"The film could be faulted for being another masturbatory exercise in Hollywood narcissism, but that's really nothing new." - Micah Towery

Eleven years after the ingenious Wag the Dog, Levinson turns his camera on the movie business again, and the contrast between the two films offers a sad, clear measure of the erosion of his directing talents over the course of the last decade. The script by Art Linson, drawn from his memorish book of the same poorly-chosen title, is satire at its most toothless, but Levinson brings nothing to it. It may as well be blank film running through the projector.

"What Just Happened" is a decent caustic satire that maintains the viewer's interest all the way through. The humour is fresh, the most dramatic sequences revolve around Bruce Willis's "f*ckin' beard" and the romantic part, although familiar, leads to a totally satisfying solution. The acting ensemble is adorable: De Niro gives a terrific performance, Bruce Willis is good when shouting and even better when quoting and John Turturro has the most interesting stomach problems in cinema history.

Every joke in Tropic Thunder, The Player, The Muse, I'll Do Anything, even HBO's Entourage is sharper, more incisive and funnier than those in What Just Happened.

the end lifted it up a little, the start is very slow, Jews again!! maybe because they own Hollywood.

Sometimes funny with good performances, but not as good as "Wag the Dog".

Great cast and it has a few moments, but its pretty dull. A vain attempt to spice things up with flashy editing moments feels very out of place.

Pretty flat. Bruce Willis as himself was the best part. Lots of stars, but so, well, flat.

44.250

Pointless.

Toothless 'The Player' wannabee with nothing very original to say about Hollywood. Some amusing quips get lost in the uneasy mix of caricatures and characters you are meant to care about.

Michael Wincott!!!!

Couldn't watch past the middle despite watching it on one of my semi-braindead days.

Held my attention, but didn't innovate much. I LOVED Michael Wincott in this, and Willis is a lot of fun too. I felt that the biggest problem with this film is that they don't make DeNiro's character very sympathetic to balance out the fact that he's incredibly wealthy and gets to work in the film business... so for me at least, the film's attempt to portray him as absurdly put upon didn't quite work--and that's the main story.

It's hard to make a good movie about shaving the beard... The only reason to watch this it to "enhance" another De Niro film.

Meh. Started out pretty strong, but slowly got pointless. De Niro was good, though.

Disappointing.

Okay Movie

It's good to see that de Niro still got it but this cannot hide the fact that the movie itself lacks a good story. What is this about? A dog being shot at the end of a movie? Bruce Willis not wanting to shave his 6-month old beard? A producer not being able to combine work and private life? Well, there is not a lot of depth in it and the the impressive cast does not change this. 12/07/09

Not as snappy as I supposed it might be but Levinson did a great Job ( once again ) I liked that one

The only good part of the movie was when one of the potential investors had bodyguards or assistants speaking in Hebrew.

Another average Barry Levinson effort. Too straightforward to be satire, too quirky to be subtle in it's humour. In better hands this could've been really interesting. I did really enjoy the tension surrounding a beard and the subsequent beard reveal.

Maybe you have to be in the industry to like this.

"Really, how many times will you get to see Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, and Robert De Niro work together? (And in a comedy, no less.)"

This semi-satire contains plenty of thoughtful observations on stardom and some laughs too, but it borders on depressing sporadically and sometimes gets a bit silly(primarily the stuff with the director).

Start very slow, and make you ask why should I border about that absurd Hollywood life, but then finally how it goes to end have more and more spirit...Ok, but it's gonna be boring for most public...

Funny movie. Feel and tone similar to Entourage. There's a lot of subtle jabs towards Hollywood amid the obvious ones. Only issue I had with the film is that I felt it ended rather abruptly.

Impressive cast and a story that I really liked. It could've been more daring but it's still a fun ride. The best part about this movie is that it shows that De Niro can still be great on the screen and despite the fact that I'll never watch this again I still enjoyed it a lot. Entourage and Extras have already covered a lot of the same ground but they didn't have De Niro. Oh wait, Extras did =).

I like movies about movies. Seeing how good the cast is I was very curious about it. This ironic look at the movie industry and drama of Bruce Willis' beard made me smile. Problem is, this film is simple, too simple. A bit more ambition would have made it better and more enjoyable. If you aren't interested in the kitchen of the Hollywood - don't bother with this film.

Where to start ? As some of you might know, I'm a sucker for films about filmmaking, now it might not be uncomfortably provocative or gracefully vivacious as "Barton Fink", "8½" or "The Player", but it's straight to the point and features a rich cast of characters. I could've gone with a different storyline, but it's still enjoyable and worth viewing for those of you who were interested in the first place. DeNiro is still in the fucking game !!! lol, jews...

De Niro is wearing some badass frames in this movie...that's all I got.

Good film.

Another great example of a lot of great stars brought in to try to compensate for a weak film.