First announced under the title of An Alan Smithee Film, it then turned into an actual Alan Smithee film: Alan Smithee being the official Hollywood pseudonym of any director who, for any variety of reasons, has withdrawn his name from a project. Arthur Hiller (who appears in the outtakes at the end) was the original director here, though his withdrawal looks as if it could have been part of the plan from the start. The end result, in any case, is well worth disclaiming. The initial misstep was the positing of a "real" Alan Smithee (Eric Idle), a veteran film editor who was entrusted to direct a megabudget action picture called Trio, co-starring Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jackie Chan, and who then stole the negative in order to save face. Many of the supposed "in" jokes are equally far out of bounds; the mockumentary format, with plenty of talking to the camera, is lazy and disorganized; and the entire tedious mess stretches barely to an hour and a quarter. The real creative force behind the project, of course, is scriptwriter Joe (Showgirls) Eszterhas, a fair sample of whose wit is to have the fictional Alan Smithee say of his own movie, "It's worse than Showgirls." So, too, is Burn, Hollywood, Burn. So where's the joke? With Ryan O'Neal, Richard Jeni, Coolio, Chuck D, a score of celebrity cameos. (1997) — Duncan Shepherd
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