Movie Review

What Just Happened

'What Just Happened' shouldn't have happened

Thursday, October 16th 2008, 3:12 PM

TWO STARS

Imagine if a Hollywood satire was about any other business - would it seem interesting to anyone outside of Hollywood?

Certainly, great movies can be made about anything, from cigarette lobbyists to surfing stoners to busking musicians (we'll see how the inevitable movie about Joe the Plumber turns out), and there have been memorable ones about filmmaking. Yet "What Just Happened" wallows so much in the day-to-day irritations of a hot-shot producer, perhaps the title should be, "Who Really Cares?"

That's the question that hangs over Barry Levinson's new film, which wants to be "The Player" but plays more like a dramatization of Daily Variety's front page. Tinseltown big-shot Ben (Robert De Niro) is trying to put together a major movie - starring Sean Penn, who appears as himself - while pushing another film back to its volatile Brit director (Michael Wincott). At the same time, Ben is dealing with two ex-wives, his disaffected kids and a gaggle of agents, assistants, studio chiefs and sycophants.

RELATED: BEHIND THE SCENES ON "WHAT JUST HAPPENED"

Based on a collection of essays from producer Art Linson, who has in fact put together movies both arty and mammoth, "What Just Happened" is a shaggy film filled with small details, but none of them translate to anything larger. Lingo and insider terms may make it seem like a grownup version of "Entourage," but it's way too insular.

Levinson, working from a script by Linson, did far sharper satire with the political-showbiz digs in "Wag the Dog." The only thing "What Just Happened" has going for it is the first De Niro performance in a long time that's amusing in an unforced way. Since 1983's great "The King of Comedy" - not to mention his less-heralded but still-quirky turns in "We're No Angels," "Mad Dog and Glory" and "Stardust" - De Niro has shown he's most fun when the heat's off and he can be mellow. Here, he ambles around, hardly raising his voice above a discontented mutter.

Additionally, there's a wacky turn by John Turturro (as an agent with a stomach ailment) and an extended cameo by Bruce Willis (as himself). Willis stalks around playing a caricature of an out-of-control actor, the Huge Star who won't shave his prospector's beard or lose his trucker's gut even though Ben's new movie requires it.

Willis hits the right level of parody - he, too, looks like he's having fun - yet even his "egomaniacal Bruce Willis" feels less like a necessary part of this forgettable movie and more like a clip from the gossip pages.