“Never miss a Woody Allen movie if you have the choice” is a mental note that I had made a long long time back. I have kept upto the mental note to date. All of last afternoon post the doctor’s visit was spent in bed thanks to the antibiotics which put me off to sleep. I wouldn’t have gone to sleep had there been something reasonable playing on the tube. But the evening did have a silver lining on one channel. Zee Studio was screening “Scoop”. And adding to the eccentricities that a Woody Allen gets to the table, it stars who I consider the hottest Hollywood star – and I mean super sizzling flash point of water hot – Scarlett Johansson. Suddenly my flu had taken the back seat and almost disappeared – momentarily. About 2 hours later it was back to torment me and the antibiotics kicked in and started doing their job.
Joe Strombel (Ian McShane) is a dead man. Dead as a Dodo. In fact he is about to be buried. And in a different plane, he is being taken by The Reaper or Death (Pete Mastin), on his boat which is probably on its way to the ass end of nowhere. On the boat, Joe bumps into Jane Cook (Fenella Woolgar) who as you would have guessed by now, is also dead. Jane has a strong doubt in her head that she has been poisoned by her boss Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman) who is the millionaire son of a Lord. Jane used to be Peter’s secretary. She also believes that she was murdered because she was on the verge of confirming that Peter Lyman is the dreaded Tarot Card Killer whose resume of serial killing has recently crossed double digits. The journalist in Strombel is unable to control his instincts since he believes that he is onto something. But how can a dead journalist make any difference to the scoop of a lifetime???? Simple. He jumps of the boat of dead people. He is bound to appear somewhere after that right.
Sondra Pransky (flash point of water sizzling – Scarlett Johansson) is studying journalism and is living with her friends in London. She is an absolute amateur. So much so that she lands up getting laid by famous director Mike Tinsley (Kevin McNally) and doesn’t get anything out of him. But her life is about to change really quickly thanks to her visit to see a magic show. The Magician Sidney Waterman a.k.a. Splendini (Woody Allen) gets her on stage for his disappearing act. But Sondra is not alone in the Chinese Box. She has company. Company in the form of extremely famous but recently deceased Joe Strombel. Strombel quickly passes on the message of the scoop of the century to Sondra and urges her to take up the case like an investigative journalist would. That’s when Sondra decides to go under cover and befriends Peter Lyman as Jade Spence along with Sidney acting as her father Mr. Spence for lack of any first name. As the Tata Sky information bar would say “hilarity follows” over the next hour or so in the Spence’s attempts to expose Lyman.
A movie that is shot in typical Woody Allen style. Eccentric, unstable, funny. Woody Allen has never changed his style of acting no matter what role he is playing. He continues to awe his audiences with his capability of doing the same thing over and over again but still getting a fabulous response. One can never tire of him I guess. Scarlett Johansson can act reasonably well – yes I was watching the acting as well – but she does get a bit over what is required many a time. Hugh Jackman is quite good in his portrayal of Peter Lyman – very British – although he is Aussie by birth. Extremely watchable whether you are a Woody Allen fan or not. Easily a 7 on 10. One more if you if you dig Woody Allen.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2146763545/
Joe Strombel (Ian McShane) is a dead man. Dead as a Dodo. In fact he is about to be buried. And in a different plane, he is being taken by The Reaper or Death (Pete Mastin), on his boat which is probably on its way to the ass end of nowhere. On the boat, Joe bumps into Jane Cook (Fenella Woolgar) who as you would have guessed by now, is also dead. Jane has a strong doubt in her head that she has been poisoned by her boss Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman) who is the millionaire son of a Lord. Jane used to be Peter’s secretary. She also believes that she was murdered because she was on the verge of confirming that Peter Lyman is the dreaded Tarot Card Killer whose resume of serial killing has recently crossed double digits. The journalist in Strombel is unable to control his instincts since he believes that he is onto something. But how can a dead journalist make any difference to the scoop of a lifetime???? Simple. He jumps of the boat of dead people. He is bound to appear somewhere after that right.
Sondra Pransky (flash point of water sizzling – Scarlett Johansson) is studying journalism and is living with her friends in London. She is an absolute amateur. So much so that she lands up getting laid by famous director Mike Tinsley (Kevin McNally) and doesn’t get anything out of him. But her life is about to change really quickly thanks to her visit to see a magic show. The Magician Sidney Waterman a.k.a. Splendini (Woody Allen) gets her on stage for his disappearing act. But Sondra is not alone in the Chinese Box. She has company. Company in the form of extremely famous but recently deceased Joe Strombel. Strombel quickly passes on the message of the scoop of the century to Sondra and urges her to take up the case like an investigative journalist would. That’s when Sondra decides to go under cover and befriends Peter Lyman as Jade Spence along with Sidney acting as her father Mr. Spence for lack of any first name. As the Tata Sky information bar would say “hilarity follows” over the next hour or so in the Spence’s attempts to expose Lyman.
A movie that is shot in typical Woody Allen style. Eccentric, unstable, funny. Woody Allen has never changed his style of acting no matter what role he is playing. He continues to awe his audiences with his capability of doing the same thing over and over again but still getting a fabulous response. One can never tire of him I guess. Scarlett Johansson can act reasonably well – yes I was watching the acting as well – but she does get a bit over what is required many a time. Hugh Jackman is quite good in his portrayal of Peter Lyman – very British – although he is Aussie by birth. Extremely watchable whether you are a Woody Allen fan or not. Easily a 7 on 10. One more if you if you dig Woody Allen.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2146763545/
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