[Woody] Allen's execution -- dim, repressed Red Staters get liberated in the big city -- will register best with his core audience.
Comment
06/18/09
Whatever Works (2009)
47
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:123
Fresh:58
Rotten:65
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: Based upon a script written in the 1970s, Woody Allen's Whatever Works suffers from a lack of fresh ideas.
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Genre: Comedies
US Box Office: $5,183,644
Synopsis: The New York-based humor of Woody Allen and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIAM’s Larry David seems like a natural match, and the pair unite for the first time in this comedy. WHATEVER WORKS follows a rich man... [More]
Starring: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley
Director: Woody Allen
Reviews for Whatever Works
101 - 120 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Whatever Works is a slapdash composition built around a single note.
06/18/09
In this return to Manhattan - and to his old tricks - Woody Allen finds a perfect representative in Larry David.
06/18/09
The fact that Allen wrote the script in the '70s explains something about why his newest movie feels so old.
06/17/09
The movie was emblematic of his output of late -- slight plots, slighter characters, lackadaisical storytelling that recycles enough of the neuroses-fueled charm of his earlier films to keep the Woody Allen machine in business.
06/17/09
Ten years after his great expectoration of bile in Deconstructing Harry, Woody Allen comes up with Whatever Works -- the most shameless, cynically titled Hollywood con job since the days of Billy Wilder.
06/17/09
Leave those old scripts alone, Woody.
06/17/09
Whatever Works is a dubious idea at best, but when nothing works, it’s time to throw out the script and move on to omething that does.
06/17/09
A wonderful character study not only about the four main characters but also New York City itself and how it affects everyone who enters it.
06/17/09
Whatever Works illustrates, even as it names, Allen's artistic limitations.
06/16/09
Whatever Works is a fun and funny sit, a dose of old-school Allen ladled on top of a new New York that, after all these years, still needs him.
06/16/09
This is pretty broad stuff, but Clarkson is so much more vital and amiable than anyone else that you instantly root for her.
06/15/09
Top CriticLarry David makes a terrific alter-ego for Woody Allen in this familiar farce, advocating a non-judgmental attitude about the diverse choices people make to find happiness.
06/15/09
Allen had the stroke of casting brilliance to choose Larry David ... The all-purpose misanthrope: a role David was born to play.
06/15/09
An out of the closet marinating script liberated from three decades long mothballs, finds the raw unplugged, get-even with the cosmos vintage Woody shining through.
06/13/09
"Whatever Works" is Boris Yellnikoff's personal motto. It works for him, for his rag-tag friends, and best of all, for the audience, too.
06/11/09
Evidence that Woody Allen's return to making films in America--it's his first since 2004 ("Melinda and Melinda")--comes with the loss of his mind.
06/11/09
Overly theatrical, maybe, but as Woody Allen's alter ego, Larry David works.
06/10/09
In small doses, [David] turns the narcissistic jerk into a hipster. But as an actor he has no equipment for suggesting a conflicted inner life: It’s all just straight to the camera, uninflected bombast.
06/08/09
Whatever Works does not: Marking a return to Allen's favorite turf, his new Manhattan-based comedy rehashes old ideas and jokes, and casting Larry David in a role that decades ago Allen could have played with his eyes closed adds no freshness either.
04/26/09
Latest News for Whatever Works
June 18, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Year One Fails To Beget Laughs
This week at the movies, we've got Biblical bloopers (Year One, starring Jack Black and Michael Cera) and an engagement of convenience (The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and... More...
May 10, 2009:
Trailer Bulletin: Whatever Works 
Larry David steps in as Woody Allen's latest on-screen surrogate in "Whatever Works," due out June 19. Watch the trailer now! More...
May 10, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
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