More cold than cute, De Niro’s brilliance actually makes the film more confusing than it needs to be.
Comment
11/28/08
What Just Happened (2008)
54
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:128
Fresh:69
Rotten:59
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: What Just Happened has some inspired comic moments, but this inside-baseball take on Hollywood lacks satirical bite.
Theatrical Release:28-11-2008
Synopsis: What Just Happened is a winningly sharp comedy about two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a middle-aged Hollywood producer -- as he tries to juggle an actual life... [More]
Starring: Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, John Turturro
Director: Barry Levinson
Reviews for What Just Happened
As a satire on Tinseltown, it's toothless.
11/28/08
Gags crash, timings tailspin, and celebrity guest stars (Bruce Willis, Sean Penn) wear the look that says, “I think we’ve come to the wrong party.”
11/28/08
A desultory Hollywood satire that fatally lacks the guts or verve to say anything vitally new or different.
01/22/08
Well, what happened is that one of the smartest Hollywood memoirs of recent times just got made into a rather disappointing film.
11/28/08
Top CriticIt’s a struggle to maintain much interest – even if you get the Hollywood in-jokes courtesy of producer-turned-screenwriter Art Linson – and the feeling is unavoidable that it’s been done before…and an awful lot better.
11/28/08
Linson has drawn his fangs, opting for mild, Entourage-lite parody instead of a full-on Player stitch-up.
11/28/08
It is great to see Willis and Penn sending themselves up and De Niro is also on fine form. Perhaps, though, you need to be interested in the business to get the jokes.
11/28/08
A playful industry satire made by victors. That’s actually pretty cold when you think about it.
11/28/08
Top CriticA send-up of Hollywood and its stars, this is the best film industry satire since The Player. Funnier, too.
11/28/08
Pure razzle-dazzle, of course - fittingly for this industry, it's a con-trick.
11/28/08
Top CriticA film that feels every bit the product of its purportedly ruthless and artistically corrupting milieu.
11/28/08
Top CriticThe crisp and merciless ribbing of De Niro in What Just Happened? is a worthy rival. It’s also great fun.
11/28/08
Top CriticCompared to the likes of Adaptation and The Player, What Just Happened? is flyweight. De Niro is amiable enough in the lead role, but he's left to trot around a story that not so much bites the hand that feeds it as licks the palm.
11/28/08
Top CriticLikeable Hollywood comedy with strong comic performances from a superb cast, though it's a shame it's not a little more daring.
11/28/08
Every character is sharp and complicated, with especially witty turns by Willis and Penn as amusingly exaggerated versions of themselves.
09/25/08
Taken from his own memoirs, Linson's screenplay has a zing of truth as it cuts through the layers of Hollywood mayhem to tell a thoroughly hilarious and surprisingly involving story of a man on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
11/28/08
Levinson keeps the pace sharp, and at moments you get an acute sense of the crushing weight of ego and money.
11/28/08
By Patricia Blades - Plenty of low-key chuckles rather than belly laughs and the film is short on venom. Despite the histrionics Linson witnessed in Hollywood, he's a man who remains deeply in love with the industry that spawned him.
11/27/08
Click to read the article
02/27/09
Latest News for What Just Happened
February 28, 2009:
Showbiz satire starring De Niro and Willis offers inside look at challenge of moviemaking in Hollywood. 
More...
February 27, 2009:
Like the perpetual insider crap shoot and big bucks blown on questionable movie fare, Levinson is willing to take his chances on that backroom and behind the scenes pathological reality show drama known as Hollywood.
More...
February 08, 2009:
Like the perpetual insider crap shoot and big bucks blown on questionable movie fare, Levinson is willing to take his chances on that backroom and behind the scenes pathological reality show drama known as Hollywood.
More...
November 28, 2008:
UK Critics Consensus: Local Critics Warm To Changeling; De Niro Delights But What Just Happened Doesn't
It's Friday, there's a new raft of movies in the UK cinemas this week, but are any of them any good? This week the UK film hacks give us their opinions on Clint Eastwood's... More...
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