Search - The Deal [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 1/22/2023...

Quirky!

(2.5 STARS) Mildly Amusing Comedy That Has Nothing New to Sa

Tsuyoshi | Kyoto, Japan | 11/22/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

""The Deal" is a light comedy with a bit of romance and satire thrown in. It follows the story of one Charlie Burns (William H. Macy, who also co-wrote the screenplay), a failed Hollywood film producer, who uses his nephew's period-piece script (about 19th century British writer and statesman Benjamin Disraeli) for his "comeback." While Charlie struggles to get what he wants (sometimes by cheating and lying), he meets a beautiful studio executive Deidre (Meg Ryan). I almost forgot to say that Charlie is a lady's man, too.

I am always interested in the "films about filmmaking" sub-genre. You know, there are so many of them - "Adaptation" "Bowfinger" etc - and some are great ("Day for Night") and some terrible ("An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn" ... what else?). Thanks to the cast (that includes Elliot Gould as rabbi and L.L. Cool J. as spoiled action star), "The Deal" is mildly amusing, but the film's satire is not sharp and the jokes are not very funny.

Don't get me wrong. I like Meg Ryan and William H. Macy. But somehow it seems they are not the right choice for the roles they are playing in "The Deal." There is no chemistry between the two leads to make me believe that they fall in love with each other. Besides, the story itself doesn't convince me. How can a down-and-out film producer like Charlie get a 100 million dollar action movie greenlit when everyone in Hollywood knows he has been unsuccessful so long?

All in all "The Deal" is not that bad, at least to me, but it has no originality either, except the location of South Africa. Perhaps this is the most convincing part of the film."

Funny Only if You've Never Seen a Movie Before

G. Teslovich | 04/08/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Pointless, dumb and self-indulgent is my synopsis to something that neither is a story nor contains a plot but does contain a hodgepodge of poorly, reworked comedic scenes found in countless films over the past 80 years. The film goes something like this: desperate people meet; try to sort things out through one dumb error after another (supposedly the funny parts); finally it all works out and they live happily ever after. There's suppose to be a quirky insider look at the movie making industry but, alas, nothing anyone born after 1930 doesn't already know. Add run-of-the-mill acting and fragmented directing/editing to make for a boring and tortuous viewing experience. Even the reviewers that gave it 5 stars (do they work for the studio?) consistently had little to say about the movie."

A movie with very limited appeal

Roger Long | Port Clinton, OH USA | 01/16/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Hollywood apparently has an abiding incestuous interest in its own shallowness, since several movies have been made about the phony baloneys who make too many of the movies. There are, of course, movies that are truly works of art, but they are not all that numerous. "The Deal" is not anywere near the top of the line.

The story is a mess. William Macy's character is in the process of killing himself as the movie opens. He is living in squalor and is obviously not successful. But he is interrupted by a nephew with a movie script, which Macy doesn't read but decides must be rewritten--several times. Then his hype begins and soon a movie is being made without much of a script. Disaster follows disaster until it is all one great mess, which I assume is supposed to be amusing.

There's a good cast of Macy, Meg Ryan, Elliot Gould, et al., but even a good cast can't make this amusing to anyone except Hollywood insiders. It's almost sure to be a yawn for everyone else."