This Robert De Niro film, What Just Happened, is more than a little different from last month's big budget mess, Righteous Kill. It's one of those low-budget movie he makes between high-paying films for art's sake and all of that. In What Just Happened, De Niro's not afraid to look and act his age without being the tough guy. He plays an aging Hollywood producer with two ex-wives and two separate families dealing with his personal and professional life as a series of crises ensue (example: Bruce Willis shows up to a movie fat and sporting "a Grizzly Adams beard"). Oh, did I mention Bruce Willis is playing himself? Points for self-deprecation. And while it's sort of unbelievable that someone De Niro's age would be married to Robin Wright Penn in the real world, it's actually credible in Hollywood. Luckily, this movie is set in Hollywood so it works here. Even in the course of the trailer, you might find yourself rooting for the estranged pair to reunite, which I'm guessing is going to be the crux of the movie: He can't get over her, for obvious reasons, but she's moved on to seeing someone else -- a married man. Nice. And for an added bonus, What Just Happened has so many fine actors in bit parts -- Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro -- that it's worth seeing for them alone.

Reviews By People Who've Actually Seen It:
Variety
Rotten Tomatoes