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OR EMAILMovie Notes: Scoop
= 2 stars
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Woody Allen, Hugh Jackman
Directed by Woody Allen
Amazon Link
As a fan of Woody Allen’s older films who was really impressed by Match Point, I’m sad to say I really hated Scoop - despite featuring Scarlett Johansson and England, as did Match Point. Therefore, more blame is reserved for Allen.
Melinda and Melinda was two films in one: a comedy and a thriller, each starring the same actress (Radha Mitchell) where much of the fun was the cutting back and forth between the two. Match Point and Scoop could be seen as separate explorations of these two halves, both starring Scarlett Johansson.
Journalist Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson) is visited by a ghost (Ian McShane) with a news-worthy scoop: the identity of the “Tarot Card Killer” terrorizing London - Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman). Sondra decides to investigate but falls for the killer and is unsure of his guilt or innocence until she becomes his next target.
A big problem with Scoop is Woody Allen casting himself as a main character (once again), the magician Sid Waterman who pretends to be Sondra’s father to aid her sleuthing. Allen must be eighty years old and resembles walking death: Roger Moore in Live And Let Die had more of a pulse. What’s worse - as many actors in Allen’s movies tend to do - Johansson attempts a Woody Allen impersonation herself, neurotic whining with round glasses; the whole bit. I could handle John Cusak doing this in Bullets Over Broadway, or even Will Ferrel in Melinda and Melinda, but Johansson lacks the comedic chops to pull this cover tune off. Plus, with Allen’s pretending be her dad, all sorts of depressingly twisted Oedipal possibilities are evoked which I refuse to analyze.
Allen has made so many movies that it’s impossible to not feel this has all been done before. For comedic crime, check out Manhattan Murder Mysteries or Small Time Crooks. For a goofy magic show, check out Curse of the Jade Scorpion. For ha-ha relationship stuff, check out Melinda and Melinda or Hollywood Ending.
I realize that my favorite Woody Allen films have been the ones with bolder choices: Tea Leoni channelling Diane Keaton in Hollywood Ending. Radha Mitchell’s dual roles in Melinda and Melinda. The deathly serious Match Point and Crimes and Misdemeanors. The mix of humor and sadness in Annie Hall.
By the time Johansson is tossed in a lake, I thought - good. Woody Allen is better when he doesn’t play it safe. In Scoop, he’s treading water. Sid Waterman indeed.
IMDB: Scoop
Wikipedia: Scoop
Rotten Tomatoes: Scoop 37%
Webomatica: Melinda and Melinda
Webomatica: Match Point
Webomatica: Annie Hall
Categories: 2 Star Movies, Movies :: Tags: ::
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"Heh... yeah now that I think about it, was that theater as empty as youremember? So many plot holes - of which you list several. I think Hubbardwrote himself into a corner with the premise - the humans are enslaved by anall powerful alien race, so how exactly do you get the humans to a levelwhere they can overthrow their masters? It seems half the solution wasmaking the Psychlos complete morons... anyhow, it's definitely good forlaughs." - 
Is this one of those things where the death card means death? Because in tarot, the death card generally signifies a new beginning, not the unwanted attention of a serial killer, though I suppose that, too, could be a new beginning of sorts…..
That is definitely possible. There are some scenes with dead people on a boat in the darkness.
Scoop is vastly worse then Match Point, which I thought might have been the best movie of 2 years ago - but a few weeks after watching Scoop and not really liking it, I had the strange urge to watch it again.
Gee, MG, I’d be surprised if I felt that way… I really didn’t like it. Match Point as you say, was way better. But hey… I’ve watched some pretty strange movies that with the passage of time improves somewhat.