Unsurprisingly, the lack of focus and Allen's inability to put his ideas into context or character, results in a difficult film that is sometimes "OK", and other times woefully embarrassing. Here, the style is generic and unadventurous as we follow Branagh's self-infatuated and highly deluded writer/journalist and part time Allen-caricature from one assignment to the next, usually resulting in a comic seduction of an incredibly attractive woman, and a lot of talk about his supposedly great, unfinished novel. One of his more recent films, Melinda and Melinda (2004) suffered from some similar problems - with the idea of affluent, well-to-do characters complaining about how hard life is from the comfort of their Park Avenue penthouses really crippling the identifiable elements of the drama - but even then, Allen was able to offer at least some level of technical invention and an approach to the story that was interesting and unique. Unfortunately however, the film fails to build on this premise and becomes disengaging largely because it has absolutely nothing of interest to say! I suppose if it was simply Allen's intention to truly capture the sense of vapid, empty malaise of celebrity life in a way that created a similar feeling for even the most inattentive of viewers, then he certainly succeeded with this creating a film in which pretentious, narcissistic characters wander from one improbable scenario to the next, continually complaining about the dissatisfaction of their personal lives and relationships, whilst never quite seeming to realise that their actual problems are really a result of their own repugnant, self-infatuated personalities. When you think about the ideas behind the film, this particular presentation becomes almost genius (albeit, unintentionally so) and should have really led to some wicked satire on the nature of celebrity and the lengths that people will go to in order to maintain it. Call it a matter of personal taste, but the main problem I had with the film was the complete lack of interest in any of the characters or the situations that they find themselves in with Allen creating a shambolic, Fellini inspired freak show filled with grossly caricatured pantomime players parading from one scene to the next with no thought or feeling. Entertainment Weekly gave the film a D− rating, calling it "a shoddy mess" and "a bargain-basement rip-off of Ronin," and adding that Rodman was "yesterday's threatening omni-sexual exhibitionist turned today’s overexposed cliché.A lot of people like this film - and indeed, I suppose it could be argued that there are a number of things that work in its favour - however, for me, it is easily the worst Woody Allen film that I have so far seen, and I own 28 of them. No in 1962", though he did find Rodman "inescapably watchable". The website's consensus reads, " Simon Sez no matter how starved you are for something to watch, there has to be a better option than this dreadfully misguided action thriller." Writing for The New York Times, Lawrence Van Gelder gave a scathing review of the movie, stating that "its plot seems as if it had been fished out of the wastebaskets of writers who have written scores of better examples of the genre dating at least as far back as Dr. Simon Sez has a 0% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 1.85 out of 10. The film was released in 1999, opening in Los Angeles on September 24 and then in New York on September 25. Ultimately, however, only Elders was credited as director, and only Lam and Diamont as producers. Originally, Ringo Lam was set to direct along with Elders, with Lam, Moshe Diamont, and Dwight Manley producing. Variety characterized the deal as a "byproduct of the lockout by NBA owners," as the work stoppage had temporarily put on hold Rodman's commitments to the league. On June 18, 1998, Variety reported that Rodman had entered into an agreement with Sony to star in an action film, yet to be titled.
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