Reynolds directed and stars in "The Final Hit" (aka "The Last Producer"), as Sonny Wexler, a movie producer who once produced an Oscar nominated movie, but now finds he's a has been in a Hollywood that's been taken over by the young generation, personified by studio executive Damon Black (Benjamin Bratt) and foreign investors. He now needs to raise $50,000 to buy a screenplay by a brilliant young writer (Sean Astin).
I'm not quite sure whether this movie tries to be a comedy or a drama, or both. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite succeed as either. The all-star cast is great (especially Rod Steiger, Bratt and Ann-Margret), but the script is uneven. There are several minor plot lines that are never developed, such as the one including Wexler's pill-popping wife Ann-Margret. She appears in several scenes and then goes off in a cab to somewhere (rehab?). The relation between Reynolds and his former partner Charles Durning work better, and Durning's character is, unlike Ann-Margret's, important to the plot. The jazz soundtrack sometimes work, but is more often funny in a way I don't think was intended.
All in all, this is a disappointing film that is almost, but not quite, made worthwhile by the acting.
