Steineded How sad is this?

GazerRise Fantastic!

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Ian Yes, it's old and I'm coming late to the party having just seen it but it's one of the few Woody Allen movies I hadn't yet seen.I'm normally very, very wary of writers/directors but there are a few exceptions and Woody Allen is one. I tend to think he's a love or hate type of writer/director but I come out on the side of love. He usually plays bumbling, nervous, self-depreciating characters which are very endearing and I love the Jewish humour.A couple of choice lines: "I've never paid for sex in my life" "Oh, honey, you just think you haven't!And so it goes...The cast is a list of A-list actors. Many queue to work in a Woody Allen movie. Ok, just to say I'm keeping his private life out of this. That may affect your perception of the man but it should not effect of your enjoyment of his movies. Some people don't want to make a distinction and many people are happy to assume an automatic presumption of 'guilty before proven innocent' which seems to be where we're heading with this but that's another argument altogether.The movie, like many of Allen's movies, is more an intellectual treat than belly laugh guffaws but his characters' responses and one-liners are classics, and hilarious, even if the laugh's in your brain rather than your gut!Like some of his movies, it's a delicious satire, particularly on society and religion. This, and the barbed pieces of irony which most Americans probably won't get, make it, to non-US viewers, all the more delicious. Sort of. Sorry American friends. Oy vey...Anyway, this is a superbly intellectually funny movie with more than enough digs at sociale mores to warrant any open-minded viewer to roll around the floor laughing, even mentally.Woody Allen fans and open-minded liberals will love it.

HotToastyRag If you're a film student, you've got a much better chance of liking this movie. I've read that Woody Allen made this as an homage to German Expressionist filmmakers, like F.W. Murnau. It's a black-and-white movie, utilizing the two elements in the title, Shadows and Fog, to make the scenes extra spooky and European-looking. For the rest of you out there, this probably won't be your favorite Woody Allen movie. The plot is jumbled and hap-hazard, with a bookie in charge of solving a string of murders and a travelling circus coming into town.All in all, this one's a little sinister and confusing, but if you like Woody Allen's darker movies, or you just like renting all his movies no matter how good they are, you might want to rent this one. Just don't expect a joke fest. The famous faces you'll see in this one besides Woody himself and his sweetie-pie at the time, Mia Farrow, are David Ogden Stiers, Jodie Foster, Kathy Bates, James Rebhorn, John Malkovich, Donald Pleasence, Madonna, Wallace Shawn, Julie Kavner, John Cusack, Fred Gwynne, Lily Tomlin, William H. Macy, Philip Bosco, Kate Nelligan, and John C. Reilly.

SnoopyStyle Bookkeeper Kleinman (Woody Allen) is awakened by a vigilante mob with a plan to catch a serial strangler who always strikes during foggy nights. He goes to the morgue to ask the doctor (Donald Pleasence) about the plan. After he leaves, the doctor is killed by the strangler and he fears a glass will point to him.In a traveling circus, sword swallower Irmy (Mia Farrow) discusses leaving with her clown boyfriend Paul (John Malkovich). She catches him cheating on her with tightrope artist Marie (Madonna). Irmy runs away and is taken in by prostitutes (Lily Tomlin, Jodie Foster, Kathy Bates). Jack (John Cusack) pay her $700, an outrageous sum, to sleep with her. The police raids the whorehouse and they are brought to the station where Kleinman steals the glass.This is a meandering tale. Its black-and-white style points to the old German silent movies. It's stock full of big actors in small roles. It has bits of funny moments, mostly Woody with Mia. Woody is playing around with the style. There is no murder mystery since the killer's face is shown. It doesn't make for a compelling story but it's an interesting exercise nevertheless.

T Y This movie looks great. If you're a fan of well-crafted B&W imagery you should give it a viewing, but like an Orson Welles dud, it doesn't work; due to the difficulty of finding a decent story that won't collapse under the weight of all the self-conscious technique he can't wait to try. Instead of trying on Ingmar Bergman, here he's mostly trying on '30's directors like Josef von Sternberg, with a dash of Fellini and playwright Brecht (Mack the Knife is included as background music). It may remind you of Soderbergh's technique-laden dud, 'Kafka.' There's a moment where a bunch of hookers chat at a table while a camera in the middle rotates; a limp gimmick that hasn't worked anywhere I've seen it. (DePalma, Spike Lee... That 70s Show).It's not a bomb worthy of contempt like others have suggested, but it doesn't work. You're never involved in Woody's predicament or the outcome of this plot. These actors inhabit a large (not quite large enough) unit-set, whose limitations have been well hidden by the fog and the camera work, but it's limited to artful compositions and pans; two very nice tools indeed, but the long-take/tracking-shot, is completely missing. The fog ends up being a clunky metaphor for chaos and confusion. Mia Farrow in ding-y mode just has never engaged me. The all-star cast is nothing but a distraction. And Allen is so committed to his half-hearted, un-nourishing formula (another verbose Woody nebbish, a put-upon, addled female lead, 7 minutes of meditation on metaphysics, 12 Woody one-liners...) that it's gone from your mind as soon as the credits roll. Is it gorgeous? Yes. Do all these borrowing ever come into focus? No. It's just a string of conceits, the film equivalent of name-dropping. If you're an aesthetician who can only detect surface beauty and high production values... and love tossing around the word 'masterpiece' w/o being able to talk about ideas, you'll enjoy it. If you don't believe Welles ever made a dud, you will be in heaven. It's pretty. So's wallpaper.