In the last few years, Woody Allen has taken some knocks for casting himself as the romantic lead opposite much younger actresses.

As if to suggest he's seen the folly of his ways, Allen casts Jason Biggs as the star of Anything Else, a love story/comedy set in -- where else -- Manhattan.

Biggs plays a somewhat nebbishy, long-suffering comic with a hopeless manager, an ineffectual psychiatrist and a very dangerous girlfriend.

In other words, Biggs plays Woody Allen.

On his side, Allen plays an older, wiser, somewhat demented mentor to the Biggs character, and there's something oddly perverse about that -- a sort of I'm-too-old-to-play-this-part-but-watch-me-anyway situation.

Christina Ricci plays the girlfriend. Her character is a needy, dishonest, selfish, childish, medication-gulping, whining, self-absorbed beauty. Oh, ha, ha, ha. Funny? To die funny, really. You're killing me, here. But seriously, folks.

Biggs' character falls in love with her at first sight.

They have a torrid affair. They move in together. Shortly thereafter, their sex life dies, she appears to have an eating disorder, her insane mother (Stockard Channing) moves in with them and she cheats and dissembles all over the place.

As mom, Stockard Channing plays an embarrassment trying to recapture her youth. Channing does get one sweet scene in which she plays piano and sings, but that's about it.

Anything Else, we remind you, is a comedy. What's funny is that nobody seems to notice how much Woody Allen doesn't like women.

All exaggerated gestures and stuttering delivery, Biggs seems to have been directed to act like Woody Allen. It's all too strange. Allen, meanwhile, as the mentor, makes bizarre jokes about guns, survival kits, the world's hatred of Jews and general paranoia all around.

Later in the story, he talks about shooting a highway patrol officer. Yuk, yuk. Are we missing something here?

Anything Else, like most of Allen's movies, has a lovely soundtrack -- this time involving the recordings of Billie Holliday. Otherwise, Anything Else is like everything else Allen has done in the last decade -- dull, self-indulgent and not funny. Enough, already.

(This film is rated PG)

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