The way Woody Allen writes his screenplays can sometimes be a poisonous thing. He types fast, and doesn't really connect to many of his scripts - and that method of working CAN work out well, like in his recent Midnight In Paris, but it just doesn't here.

Anything Else had the potential to be a really, really great movie. And one can tell because of the few moments of brilliance, like a certain piano playing scene - and another that has Woody smashing up some tough guy's car up because he took his parking spot. For a movie about complicated relationships and life philosophy, you would think it would draw you into the story. But it didn't, not well enough…

After a 9-year embargo on seeing this movie (largely because of how much I had hated Hollywood Ending the year before), I find that it's really pretty good.

There is nothing revolutionary about the plot, certainly, but there are lots of good laughs peppered throughout. Woody Allen as David Dobel, the cynical mentor, brings a nicely poisonous air to the proceedings which keeps the film in flight. Jason Biggs does a fine job as the Alvy Singer stand-in (a damn sight better than Kenneth Branagh does in Celebrity), and Cristina Ricci is exceptional at playing pretty...vacant...she does not sound natural making references to Edna St Vincent Millay, however.

Oh! And there is a joke in this film which is reused/revisited…

Is it possible that senility has come crashing in on Woody, allowing him to forget that he once made Annie Hall? (I won't even comment on said senility affecting his casting decisions in such a way that they suddenly include Jason Biggs - although, actually, I will comment on it a bit later). Anything Else opens with Woody Allen and Jason Biggs - both comedy writers for nightclub acts - walking the streets and talking of the things that Woody Allen characters tend to talk about (philosophy/art/film/sex/sex/more sex). You see, Biggs has this girlfriend who is mega-charming (it's not Diane Keaton) and she's always late and takes pills and can't seem to hop out of the neurotic turnstile (but, I'm…

Oh Woody, why on earth would you think that it would be a good idea to cast Jason Biggs as the lead in one of your films? Allen has cast actors as surrogate versions of himself many times throughout the course of his career, to varying degrees of success, but I don't think I've ever seen someone fail so miserably at it as Biggs does in Anything Else.

This film could have perhaps been somewhat enjoyable if there had been a lead actor with any kind of charisma or watchability, but instead Biggs sucks the life out of every moment of this chore, resulting in a product that drags brutally for its already too long 110 minute running time. It's…