No, don't speak! Don't speak!, 5 Oct 2004

The "Allen Character" in this film is Cusack, a playwrite whose mass of neuroses drives the engine of the film, but it's Dianne Wiest who steals the film. Playing an aging actress obsessed with her own greatness, Weist manipulates Cusack at every turn and turns in a performance worthy of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar she received in '94.

The emsemble cast - and Allen displays a skill with ensemble casts that can be ranked alongside Robert Altman's - shine, glitter and sparkle with lunacy. Broadbent as the compulsive eater, Ullman as the hysteric animal lover, Palminteri as the homicidal hitman turned co-writer and the others are all brilliant.

Woody Allen has to be amongst anybody's list of the ten greatest comedy film makers of all time. Bullets proves conclusively however that Allen is a much better writer and director than he is an actor - though he's still a pretty good actor.

Bullets is one of my favourite Allen films and deserves a place in the DVD collection of everyone who enjoys wit and the absurd. Don't speak, just buy it (and that joke will become clear to you when you do).

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