Stay home and rent one of Allen's better films.
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06/26/09
Whatever Works (2009)
47
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:124
Fresh:58
Rotten:66
Average Rating:5.3/10
Consensus: Based upon a script written in the 1970s, Woody Allen's Whatever Works suffers from a lack of fresh ideas.
Theatrical Release:Jun 19, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $5,183,644
Synopsis: The New York-based humor of Woody Allen and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIAM’s Larry David seems like a natural match, and the pair unite for the first time in this comedy. WHATEVER WORKS follows a rich man... [More]
Starring: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley
Director: Woody Allen
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Reviews for Whatever Works
My problem with Whatever Works is not that the premise is a wee bit familiar. Rather, it’s that the delivery is off.
06/19/09
Top CriticThe fact that the apartment set seems so stagebound, there's almost no pretense of pretending we're not on a set, makes the movie quite hollow and canned.
11/06/09
This toxic, contemptuous, unforgivably unfunny bagatelle finds Allen at his most misanthropically one-note.
07/02/09
Ten years after his great expectoration of bile in Deconstructing Harry, Woody Allen comes up with Whatever Works -- the most shameless, cynically titled Hollywood con job since the days of Billy Wilder.
06/17/09
I am a huge Woody Allen fan, but I had a hard time with Whatever Works.
06/27/09
Finally catching the feature on Blu-ray after taking an absurdly stubborn stance of protest this summer, I have to say with all honesty, Sony Pictures Classics probably made the right choice to pull the picture away from further negative response.
10/30/09
A more vibrant film than Allen's worst but the screenwriting mistakes and general misanthropy hold it back from being anywhere near his best.
06/26/09
If anyone else had made this unromantic comedy, they'd be accused of ripping off Manhattan. Since it was made by Allen, let's just accuse him of not having many fresh ideas in the past three decades.
07/03/09
The working title for Whatever Works should have been 'The Heart Wants What it Wants.
07/03/09
One would think Allen had worked though his on-screen fascination with the older man-young girl scenario by now. This latest exploration just feels derivative and musty.
06/18/09
Evidence that Woody Allen's return to making films in America--it's his first since 2004 ("Melinda and Melinda")--comes with the loss of his mind.
06/11/09
Whatever Works, a reported reworking of a 30-year-old script, is overtly old.
06/24/09
The idea of wedding Woody Allen's comic persona (the introverted nebbish) to Larry David's (the entitled jerk) sounds promising on paper, but as Boris portentously observes just before his unsuccessful suicide attempt, life doesn't take place on paper.
06/19/09
In small doses, [David] turns the narcissistic jerk into a hipster. But as an actor he has no equipment for suggesting a conflicted inner life: It’s all just straight to the camera, uninflected bombast.
06/08/09
Top CriticThe movie was emblematic of his output of late -- slight plots, slighter characters, lackadaisical storytelling that recycles enough of the neuroses-fueled charm of his earlier films to keep the Woody Allen machine in business.
06/17/09
Top Critic...a sporadically watchable yet hopelessly uneven piece of work...
06/26/09
Feels like it stepped in dog doo-doo but doesn't know it.
07/26/09
Powered by Larry David as Woody Allen's most successful avatar; if you can suspend your disbelief to go with the absurd geriatric male fantasy plot, the rest of the film is your oyster.
06/18/09
Whatever Works does not: Marking a return to Allen's favorite turf, his new Manhattan-based comedy rehashes old ideas and jokes, and casting Larry David in a role that decades ago Allen could have played with his eyes closed adds no freshness either.
04/26/09
Latest News for Whatever Works
June 18, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Year One Fails To Beget Laughs
This week at the movies, we've got Biblical bloopers (Year One, starring Jack Black and Michael Cera) and an engagement of convenience (The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and... More...
May 10, 2009:
Trailer Bulletin: Whatever Works 
Larry David steps in as Woody Allen's latest on-screen surrogate in "Whatever Works," due out June 19. Watch the trailer now! More...
May 10, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
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