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Review

Macho screenwriter Joe Eszterhas must have decided he had enough. After raking in millions for scripts like Showgirls and Basic Instinct, he decided to bite the hand that feeds him and write and produce this satire of the way Tinseltown works. Burn Hollywood Burn is meant to be a hip, guerilla, black comedy that pulverizes the wheelings and dealings of the movie business. But Ezsterhas' hipness quotient appears to be up there with Newt Gingrich's, thanks to the weary salvos hurled at Hollywood here. The story posits Idle as Alan Smithee, a former film editor whose first directorial effort is Trio, a $212 million actioner. When evil producer O'Neal threatens to re-edit it, Idle responds by threatening to torch the film's only existing print. A similar premise worked in S.O.B., but Eszterhas, who actually wrested control of this film from original helmer Arthur Hiller (who, in turn, replaced his name with "Alan Smithee" on the final credits!), has a penchant for chaos in his comedy, and this has the comic subtlety of a Godzilla rampage. Do jokes about Goldberg's relationship with Ted Danson make you laugh? Want to hear some more bon mots about Hugh Grant and Divine Brown? You get the picture.