I'll do anything oder: Geht's hier nach Hollywood?

This Story has defined Intention and Obstacle, Matt (Nolte) wants to be more successful actor but 6 year old Daughter dropped off by estranged Wife who has to serve a Prison sentence, makes it tough to do . I was inspired to Buy and Watch this Film again by a Podcast I listened to with James L Brooks who Wrote Directed and Produced this Movie. Just like most all Nick Nolte Films back then, I saw this at theatre. He is really Good , as are the supporting Cast. Mr Nolte makes his character(MATT) real easy to jump into his shoes and feel the ups and downs of being a struggling Actor and Dad. The Little Girl is effectively annoying but sweetens up towards the End. Joely Richardson Radiant ! Albert Brooks plays Mob Like Movie Mogul. Not sure why this did not do better at the Box Office ? Check out the Trailer on Amazon. Might spark some memories from 1994.

It would be very interesting to see the original cut of this movie, which was a musical but had its songs cut out after a test audience indicated that the songs in the movie were terrible. (I'm surprised that not even a bootleg of this cut has leaked out.) I will entertain the possibility that the songs were indeed bad and that the movie was improved by the reworking. But as it is, the movie isn't particularly successful. It does have some interesting behind- the-scenes moments that show the working of the Hollywood machine behind the curtains, and the performances aren't that bad. However, the movie can't seem to make up its mind whether it is a comedy or a drama. It might have been possible to mix those two genres, but as it is here, the two extremes don't seem to fit together. Also, the key relationship in the movie - between the Nick Nolte character and his daughter - seems for the most part not very in-depth, so much so that the emotional ending doesn't seem deserved. The kind of slow pace of the movie as well as its length (almost two hours) doesn't help matters. It's not actively bad, but there's not much that will stick in your mind after watching it.

This is a movie about making movies and standing up for your beliefs and not having to bow down under the pressures of audience expectations and studio involvements, and it had musical numbers which were cut and writers come in to dumb it down because of audience expectations and studio involvements.

But I found all that out after I first saw the movie and thought it was great entertainment. I love Nick Nolte, he's so grave and gruff and depressed that I hope he doesn't kill himself cause I really like everything he's done, even The Hulk, and especially Affliction and that Martin Short with a kid movie. Joely Richardson is gorgeous! Julie Kavner and James Brooks are great. I highly recommend this film, and hope to see it again soon on DVD with all of the deleted scenes.

Writer & Director James L Brooks has a very sure touch when it comes to movies. I'll Do Anything was conceived as an old fashioned musical. A parody of actor's lifestyles and film clichés.

Test audiences were not impressed with the film and at the time musicals were out of fashion.

I presume the songs were actually rubbish which tends to be the case with a lot of musical films.

Re-cut and re-edited, this is now a straight story with Nick Nolte, playing Matt Hobbs, a once promising actor who has not managed to get a regular acting gig in some time. He ends up driving around an arrogant film producer (Albert Brooks.)

Things take a turn when his ex-wife dumps their daughter Jeannie on Matt for what he thinks is for a few weeks but turns out to be longer as she is off to jail.

Matt's daughter is used to getting her own way and he is not used to fatherhood.

Matt's career may have some brightness as he gets friendly with with an attractive production assistant (Joely Richardson) who has a script idea and thinks Matt could be the lead actor.

The film was hampered from the start with its production troubles. Nick Nolte does well as a down on his luck actor with a brat of a daughter and trying to bond with her while dealing with machinations of the film industry.

James L Brooks succeeded so well when he turned his eye on TV news with Broadcast News. The story here is not strong enough and although the actors try hard the film comes off as hollow.

Although I found the movie a bit frenetic, it seemed to have a ring of truth about how things work in Hollywood (especially the "Would you sleep with him?" scene). Nick Nolte keeps everything going, as usual, with his marvelous acting. Is there any other "big guy" actor who can cry believably (well, maybe Harrison Ford)? He was just terrific, so believable as the father who didn't know what to do with his spoiled brat daughter. And wasn't Whittni Wright amazing? I can only hope that was acting, as I've seen plenty of kids just like her. The supporting cast was terrific. It was hard to pinpoint what there was about this movie that made it not quite so good as it could have been. Perhaps it was that it really was an "in-house" film, one that anyone who has been through what the various characters have could identify with, but perhaps not us out in the hinterlands (coming from Wyoming to Australia, I'm definitely hinterland!). Kudos to actors and director for keeping this film together. With lesser talent, it could have fallen flat on its face.