It’s been five years since Woody Allen last made a film that showed off how great a writer and director he can be. Sweet and Lowdown (1999), starring Sean Penn, was Allen at his best and certainly dismissed his critics who said that his mid-life crisis and relationship with a girl old enough to be his granddaughter marked the end of Woody Allen the great New York story teller. Yet, five years is a long time to wait for something of real substance, and in the meantime he’s given us some predictable, light comedy that was not totally without merit, but it wasn’t particularly crammed with it either. So the question is, does his latest film have anything else to offer?

Anything Else could easily be subtitled, Annie Hall in the 21st century as Allen re-hashes more of the same old shtick. Allen himself takes a supporting role as he let’s young actor, Jason Biggs (most notable for his previous roles in American Pie 1 & 2 plus American Pie: The Wedding) who prances about on the screen doing an impression of Woody Allen. In moments when the two share scenes we get dueling Woody’s. “Hark!”, is that banjo music I hear playing in the background? Seriously, Biggs’ lack of original character leaves us feeling like we are watching a poor imitation of the same old Allen routines. Christina Ricci does little to add to this scenario as her character is an updated pale imitation of the same sort of Annie Hall type characters that Diane Keaton use to play opposite Allen’s proverbial neurotic New Yorker. Only Ricci is no Diane Keaton and lacks the charisma needed to elevate her character to a degree of likeability as opposed to just being self centered and annoying.

If it wasn’t for the fact that I was going to review this film I would have gotten up and walked out on it. Both Biggs and Ricci are so unsympathetic and uninteresting that I found myself thinking I would rather be doing anything else but watching this film. Maybe that’s where Allen got the title!? Let’s hope that his next project either sees a return to Allen as the same director who made such films like: “Love and Death (1975)”, “Interiors (1978)”, “Zelig (1983)”, “Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)” and “Bullets Over Broadway (1994)”; just to name a few….or that he takes the money and runs, leaving us with the stardust memories of his long and amazing career.