The Bay
Dir: Barry Levinson
2012
**
Barry Levinson and Michael Wallach's celebrated found footage horror; The Bay is a very clever idea and perfect for the horror sub-genre. So it's a terrible shame that it has been filmed in the worst possible way. Barry Levinson is a good director, I can see why he'd want to direct one of his own ideas but I honestly think he should have passed this onto someone else, maybe someone with documentary experience? It should have been terrifying but for the most part it is laughable. The camcorder footage looks too professional and the professional shots look too amateur, the script is so bad it made my skin crawl and the editing is totally overcooked. The acting is non-existent. The story repeats itself far too much, we know what the conclusion is within the first 20 minutes but it is repeated again and again through more and more unconvincing sub-plots. It's tiresome. The repeated times the male scientists makes reference to the female scientist's foreign accent is grating to say the least and made me quite angry towards the seventh time. Great idea, it's just that every component is totally wrong. A huge wasted opportunity by someone who seems not to understand both horror or documentary.

Man of the Year
Dir: Barry Levinson
2006
***
It was going so well before the unnecessary plot deviation into election cover ups and faulty election computers, the problem is that Barry Levinson's Man of the Year doesn't know what it wants to be. The idea of a Chat show host/Comedian/Celebrity winning the election was good enough a story to explore alone, the acting was good and the dialogue was really snappy and then all of a sudden, in walks Laura Linney (a very hit or miss actor at the best of times) and the whole film goes rapidly down hill, swerving between unconvincing romance, less than thrilling thriller territory and mis-placed comedy. A real wasted opportunity. Watch it for Christopher Walken's performance and if you're a Robin Williams fan (he is quite funny here) but certainly don't rush to go see it.

What Just Happened
Dir: Barry Levinson
2008
***
An inside Hollywood film for people inside Hollywood films. There is a lot of in-jokes and back patting here and I'm afraid I generally have no sympathy for the average Hollywood film producer but I found this film very easy to watch. Barry Levinson is a good director, he's got a mixed CV but generally you can depend on him. For me it was all about the performances though, I loved the whole 'The dies story-line', good on Sean Penn for getting involved and Bruce Willis makes amends for his horrible self-cameo in Oceans 12. Almost anyway. Every one does well, De Niro is totally watchable but for my money, Michael Wincott steals the show, his is a great performance. I really thought this film was okay, I'm not really sure why it's so unpopular?

Envy
Dir: Barry Levinson
2004
*
A fairly tiresome and ill-conceived film. The story had legs, they just didn't run with it and I also feel they were terribly let down by their props department. I would have thought the budget was bigger considering the stars and the director. Jack Black has made a fortune and he buys a plastic mansion? It all gets a little too cartoon-like and Stiller and Black aren't exactly pulling their weight either. Barry Levinson is a strange fish, this is definitely one of his worst and a huge blotch on his CV.