Lee Simon (Kenneth Branagh) is a womanizing celebrity journalist. He flirts with Nola (Winona Ryder) and movie star Nicole Oliver (Melanie Griffith) trying to pitch her his screenplay. He had divorced his teacher wife Robin (Judy Davis) after 16 years of marriage. She is stressed out and goes to a religious retreat. He follows model (Charlize Theron) and crashes his car. He starts dating Bonnie (Famke Janssen). Robin goes to plastic surgeon Dr. Lupus and meets TV producer Tony Gardella (Joe Mantegna). While Lee's life slowly crumble, Robin finds new life in the celebrity world herself.Kenneth Branagh is mimicking Woody Allen except the comedy doesn't transfer completely. There is something about Woody's nerdy jitteriness that is inherently funny. Branagh isn't a comedian. Add to the fact that this is in black and white, this feels like an inferior shadow of better Woody Allen movies. There are lots of celebrity cameos in the cast but I can't get rid of the feeling that this is an empty Hollywood shell. I guess that's part of the point. It has some funny moments but not really enough.

Review: I really couldn't get into this movie. Kenneth Branagh's babbling, fake American ancient was really annoying and the back and forth storyline wasn't that great. I did have high hopes for the film after seeing the cast, but once again, I was terribly let down with the outcome. Basically the movie is about a journalist who has just broken up from wife, after many years of marriage and he decides to play the field and make the most out of his single life. After falling in and out of love with many different beautiful women, he struggles to complete his novel but he still goes around mingling with the rich and famous. His wife struggles to find herself and after trying many different methods to find pleasure in her life, she ends up with a well known television producer who helps her through her difficult break-up. With all of this material, you would think that the movie would be interesting or, at least, entertaining, but I honestly got bored after a while Branagh's stuttering, which Woody Allen is famous for, really didn't suit his persona. All of the famous people like Charlize Theron, Melanie Griffith and Leonardo DiCaprio, only had brief parts in the movie but when they were on screen, it did make the movie slightly interesting. In all, it's a waste of a great cast and I just found the movie to be a bit of a drag. Disappointing! Round-Up: I'm surprised that Woody Allen still gets these big budgets when he has lost so much money at the box office. He still is highly respected in Hollywood, but I'm really struggling to see why! Anyway, the leading character was a bad choice by the director, but I was impressed with the young DiCaprio and Judy Davis who put in a emotional performance. There are a couple of decent scenes, like when DeCaprio is arguing with his girlfriend and the scenes with Charlize Theron but that was about it. Like many other Woody Allen movies, you have the usual New York backdrop and he chosen to film the whole movie in black and white, for some unknown reason. Anyway, it's not the greatest Woody Allen movie that I have seen and judging by the box office takings, I'm not alone.Budget:$12million Worldwide Gross: $5millionI recommend this movie to people who are into there Woody Allen movies about a journalist who leaves his wife to play the field amongst the stars in Hollywood. 3/10

Celebrity (1998) ** (out of 4) Disappointing feature from writer-director Woody Allen has him taking shots of celebrities but the end result is just bland. Kenneth Branagh plays a Manhattan entertainment writer who starts to lose control of his life after getting a divorce from his wife (Judy Davis). A year later he's trying to get a script and novel off the ground while his ex hits a string of good luck after suffering a breakdown. CELEBRITY was mangled by critics when it was released but over the past few years it seems to have gained a small cult following but this time out I must say I'm on the side of the critics. I'm sure there were some good ideas going around Allen's head but whatever happened between his mind and paper is something rather shocking because the problem here is without question his screenplay. It's weird to think but at 113- minutes this here is actually one of the longest running films from Allen and what's so amazing is that it probably says the least. The film is certainly trying to make fun of rich New Yorkers and stuck-up and spoiled Hollywood types but there's never any hint of insider's knowledge and it's as if Allen didn't want to go all out. I'd probably go as far as to call the screenplay lazy. Just take a look at a young, violent actor played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The entire sequence with him screaming and trying to beat up his girlfriend just comes off very weak. You even have a bit with a model (Charlize Theron) who has an orgasm no matter where she's touched. Neither of these segments are any good but the sad thing is that they're perhaps the best stuff in the film. Another problem I had was with the performance by Branagh. There's no question that he's one of the most talented actors out there but he's just horrible playing what's basically a version of Woody Allen. The mannerisms don't work and the actor just never captures that nervous twitch of Allen. One of the best performances in the film actually goes to Winonna Ryder playing a love interest in the film. Davis is also pretty good in her role but the screenplay doesn't do her character any favors. Michael Lerner, Joe Mantegna, Gretchen Mol and Melanie Griffith round out the supporting cast. CELEBRITY is without question a rare misfire from Allen. The only real thing going for it is the brilliant cinematography by Sven Nykvist who makes the film look a lot better than it actually is.

I saw this film in 1998 on the big screen & again Feb 20 2010. Lee Simon, unsuccessful journalist & wanna-be novelist, tries to get a foot into the door with celebrities. After divorcing his wife Robin, Lee gets to meet a lot folks of the rich & / or beautiful, partly through journalism, partly because he has a script to offer. But life among those from out-of-this-world is hard, & his putative success always results in defeat. Meanwhile Robin meets a very desirable TV-producer & takes the first steps in the world of celebrities herself. This film is really a marriage mid-life crisis type movie about luck. Who has luck & who does not have luck (actually they have rotten luck). The film is done in black & white. Kenneth Branagh plays the Woody Allen role. The film has a huge roster of celebrities in big roles & many big parts with this all star cast. If you were a famous somebody actor in 1998 YOU WERE IN THIS MOVIE!! HAHAH. Branagh does a terrific job-he is fantastic in this role. Kenneth Branagh does a wicked Woody Allen imitation, and what's most fun about it is that Allen wrote and directed the picture. Is Allen lampooning himself? Was it Branagh's idea? Who decided how far to take it? And what does this all mean in Allen's ongoing dialogue with his viewers. Branagh gives us the quintessence of Woodyism. This goes a good deal beyond the average nightclub comic's Allen shtick. What Branagh offers is a finesse job of skewering, homing in precisely on his target's speech patterns and mannerisms. I disagree with many in that I do not feel like this is just another Woody Allen movie & he is just doing all the stuff over again. Boy is that wrong. This is his best film since Deconstructing Harry & Husbands & Wives. The film is hilarious but deep--like his best films. It explores our obsession with celebrities & the media's obsession with them. He embarks on a string of neo-Felliniesque encounters with the rogue's gallery of celebrity actors who bring out the best in Allen's barbed dialogue. The movie seems timelier now than in 1998. This movie is one of my favorite Woody films of the '90s, & one of his most underrated. It's also visually beautiful, in black & white with that nice the photography of Manhattan. Cast wise there is great ensemble work here, with both witty & intelligent writing from Allen & amusing set-pieces, & excellent cinematography/photography. Allen's carefully crafted, anti-celebrity image -- the shunning of interviews and so on -- is just as much a celebrity image as anything he makes fun of here. But Allen remains a very potent fantasy figure for critics and moviegoers who want to see him as something like America's resident European filmmaker, untouched by the vagaries and vulgarities of the industry he works in. His familiar, formalized, art-film aesthetic reinforces that perception. It's impressive that, in the age of blockbusters, Allen has managed to keep making movies his way. Here he captures that vapid, empty malaise of celebrity life in a hysterical way. Five stars WAY better today than when I saw it on the big screen in 1998