Scoop

Director: Woody Allen
Year Released: 2006
Rating: 2.0

Allen's been in this game so long - and been so prolific, too - that it's easy to see pieces of his other work in this: the short story "The Kugelmass Episode," his segment from New York Stories, Manhattan Murder Mystery, not to mention touches of Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith. The saving grace is Allen himself as a skilled magician - his mock senility and rambling is a pleasant diversion from the very sight of Scarlett Johansson trying to act like a naive college girl (at least Hugh Jackman is fine as a playboy who may or may not be a Whore Killer instead of just a plain ol' Whore Master). Though it's still nice to see Woody can get funding for this silly fluff - hey, indulge the man, he earned it - anyone expecting a return to the comedic brilliance of early films is going to be disappointed.