Many people know that directors that didn’t want to attach their names to films they were ashamed of could use the ‘Alan Smithee’ pseudonym. Well, that practice was ended by “An Alan Smithee Film Burn Hollywood Burn”. This is a film about a director named Alan Smithee that cannot use the pseudonym but the real director of this movie (Arthur Hiller “See No Evil, Hear No Evil”) was so ashamed of it, he himself used the pseudonym. Confused yet?

“Burn Hollywood Burn” is a sort of mockumentary that about director Alan Smithee (Eric Idle “The Life Of Brian”), who is incredibly displeased with his latest film. It’s an action movie starring Sylvester Stallone (“First Blood”), Whoopi Goldberg (“Sister Act”) and Jackie Chan (“Twin Dragons”) but Smithee fears that it stinks so his steals the reels. Studio executives (Ryan O’Neal “Barry Lyndon”, Richard Jeni “The Mask”) rush to find Smithee and the film.

Everybody in this movie looks like they are being held hostage. It’s such a shame to see the great Eric Idle go from “Monty Python” to this disaster. Ryan O’Neal is painful to watch. Stallone, Goldberg and even Chan are all just awful to watch. Other cast members include rapper Coolio and disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein. There is a single shot where see Idle, Stallone, Goldberg and Chan altogether; it provided some novelty value but that’s it.

“Burn Hollywood Burn” is a terrible movie that tries to satirise the shallow and synthetic nature of Hollywood but the film itself is as shallow and synthetic as they come. If you want a much better satire about Hollywood then watch “Bowfinger” with Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy. “Burn Hollywood Burn” is probably not one of the absolute worst movies ever made but it’s lifeless. You know you have a problem when you have Jackie Chan in your movie and he cannot inject any energy into it.