THE WOODY ALLEN COLLECTION

 

This box set of eight Blu-ray releases of films directed by Woody Allen between 1994 and 2003 is a welcome addition to my collection. I'm a big fan of Woody's films and own most of them on DVD. This release gave me a chance to fill in a few gaps in what I previously haven't been able to find. The package was released by Quiver Films on November 23, 2021.

The transfer quality is excellent. However, there are no extras on any of the Blu-rays. Not even theatrical trailers. This is somewhat disappointing, but not surprising. My DVDs of Woody's films don't have any extras beside the occasional trailer. This is one director who will most likely never do any audio commentaries on his movies. The discs do include the scene selection feature, something that quite a few new releases, including many from Kino-Lorber, don't have. The outer case is solidly made, and the inner case has nice still photographs from some of the films.

THE FILMS

BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (1994) 

Starring John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Tilly, Chaz Palminteri, and Tracey Ullman. This is one of the films I hadn't seen before. Pure movie magic. One of Woody's very best. Cusack plays ambitious young playwright David Shayne, who uses mob money to get his first Broadway play produced in 1928. The catch is that he must cast the mobster's talentless girlfriend and also put up with her assigned bodyguard. The bodyguard begins offering ideas for the play, and they work so well that the play becomes his creation more than Shayne's. This film was a huge success and won several awards and other nominations. Dianne Wiest won her second Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She had won previously for another Woody Allen film, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986). 

MIGHTY APHRODITE (1995)

Starring Woody Allen, Mira Sorvino, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Rapaport, F. Murray Abraham, and Olympia Dukakis. Another very funny, well-written film. Woody plays Lenny Weinrib. He and his wife adopt a son, and Lenny becomes obsessed with finding the boy's real mother. She turns out to be a ditzy but good-hearted prostitute whom Lenny falls in love with. This film was also nominated for many awards. Mira Sorvino won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as the prostitute.

EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU (1996)

Starring Woody Allen, Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda, Edward Norton, Julia Roberts, and Drew Barrymore. The lives and loves, trials and tribulations, of an upper middle-class New York family are played out with everyone in the movie breaking out into singing and dancing to old romantic standards. Incessantly. This is the film I was most excited about seeing again, as I loved it when it was first playing in theaters. But it turned out to be disappointing upon second watch. It's loaded with big stars but spends too much time with some uninteresting teenagers who manage to become irritating very quickly. It was not a box office success. 

CELEBRITY (1998)

Starring Kenneth Branagh, Judy Davis, Leonardo di Caprio, Winona Ryder, Melanie Griffith, and Charlize Theron. Woody makes a welcome return to Black & White cinematography with this very eccentric movie. Branagh, a writer, gets divorced from his wife, Davis, an English teacher. They both find success and loads of drama by finding careers in celebrity journalism. A fascinating film to watch, although not one of Woody's best screenplays. It was another box office failure.

SMALL TIME CROOKS (2000)

Starring Woody Allen, Tracey Ullman, Hugh Grant, Elaine May, George Grizzard, and Elaine Stritch. Woody returns to top form with this very funny story about the most insane idea for a bank robbery ever conceived. Loaded with great dialogue and sight gags. This one did well at the box office.

THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION (2001) Starring Woody Allen, Helen Hunt, Dan Akroyd, David Ogden Stiers, Wallace Shawn, Charlize Theron, and Elizabeth Berkley. Another movie I hadn't seen before. Woody plays an insurance investigator who gets into conflict with efficiency expert Helen Hunt, and the two dislike each other intensely. One night, while in a nightclub for an employee dinner, the two are called to take part in a stage act by hypnotist Voltan (Stiers). He gives each of them post-hypnotic trigger words to use them for jewel robberies. This was Woody's most expensive film to date, and it lost money. Woody considered it to be his worst film and said he should have gotten another actor to play his part. Personally, I loved the film. But what do I know?

HOLLYWOOD ENDING (2002)

Starring Woody Allen, Tea Leoni, George Hamilton, Treat Williams, Mark Rydell, and Debra Messing. This is another one of Woody's less successful movies that I nonetheless loved. In this one, he plays an anxiety-ridden filmmaker desperate for a comeback. He gets his big chance when his ex-wife (Leoni) and her boyfriend (Willaims) hire him to direct a big-budget blockbuster. Unfortunately, he develops psychosomatic blindness when the project starts. he tries to direct the movie without anyone knowing that he can't see a thing. Lots of great dialogue and sight (no pun intended) gags throughout.

ANYTHING ELSE (2003)

Starring Woody Allen, Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Stockard Channing, Danny DeVito, and Jimmy Fallon. This box set ends on a sour note with one of my least favorite of all the Allen films. Woody plays struggling artist David Dobel, who acts as a mentor to aspiring writer Jerry Falk (Biggs), coaching the younger man through his trials with love and relationships. Biggs is irritating beyond belief as he attempts to do a Woody Allen imitation throughout the entire movie. The characters are all unlikable and the situations and dialogue seem like they are parodied from other Allen films. Another failure at the box office. A real shame, considering that it featured Ricci, a talented and often poorly used actress. Stockard Channing is so bad, it's almost painful to watch her.