You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is Woody Allen's 2011 London set comedy. It boasts an impressive cast including Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin, Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto and Naomi Watts, as well as several small screen UK greats like Philip Glenister, Anna Friel, Celia Imrie and Pauline Collins.

For a film that doesn't actually star its writer and director, as is his want these days to remain behind camera, his presence is still felt in every frame. I've long held the belief that each character, certainly each male character, in Woody's films is based on himself or a facet of himself. This is a film in which each facet/character is given extremely short shrift. The Hopkins character is a…

The general criticism that I have been able to surmise from the general response to this film has been that it's territory that Woody Allen has tread many times before with much less satisfying results. I find this criticism weak and irrelevant as it avoids actually engaging with the film in question. That said, I too am guilty of using it, and even in this film I thought back to the awkwardness of Annie and Alby's first meeting in ANNIE HALL when Annie tries to maintain conversation at the gym in fluffy, humourous awkwardness that Alby totally doesn't pick up on. That type of dynamic chemistry is totally absent in the many, many scenes of awkward flirtatious encounters in this…

You will meet another film for the fans. After such an impressive career, it’s hard to fault Allen for reaping the rewards of his previous successes and continuing to create the films he wants to make and his fans want to see.

Written and directed by Woody Allen, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is a romantic drama, centred on dysfunctional relationships, anchored by crushing reality and shrouded by black comedy. As a piece of filmmaking its certainly nothing original, but this esteemed filmmaker, at least on this occasion, clearly isn’t interested in drawing new audiences or removing himself from the genre he helped construct.

The narrative is witty, ironic and intelligent and focuses on a thematic expression of…

I don't know what compelled me to choose You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger as my next Woody Allen film when there are literally a few dozen of his other films I haven't seen. Maybe it was because expectations were already low, but I didn't dislike this nearly as much as I expected. It's almost certainly the weakest of Allen's films I've seen, but I still found myself enjoying aspects of it, albeit not for the same reasons as something like Annie Hall or even Midnight in Paris. Allen's sense of humor feels much different in this film, often offering jokes that seem much simpler than the style of his I've become accustomed to. A lot of the performances…

While watching You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, remind yourself that you're watching Hannibal Lector having a midlife crisis, while a Goonie argues with King Kong's missus, who's eyeing up Zorro. It'll add a little excitement to proceedings.

Still buzzing from watching Deconstructing Harry, I flicked through some television channels and was excited to discover that another Woody Allen film was about to start. A film starring Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Antonio Banderas.
"Great cast. Should be interesting."
I thought.
Half-way through the film I started to realise why people were telling me that it's best to pretend that Woody Allen, the film maker, either retired or died in the mid-nineties. This isn't a bad film,…

The general criticism that I have been able to surmise from the general response to this film has been that it's territory that Woody Allen has tread many times before with much less satisfying results. I find this criticism weak and irrelevant as it avoids actually engaging with the film in question. That said, I too am guilty of using it, and even in this film I thought back to the awkwardness of Annie and Alby's first meeting in ANNIE HALL when Annie tries to maintain conversation at the gym in fluffy, humourous awkwardness that Alby totally doesn't pick up on. That type of dynamic chemistry is totally absent in the many, many scenes of awkward flirtatious encounters in this…