Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Death, sex, and bluesy sax against a Manhattan backdrop: it can only be Woody Allen's latest romantic comedy. Sadly though, while his trademark idiosyncrasies are all in place, Anything Else doesn't add up to anything much. The neurotic New Yorker has slipped deep into a rambling rut, and even fresh-faced co-stars Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci can't breathe new life into this tired tale.

Indeed, a major flaw here is the casting of Jason Biggs. He's simply too young to be convincing as jaded comedy writer Jerry Falk, who's fallen foul of love one too many times. Likewise, Christina Ricci is misused as Amanda, the flaky, fat-obsessed actress who keeps him dangling - the notion that anyone could be taken with someone so emphatically irritating remains a mystery. As Biggs' agent, Danny DeVito is two lines more than a cameo.

"A SOULLESS AND NIGH-ON PLOTLESS REHASH"

The film is largely taken up with Biggs and Allen competing over who can do the better Woody Allen impression. Playing his unhinged mentor, the bespectacled veteran spouts a 'greatest hits' list of misguided philosophies on love and death, thus taking his protégé to the brink of insanity. In one of too few wicked moments the old-timer, pathologically obsessed with the threat of Nazi resurgence, warns Biggs: "You don't want your life to wind up as black-and-white newsreel footage scored by a cello in a minor key."

Allen's whip-smart dialogue is scathing as always, and provides some amusing diversions, but it cannot salvage what is ultimately a soulless and nigh-on plotless rehash of what we've already heard before. Perhaps it's no surprise that, as Woody gets older, the burden of his glib atheism becomes heavier. But it's to the detriment of his fanbase, who will surely prefer his earlier, funnier work.