than a conventional woody allen movie but it has a mysterious quality that raises it up to heaven. a well written script, a woody allen direction, great perfomances by fabulous actors, those are elements that made a good movie. and woody in "bullets over broadway" has brought them all together ! i' m sure that almost everyone would enjoy this movie. have fun, especially if you like woody allen.