Welcome to Hollywood

Another addition to the "mockumentary" subgenre of comedy, Welcome to Hollywood follows a hot, young director who decides to pick an unknown actor and make him into a star. Adam Rifkin plays the director and is also the director of Welcome to Hollywood. The actor, rechristened Nick Decker (played by Tony Markes), is unfortunately a bit of a washout, forcing Rifkin to take drastic measures, including hiring supermodel/actress Angie Everhart (who plays herself with a fine sense of irony) to be Decker's girlfriend in order to stir up buzz. The movie doesn't quite have the laughs or the sting of This Is Spinal Tap, which clearly inspired it, but there is a fairly cutting portrait of people who want to be famous at all costs, despite a lack of any apparent talent. It also has a stunning number of cameos by famous actors and directors ruminating on what makes someone a star, including John Travolta, Sandra Bullock, Will Smith, Ewan MacGregor, Glenn Close, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Jeff Goldblum, and several who actually get worked into the movie's plot, including Laurence Fishburne, Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, Tin Cup), Allison Anders (Food Gas Lodging, Mi Vida Loca), and Roger Ebert (!). One of the movie's strengths is that it's not always clear if these famous folk entirely know that they're appearing in this fake documentary, as they've almost entirely been captured at big events where, in the story of the documentary, the filmmakers went to try to sneak some footage of celebrities. One of the best sequences is when Decker gets a bit part on Baywatch, and we get to watch David Hasselhoff and Carmen Electra play themselves. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

I LIKETHESE GUYS!!!

Every time I see this film I find a new reason to laugh. With a great concept and a genuinely funny script, Tony Markes and Adam Rifkin here prove that the demented "Dark Backward" was not a creative anomaly. Watching Rifkin and Markes get a bunch of bona-fide stars to be in their zero-budget movie for free is inspiring - a textbook application of the Bowfinger principle - but the real fun here is seeing Markes play all the actors he DIDN'T hire when he was a casting director. These guys are not Farrellys, to be sure, but they're creative and sharp, and until their new collaboration - "Getting Hal" - comes out, this film and "The Dark Backward" will give you strange dreams, indeed. September 19, 2001

Funny take on La-La Land

This film is a biting take on fame and the city that's on an endless search to foist it on people. Anyone who's ever been on an audition will laugh/cringe as the true humilations of such events are placed squarely in the crosshairs. What this film lacks in production values, it more than makes up for in humor and insight into the world of entertainment. Well worth your time and money. December 23, 2000

Seen better Wondered when movie actually started

This is a wierd one Ordered by mistake and now selling in ebay. Not by far one of my best choices but might apeal to you if you like to be fooled into thinking that this is for real. i really would not waste my time nor my money like we did by buying this dvd and then spending the time to watch it and then still be waiting to see what the heck it was about November 5, 2000

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