SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
Teringer
An Exercise In Nonsense
Isbel
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
MBunge
The people who made this movie should have sat down and taken some Ritalin before they began.The story concerns the efforts of Bobby Myers (Matthew Modine), a Canadian lawyer in 1979, to make a movie out of one of his homeland's most beloved novels. It fancies itself as a funny and slightly biting critique of the business and art of making movies and it could have been that if it had just been able to calm the heck down. It seems like when they wrote the script they just threw in every single possible idea anyone could come up with that fit the movie's theme, with the result being a film that can't give any story element the proper attention.Here's a list of the things Hollywood North tries to take on – the distorting effect big stars have on how a movie is made, the Canadian film industry as a tax write-off, how well meaning filmmakers are changed into manipulative bastards by the demands of just getting the movie finished, the capricious and totally nonsensical way scripts are rewritten, the dominance of Hollywood over filmmaking in Canada, a big American star (Alan Bates) who's jingoistic and paranoid over the Iranian hostage crisis, a leading lady (Jennifer Tilly) who lives and dies on the set and dislikes real life, the lure of celebrity and the evolution from a good-hearted and hopeful filmmaker to a toady and enabler of the big star, a young actor (Fab Filippo) getting his first big break and an old director (John Neville) trying to prove he can still cut it, an aspiring filmmaker (Deborah Kara Unger) trying to shoot a documentary of the big budget production while also filming her own movie on the weekends, a scam to use the big movie's resources to get the small movie made, the reasons for on set romances, an out-of-left-field romance between Modine and Unger's characters, the unending stream of rationalization that is used just to keep a film project moving forward and a happy ending that doesn't relate to any of the other things in the movie.That's just too much weight for an 89 minute long comedy to carry. There's not enough time, so almost everything in the film is either too short or too fast to develop in any way. Characters have to say out loud what scenes are about, things that should be important moments in the story come and go and are never heard from again, Matthew Modine's character has to change from frazzled and overwhelmed movie neophyte to cynical and fast-dealing shark and back again at least 3 times because that's what a scene demands.If they could have just relaxed and decided to leave some things out, this could have been a much better film. When Alan Bates character goes nuts at the end and starts punching out extras because he thinks the movie is real, it's pretty funny. John Neville has a really nice scene as the old director trying to pump up the confidence of his nervous young star. There could have been a very nice dynamic between Modine's naïve first-time producer losing his innocence and Unger's more hard-headed artist trying to preserve her self-respect. But is all gets sort of lost in the jumble.Hollywood North lacks a central purpose. Instead of being a movie about one thing, it tries to be everything anyone could ever think of and ends up being something that very few folks would ever want.
smatysia
Ouch! This one was a bit painful to sit through. It has a cute and amusing premise, but it all goes to hell from there. Matthew Modine is almost always pedestrian and annoying, and he does not disappoint in this one. Deborah Kara Unger and John Neville turned in surprisingly decent performances. Alan Bates and Jennifer Tilly, among others, played it way over the top. I know that's the way the parts were written, and it's hard to blame actors, when the script and director have them do such schlock. If you're going to have outrageous characters, that's OK, but you gotta have good material to make it work. It didn't here. Run away screaming from this movie if at all possible.
criticaljim
I recently saw this film and enjoyed it very much. it gives a insight to indie movie making and how much work is really involved when you have a low budget yet need a name actor/actress to get people, any people to come see it and give the movie exposure. Bobby Myeres played by Modine and his partner Saul - Paul Linder make an excellent combination finding eccentric Miachel Bates, a "NAME" actor played by Alan Bates was a perfect casting decision in the movie and for the movie. My favorite cast member was Sandy Ryan played by the magnificent and underrated Debra Kara Unger with her own special performance again in the movie within the movie. If you enjoy thinking when watching a comedy then this one is for you. Low budget meets lower budget with High laugh content.
derra
Hollywood North's storyline was good (A producer buys the film rights of afamous Canadian novel known as "Latern Moon" and plans the production, buteverything doesn't go according to plan when Hollywood gets involved and thedocumentary filmmaker catches the whole debacle of film.) and the film hadmuch potential, but most of the acting lacked depth. Hence, the characters were not believable and flat. Unfortunately, they spent a lot of money making a film that did not make very much money in he end. The actor in it that did a great job was Kim Coates.
