Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

GazerRise Fantastic!

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

alexdeleonfilm Woody Allen's "Match Point" at 53rd San Sebastian in 20052EE648C9-20F9-4C8F-8452-7DC284AC5808The dominant theme at the festival this year was Hitchcock with Hitchcock imagery everywhere celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Master of Suspense. Though there actually are no films by Hitchcock on view, several films are in a way a homage to the master. "Match Point", the latest from Woody Allen is a vast departure from his usual form and is, in effect, a Hitchcockian suspense thriller filmed in London no less, with an entirely English cast except for a smashingly sexy Scarlett Johansson in a most uncharacteristic vamp role, as the sole American presence – (and what a presence she is!). Young Scarlett really sets the celluloid aflame in this stylish shot out of Mr. Konigsberg's Twilight Zone, with savvy support from Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the freaked-out lover-killer who in the end will go unpunished.... No sidewalks of New York, no neurotic Jews, no sly jokes and one liners, just a straightforward English psychodrama made with such aplomb you would never guess it was a Woody Allen film if you missed the opening credits. In a way it does hark back to Woody's Crimes and Misdemeanors, but only because of the theme of getting away with murder. Rhys is a professional but impoverished tennis instructor and bald faced social climber with clients in high society. His character marries into a wealthy family, but his social position is threatened by a steamy extra-marital affair with his new brother-in-law's girlfriend, played by Johansson. When Johansson claims to be pregnant and insists that he leave his wife for her -- which would bring down the whole world he has strived so hard to attain - she signs her death warrant. Rhys goes to her apartment, shoots her to death (in a shocking sequence) and makes it look like a robbery to obtain drugs. The rest is a cat and mouse interrogation by a Scotland yard detective with echoes of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. His skin is saved by a twist of fate similar to a tennis ball suspended momentarily on the net which could fall either way. This is, of course, the Match Point of the title. Instead of a tennis ball we have an incriminating ring from the scene of the crime which accidentally gets dumped onto the ground after teetering on a rail by the river where Rhys is disposing of other evidence from the scene of the crime. We find out that the ring was picked up by a junkie who got killed but now appears to be the indisputable culprit who killed Johansson. Case closed. Our anti-hero gets away with murder. Everything handled just right by Allen to produce a tight thriller with the kinds of twists and turns that mirror Hitchcock to a tee. Not only is this a. "return to form" for Woody, but a venture into fresh new territory -- straight drama with not a single laugh --and done like an expert born to the cloth. Most enjoyable film with an entirely new Scarlett Jo! as an astonishingly sexy femme fatale.

grantss A bit of a departure for Woody Allen, and it's a great one.A young, working-class coach at a prestigious tennis club, Chris Wilton (played by Jonathan Rhys Myers), forms a relationship with Chloe Hewett (Emily Mortimer), the sister of Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), one of the members at the club. The Hewetts are very wealthy - their father owns a large company - and the relationship with Chloe should be Chris' ticket to the easy life. However, he meets Tom's American fiancé, Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), and is immediately smitten. Due to Nola being engaged to Tom, nothing really happens and Chris marries Chloe. Then Tom and Nola break off their engagement and Chris starts a relationship with Nola, with disastrous consequences...A rare murder-drama from Woody Allen. His first of the genre and certainly his darkest movie. Quite a departure for him: while most renowned as a comedy writer-director, even his dramas of the past had a lightness to them. This is nothing like anything he has made before, or since, and is fantastic.Great plot. A slow-burner that starts as a harmless relationship drama and gets darker and deadlier the further it goes. This is not to say that it is dull to start off: even before it ramps up it is a great character study.Some excellent twists towards the end with a superb ending. Quite profound too.Solid performances all round. Nobody puts a foot wrong. Emily Mortimer is a tad irritating as the mousy, clingy Chloe, but that is probably intentional on Woody Allen's part.

sharky_55 Match Point recalls Crimes and Misdemeanors, which also had a passionate affair threaten to rip apart the marriage of a wealthy high-class couple. But in the latter there was never an excruciating task to pull off, a immaculate getaway and attempt to cover his tracks. Judah convinces himself that the hit is his brother's idea, has someone else do the dirty work for him, and is never once threatened with the possibility of getting caught. It was his own moral conscience that created the tension. In Match Point, there are numerous ideals thrown around about luck and fate and determinism that really take away from its moral centre - and in the tense, quiet manner in which Chris commits his crime, and waits agonising for the neighbour to walk away, it becomes a detective thriller rather than posing meaningful questions. Chris is a retired tennis pro, which conveniently allows Allen to begin with a simple metaphor about his life's philosophy. He is from a poor background, but does not speak like it, and seems to have said goodbye to that world all together and never leave the world of luxury and riches when he becomes acquainted with the Hewett family. Early on, he seems rather embarrassed to receive a helping hand from Alec, but as time goes by, he gets more accustomed to a certain standard of living and would even kill for it. The supporting characters are rife with cliché. Bride to be Chloe does not have an ounce of responsibility and shamelessly encourages the buying of her future spouse, all while spouting nonsense such as "I don't believe in luck, but hard work" without a hint of irony. Johansson's Nola is the wildly beautiful mess of a struggling actress with a deeper cleavage than back-story, and the Hewetts are of course disdainful of anyone that would seek to sabotage their legacy. Allen, on the financial incentive of BBC Films, shoots them on the backdrop of London's high class elite, but it feels more like a tourism advert with the annoying habit of them announcing every iconic destination they visit. This marks a distinct departure from Allen's usual style and not in an overly impressive way. He has never been so openly critical of the high- class intellectual but paradoxically make it so enticing and seductive for the lowly Chris. These are shallow, shallow people who breed ever so carefully to maintain their legacy (there's even a quick quip about interbreeding like some royal family). In Allen's best films such as Hannah and Her Sisters and Annie Hall, his blocking was clever and inspired; it allowed the actors to breathe and display their insecurities through their body language in simple long takes. Here, he has a tendency to shoot closeups and move the camera indiscreetly to imitate a furtive glance or sign of attraction rather than trust his actors to do it - or even frame a single subject just to highlight how obvious their actions are. Chris and Nola will be shown in bed together several times, but cut away from before they reach peak physical passion - it's certainly not the post-coital chit chat that they sneak away for. And its easy to mistake Rhys Meyers broody, edgy performance for something of great depth and conflict; he does well for what he is given, but there's no substance to the characterisation that makes the drive for murder believable. The two shots from the sawn-off are over in a second, and he is allowed no time to linger and react.Luck is purported to be the universal element. Allen is not subtle about this; it is brought up in conversations it has no right to be in, and in moments of dramatic climax, the soundtrack fades to make way for an opera backing, and a tiny incident of chance gets slowed down for faux poignancy. The script contains these little clues and red herrings that would not be out of place in a cheap thriller; an acquaintance near Nora when she gets that fateful call, an painfully long interrogation of Chris at the dinner table that is awkwardly thrown in for tension, and when Nora gets pregnant right away after months of toiling with Chloe, he winks at the audience and says: "What unbelievably bad luck!" And there are these cops which provide a very convenient ending. First they are hesitant to poke into family affairs. What sort of murder investigation would ever consider this? And then, almost insultingly, he comes to the perfect solution in a dream. Allen's writing might at times be snobbish, high-brow or overly pretentious, but it's never been this lazy. In the end, Chris is lucky that these detectives are written so poorly.

MortalKombatFan1 Match Point isn't a wholly original Woody Allen movie, building on similar ground covered in Crimes and Misdemeanors (just without the comedy subplot and Bergmanesque philosophizing), but it's definitely one of Woody's better films in his recent output, and certainly the best of his European movies. The chemistry between Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys Meyers is excellent, as is rest of the acting. The themes of luck, infidelity and morality are well implemented into the plot here and aren't as forced as some of Allen's other dramas.My only complaint is that some of the dialog feels very expository and just for the sake of forwarding the plot and setting up the next scene, whereas other Woody Allen movies hide this better behind witty, conversational dialog.But it's good to see a seasoned Director do something different, and succeed in most regards.