3. Hollywood Ending
Continuing the creatively fallow period that Woody was experiencing in the early 00s with films such as The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Melinda & Melinda, this is famously known as the movie very few saw on release and its easy to see why. The story focuses on Allens character Val Waxman, a one time great director (is life imitating art?) reduced to filming terrible commercials purely for financial gain. However Val receives an offer to direct a big budget blockbuster by his ex and her new studio exec boyfriend. The problem lies in that Hollywood Ending just isnt very funny; the one-liners seem stale and forced, never really gaining any more than a light giggle, and Val being blind isnt introduced until about 40-45 minutes in, with the performance by Allen being unconvincing at best. Far too long at 114 minutes, something that would have previously been unheard of in an Allen movie, it signals the period where Allen fans worried that the magic would never return. Commercially the filmed flopped, but was saved by culturally apt folk overseas in Europe, particularly in France, mirroring the plot itself. Thank God the French exist.