Rules Don't Apply (2016) User Reviews (89)

Great Performances and Interesting Characters Battle an Extremely Unfocused Movie

[CANpatbuck3664 · 6/10 · 26 April 2017]

*Minor Spoilers Ahead* We get a brief scene to begin in 1964 where Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty) is confined to a bed in a hotel. His handlers Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich), Levar Mathis (Matthew Broderick) and Nadine Henly (Candice Bergen) wait for him to respond to some false allegations. A biography of Howard has been written with some outlandish and scandalous claims and T.V. personalities are waiting by a phone for his response.

We then go back to 1958 and we are properly introduced to Marla Mabry (Lily Collins) and Frank Forbes. We also get to meet Marla's inquisitive mother Lucy (Annette Benning). They're both excited, prospects for Marla's future look bright but Howard's reputation precedes him. Frank has his own agenda for being in Hughes' employ (Frank wants to pitch him on a potentially lucrative real estate deal) but he's yet to meet him as well. Frank is just working as a driver right now but he's hoping to move up. Unbeknownst to either of them, although Howard is very protective of the actresses in his employ, he doesn't have much time for them. He's got his own problems and with his declining mental state, they're not going to be solved overnight.

Before I get into my critical thoughts on the plot, I'd like to say that the movie looks really good. I think everyone likes to take that nostalgic trip back to the golden years of Hollywood and the film definitely accomplishes that. The sets, the costuming and the cinematography are all really nice considering the film was made on a relatively tight budget ($25 million).

While the movie looks great, I would clarify that it's being advertised wrong. If you watch the trailer, it looks like a romantic comedy with Hughes as a supporting character. This movie is more of a drama with comedic bits sprinkled in. The movie flip flops on its tone severely, it looks like its setting up a romantic comedy and then that will just get thrown to the side for an entire act of drama. It becomes Hughes vs. the rest of the world for an entire hour. I wish it had just picked one because the seeds were planted for a really solid movie either way but sadly they couldn't.

What really saves this movie from itself is the performances from the actors and actresses. I have problems with how Warren Beatty wrote and directed this movie but he knocked it out of the park with his portrayal of Howard Hughes. Howard was a little before my time so I don't have any memories of him to point to but from how he was described to me, Beatty nailed all his eccentricities and the natural duplicity of his personality. I could have watched a movie with just him at the centre. This movie also cemented how talented both Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich are. Collins was the standout of the two for me but they both really helped make their characters interesting when the writing failed them. Its easy to see why Ehrenreich is on his way to bigger things and hopefully Collins will get that chance. There are lots of big actors in small parts (Ed Harris, Steve Coogan, Candice Bergen, Martin Sheen, Hayley Bennett etc.) and they all do their jobs well. Matthew Broderick isn't in the movie as much as I expected and while he's fine, he's the one who suffers the most for the film's choppy editing.

I liked most of the characters that were included in the movie. Marla and Frank are easy to like both on their own and with each other. Collins and Ehrenreich's chemistry helps that along as well. They're both very straight-laced and proper but they're both eager to shed their respective skins. You also see why Hughes seemed to have a magnetism where people are just drawn to him. I would have been cool if Marla and Frank were the centre of the movie because they are interesting. Or the movie could have been about Howard's descent into his mental illness and that would have been great. The problem is the movie refuses to pick between the two and while I appreciate the ambition to have it all, they failed to execute that plan. I couldn't believe how poorly this movie was edited together on top of that. The transition from scene to scene is beyond rough and it was jarring more often than not.

Rules Don't Apply doesn't add up to the sum of its parts. That might seem like an oversimplification but that's really how I feel about the movie. You have great performances, great scenery and set dressing and characters you want to follow. Its too bad someone almost ruined the film by hacking it up in the editing room. They really swung for the fences but unfortunately they couldn't land the plane. I did kind of like the movie overall and for its good aspects I'll give it a 6/10.

Most Conventional Beatty Film

[bkrauser-81-311064 · 7/10 · 6 December 2016]

Rules Don't Apply is a showbiz comedy about two star-crossed lovers. But it might just as well be director, producer and star Warren Beatty's mantra. Every so often the man steps out of whatever dimly lit bungalow he lives in and comes out with a big, bold project that stands quixotically and defiantly against the mores of the time. Reds (1981) grated harshly against the easy money proclivities of the Reagan Era while Dick Tracy (1990) looked backwards through the pulpy pages of loose leaf Americana while we looked on towards a post-communist world. Bulworth (1998), arguably Beatty's most radical film ripped off the facade of the yuppie, blue dog Clinton administration, revealing deep fissures between white liberals and the dreams differed of black Americans (albeit as told through the coddled, tone-deaf worldview of a limousine liberal). Now with Rules Don't Apply, Beatty is in full navel-gazing mode, making a movie so thematically simple that it's conventionality is its own form of radicalism.

The film details the brief stint in La La Land of one Marla Mabrey (Collins), the recently crowned Apple Blossom Queen and new RKO starlet on-call. She arrives fresh-faced from Fresno and encounters naive company driver Frank Forbes (Ehrenreich) who, like Marla, hopes to meet their employer Howard Hughes (Beatty). Problem is, this is 1958 and Howard Hughes has not spoken to anyone outside of his close circle of confidants for years. Caught in a state of arrested development, Frank and Marla begin a chaste attraction which alters their futures in unexpected ways.

Beatty portrays Hughes as a full on Falstaffian character; full of wit and intelligence but far too reckless and in-his-own-head to be taken seriously. He fits himself ever so awkwardly into the center of the action, allowing an ensemble cast of A-listers to orbit around the chaos that Hughes creates. It's an interesting mess to be sure. Hughes is simultaneously the most interesting character in the entire movie and the broadest; less a person than an event like the sinking of the Titanic.

Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich simply can't hope to compete for attention and screen time, even if their pleasant mugs immediately bring to mind James Dean and the luminous Audrey Hepburn respectively. They make the most out of their piddly roles with Collins managing to warble the catchy old-fashion title song and make the whole scene seem relevant. Yet when compared to the exacerbated gasps of Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt, Steve Coogan and Matthew Broderick, our two lovers are completely washed out of the film's more interesting excesses.

And there are some pretty fun excesses. There are solid if low- hanging comedic setups, snappy dialogue and goofy sequences of frenetic action which would otherwise seem slight if not for the fact that comedies are straight-up never made like this anymore. They also keep the ball rolling, making sure everything makes sense without much dead air.

In a career spanning nearly seventy years, Warren Beatty is about the closest thing to Hollywood royalty you got still working today. If you ignore his filmography, and have the patience to sit through a few stale jokes, Rules Don't Apply is basically a lesser Cafe Society (2016). Yet considering Beatty's work is often ahead of its time, Rules Don't Apply is basically a 90's Ganz/Mandel comedy mimicking the sensibilities of the 30's taking place in the 50's starring a guy not relevant since the 80's.

Steve Mnuchin AND Louise Linton? There goes the neighborhood.

[lee_eisenberg · 6/10 · 7 September 2017]

Without a doubt, Howard Hughes was one of the most eccentric and enigmatic figures of the 20th century. A billionaire who went into the movie business, he left his mark on a number of industries. Martin Scorsese focused on part of Hughes's career with "The Aviator". Now Warren Beatty does so with "Rules Don't Apply". This one looks at a relationship between one of Hughes's starlets and her driver in the 1950s. It's not a great movie, but infinitely better than Beatty's last movie, the crime against humanity "Town & Country" (which rivaled Woody Allen's worst movie "Everyone Says I Love You" in being an obnoxious fetishization of neurotic New Yorkers having affairs with each other).

The only thing that drags this movie down is the appearance of two people: Steve Mnuchin (as a banker) and Louise Linton (as a potential starlet). They're now husband and wife. He's Treasury Secretary, while she Instagrammed a photo of herself and tagged the designers, and proceeded to make a let-them-eat-cake remark when a woman criticized her use of a government plane for travel (this was after she published a book purporting to tell of a year that she spent in Zambia, but the entire nation of Zambia disdained it as a promotion of the white savior trope).

Anyway, it's a good movie otherwise. Aside from Beatty, it stars Lily Collins, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, Dabney Coleman and Ed Harris. To put that another way, it stars Clyde Barrow, Snow White, Carolyn Burnham, Capt. Willard, Jack Ryan, Ferris Bueller, Murphy Brown, a creepy boss and Jackson Pollock.

in brief: good for the parts that work so well, though it comes with a price

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 22 November 2016]

With Warren Beatty's Rules Don't Apply, there may be some high expectations going in, and it's not because people are looking so forward to finally seeing Alden Ehrenreich and Lily Collins in a (semi) romantic coupling (though they are equal parts charming and serious in this film, able to go to awkward comic moments and those Big Dramatic Confrontation Moments in ways that are wonderful and surprising and shows they have a good director at the helm).

And it's not even because people may be clamoring for another movie about the genius-cum-iconoclast-cum-megalomaniac Howard Hughes, since, well, we should have practically everything we'd need to see in Scorsese's The Aviator (which, by the way, these two movies share not only a couple of set pieces, at very different time periods in history, but Alec Baldwin too in a fairly important supporting role).

No, I know I expect more of Warren Beatty after an 18 year absence (lets forget Town & Country for now) and the biggest problem is that he had final cut and put something together that is 25% a choppily edited mess. Whether he cut down for time, I'm sure I don't know, though having *four* credited editors is never a great sign.

Having said this, however, it's also a case where the parts are better, more entertaining, more charming, more engaging, more... just MORE than the whole, and one of Beattys underrated gifts as an actor and director - off kilter comic timing and eccentricity - is on excellent display here. It's a genuine if somewhat flawed and all over the place romantic comedy with some genuinely moving overtones for being essentially about... Being kind to people.

If this is his swan song, it could've been worse.

Somewhat whimsical take on Howard Hughes and his quirks.

[TxMike · 30 September 2017]

My wife and I watched this at home on BluRay from our public library. To me it is great entertainment, she rated it a bit lower.

The BD extras are interesting, apparently Warren Beatty has had the idea for many years, to write, direct, and star in this fictional story surrounding Howard Hughes and his many quirks. But always with a smile and a wink of the eye.

It starts in 1959, Hollywood, and ends in 1964. Young aspiring starlet from West Virginia Lily Collins as Marla Mabrey is one of several invited by Hughes to try out for movie roles. Her mom is played well by Annette Bening who, of course, in real life is married to Warren Beatty.

Marla's driver is Alden Ehrenreich as Frank Forbes, with a serious girlfriend back home south of L.A. And he is warned a sure way to get fired is to pursue one of the young starlets. Of course he and Marla become attracted to each other and begin a romance in secret. At one point when she is questioning what rules affect her he says, "To you rules don't apply", thus the title of the movie.

Meanwhile we see glimpses of various Hughes escapades, one of his crashes of an experimental plane, his building the Spruce Goose and its successful flight, his troubles with TWA, and finally a conference phone call where he needed to prove to the world that he was alive and sane.

Some will not like this movie for Beatty's portrayal of Howard Hughes, he was clearly doing it in a whimsical manner, but for me it totally worked, to me this movie is a complete success. It has a lot of other good actors including Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, Martin Sheen.

Funny, Sentimental, Mature.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 14 November 2017]

The two lovers in this semi-fictional tale of Howard Hughes, his girl friends, and his bodyguard, are Alden Erenreich, who begins as a driver for Hughes and works his way up to chief cook and bottle washer, and Lilly Collins, a young naif from Front Royal, Virginia, who has put her education on a back burner after being put "on the hook" to Hughes and brought to Los Angeles for a screen test for a movie that will never be made. Their features are such that at time, if you squint properly, it seems that Leonardo de Caprio is kissing Elizabeth Taylor. We follow their careers in parallel.

Warren Beatty, the producer, has brought a fine cast together and put them to work in a sentimental but successful comedy. The character holding the entire massive thing together is Howard Hughes himself, played to the bone by Beatty. He makes no attempt to capture the historic Hughes, the kind of extreme obsessive-compulsive that only great wealth can permit to exist without alarm bells ringing all over the place. Instead, Beatty gives us a loud. cheerful, reckless, clumsy, impulsive, and funny Howard Hughes -- always worrying that somebody's trying to "put me in the nut house." The best illustration has Beatty sitting alone in a darkened theater, listening to some Gofer read back his letter to some law enforcement agency. The letter is about a missing cat that belongs to Hughes' new wife. So we watch Beatty entranced by his own vulgar demands about a man with his resources and the disappeared cat, while Beatty twitches with delight and nods his head emphatically to underline the points his letter is making, perfectly satisfied with himself.

I won't outline the plot but I'll say that it alternates between mostly understated comedy and sober softheartedness, with comedy predominant towards the beginning and emotionalism at the end, leading us to two happy lovers departing Hughes and misleading us to one Hughes and one lost love.

That the rules don't apply is a reassurance given by Erenreich to Collins, who is concerned that the rules of Hollywood require her to give it up despite her stern Baptist upbringing, but of course the rules don't apply to Howard Hughes either. The notion of freedom from norms is caught up in a simple and tune written by Collins, accompanied by rather nifty lyrics. It's not so much that the rules don't apply. It's that to a great extent we make our own rules except for biological imperatives. We all grow up, grow old, and die. And there are several references, in the lyrics and elsewhere, of lost youth and fearful age. Of Collins it has to be said that she's right purty. Her features and gracile physique lend her an adolescent quality that's appealing.

I admire the film especially because it lack the usual dumbed-down quality that afflicts so many Hollywood productions these days. Good job.

Wanted to like this so much

[larry-solomon3 · 4/10 · 21 November 2016]

Really hope in time I'll realize that I just missed something, but as much as I hate to say it, this was somewhat disappointing. Any Beatty film will certainly have much to praise, and this is no exception - looks great, sounds great, great acting from an incredible cast, many funny moments - but the story doesn't hold up to the superior levels of the other areas. Out of respect for not giving anything away, I'll be vague, but there are a couple of major plot points that are rather forced. I'll trust that the protagonist's eccentricities are accurate reflections, but by the end, I just didn't care and many moments felt more like eccentricity for the sake of eccentricity. I remain such a fan that not sure if I want people to agree with this review or convince me that I'm wrong. My apologies, Mr. Beatty. I'll see anything you make and hope this won't be your last, but overall I didn't find this whole equal to the sum of its parts.

Boring and pointless

[neil-476 · 6/10 · 14 May 2018]

Marla Mabrey is a naive but beautiful virgin, one of many ingénues kept on the payroll by Howard Hughes in the hope of Hollywood stardom. There is mutual attraction between her and driver Frank - he is also hopeful of using the Hughes connection as a step up - but they are both scared of the warning that moving that attraction forward is grounds for dismissal.

This set-up is made clear in the trailer. What happens from here onwards is that the film - written and directed by Warren Beatty - concentrates on Howard Hughes as he gets deeper and deeper into his squirrelly period, spending much of this 127 minute film in deep shadow or behind curtains. Since Beatty also plays Hughes, one comes to the conclusion that this is essentially a vanity project. It is also pretty dull.

The trailer also leads you to believe it is a comedy. Despite some amusing moments, it isn't. So, it's neither a romance nor a comedy. In fact, it's far from clear exactly what sort of film it is other than a long and not-very-interesting one.

There is a phenomenal cast, but most of them are given very little to do. Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich as the ostensible romantic leads are pleasing, but somewhat betrayed in that the movie isn't actually about them at all.

The period production values are heavily in evidence, and Caleb Deschanel's cinematography is gorgeous.

And you leave the cinema two hours later going "What was that all about, then?"

Flawed Narrative

[Johnny-113 · 5/10 · 1 January 2017]

I'm surprised that Warren Beatty returned to directing after almost 20 years with another film about a disturbed man who is falling apart. Even more, why make another Howard Hughes film? You'd learn more about Hughes by watching the Tommy Lee Jones film or "The Aviator." Mr. Beatty was trying to be contemporary with the editing of the film (4 editors by the way) by cutting away from a scenes abruptly that were starting to get interesting.

The pace of the romance between the two lead characters was uneven and thus hard to believe. The costumes, production design, cinematography and much of the acting was great, but the narrative was confusing. There was a lot of interesting quirkiness and style, but because the point of view was scattered, it was hard to really get to know the characters.

Well...Maybe if the rules did apply to Warren Beatty, this would have been a better flick.

[subxerogravity · 6/10 · 30 November 2016]

When I first saw the trailer that announced Warren Beatty's "comeback" I was thinking at best I would find the movie above mediocre. I personally understand Beatty's stasis as Hollywood Royalty, but I myself am not the biggest fan of any of his films to feel for him like that.

I am a big fan of the film's topics, like Howard Hughes who I love both as Hollywood Royalty and his love of Aviation, two points that Beatty's movie hits upon greatly as he portrays an older version of Hughes, when his reputation turned from eccentric billionaire to complete wack job.

But Beatty's role is more of supporting one as the story centers around two people in Hughes life: Marla Mabrey ,a young scarlet with good Christian values who came to Hollywood and became one of Hughes contract girls, and Frank Forbes, Marla's driver, also with the same Christian values as Marla, that's being broken down by Tinsel Town.

It was met to be one of those quirky comedies about a quirky man, and it should have worked but it did not.

Well if you don't use it you could loose it, cause unlike other senor filmmakers, like Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen, who make film after film in order to keep the blood of creativity flowing, Beatty was living the good life having fun in the son.

Beatty may have taken a little too much time off however, and it does show in this below mediocre film.

Beatty's superstar black book could not help him, either. The parade of movie star cameos only pointed out how dull this movie is.

So, not nearly what I would expect from icon, Warren Beatty but I think I'm putting too much on a man that I don't personally have on a pedestal.

Makes all the right jabs but never hits the spot.

http://cinemagardens.com

Warren Beatty's Self-Delusional Movie

[jasoneg-87792 · 1/10 · 25 November 2016]

I really, really wanted to like this movie. Howard Hughes is a fascinating person, and the idea of a rich person who faces psychological challenges, plus who has "average" people surrounding him, who are tempted by his challenges to remain silent... so many wonderful and interesting opportunities for a movie.

In a nutshell, this is a delusional movie written, produced, and directed by a movie star (Warren Beatty) who clearly has too much money and influence, and whose friends and wife were unwilling to tell him how bad it was, and how desperately the movie needed a plot. Conflict? None. Drama? None. Nothing happens - it's worse than watching ice melt, grass grow, or paint peel.

Warren Beatty makes documentary movie about himself, pretending to be a movie about Howard Hughes.

This movie lacks a plot. I mean really, really really lacks a plot. There is little to no conflict, bizarre switching between scenes, and just nothing happens. It was so bad I begged my wife to leave, and my other daughter, but unfortunately my older daughter (who likes documentaries) insisted on staying... so we stayed. I want my time back Warren Beatty! You took 1.75 hours of my life, and it's gone...

We came back home and read Wikipedia about Howard Hughes, learning and enjoying it more (for free). Oh, and finally - the movie was so bad it motivated me to finally sign up for IMDb so I could trash it. Don't waste your money or your time.

Looking Back With Mahler

[totalwonder · 9/10 · 9 September 2017]

I have so much to say about this gem that I'm not sure where to start from. Let me just say that as soon as I heard Gutav Mahler's Adagietto coming out of the Hollywood Bowl while the young virginal couple sit in the car facing the moon, I was transported to Venice, the Venice of Luchino Visconti in Death in Venice. Throughout the film Mahler's Adagietto kept magically coming back so, for me, that's the film. Art and commerce, too much and too little, life and death. Warren Beatty, writer, director, producer also stars as Howard Hughes, a character who's lived in Warren Beatty's mind for decades. He moved me. It was clear why Hughes was a character that could allow Beatty to talk about very personal things without having to do it in first person. - Mia Farrow told Michael Caine between takes in Hannah And Her Sisters: "Woody is telling me things through you" - Here Warren Beatty is telling us things about him through Howard Hughes. A mass of contradictions that can only be explained in the heart and mind of an artist. I'm already a huge fan of Alden Ehrenreich right from Tetro and here he is wonderful, tender and real. Lily Collins is new to me but Annette Bening, well Annette Bening reminded me in her few minutes on the screen that she is one of the greatest actresses we've got. Death in Venice and the last image of Howard Hughes left me with a knot in my throat. I will certainly see it again, just as sure that Rules Don't Apply will be rediscovered in years to come.

too much HH

[ferguson-6 · 6/10 · 22 November 2016]

Greetings again from the darkness. Few films can match this one for pedigree. Actor/Director/Producer/Writer Warren Beatty is a 14-time Oscar nominee (won for Best Director, Reds, 1982) and Hollywood legend. Screenwriter Bo Goldman is a 3 time Oscar nominee, and has won twice (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Melvin and Howard). The cast includes 4-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris, 4-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening (Beatty's wife), and other Oscar nominees: Alec Baldwin, Amy Madigan, Candice Bergen, and Steve Coogan. The all-star production also features Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (a 5 time Oscar nominee), Co-Editors Leslie Jones and Billy Weber (both Oscar nominees), and two-time Oscar winner, Costume Designer Albert Wolsky. It's Mr. Beatty's first time directing since Bulworth (1998) and first time acting since Town & Country (2011). Being such a filmmaking icon, he attracts some of the most talented folks in the industry whenever he decides to work.

Of course, this isn't a career retrospective and there are no brownie points won for surrounding yourself with the cinematically decorated elite. It still comes down to the movie, and unfortunately, this one is never as exciting, entertaining or funny as it seems to think it is.

Rumors of Warren Beatty making a Howard Hughes movie have bounced around for decades, and it appears this is as close as we'll get. The director himself plays the billionaire, and the story mostly revolves around the time the enigmatic man (Hughes, not Beatty) was most involved with Hollywood and the movie business. Much of the dialogue and the majority of the scenes involving Hughes emphasize (and enhance?) the man's idiosyncrasies that bordered on mental instability. Beatty mostly plays him as a mumbling and shrugging goofball who dines on TV dinners and is frightened of children.

The best parts of the movie don't involve Hughes, and instead feature the youngsters trying to make their way in his convoluted organization. Lily Collins (Phil's daughter) plays Marla Mabrey, a wanna-be starlet committed to her staunch religious upbringing – said beliefs incessantly reinforced by her distrusting mother (Annette Bening). Her driver is Frank Forbes played by Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!), and his own agenda involves convincing Howard Hughes to invest in a real estate development project on Mulholland Drive. As expected, sparks fly between the young actress and the equally conservative young visionary, and we find ourselves engaged with them – in good times and bad.

The two youngsters have some nice screen chemistry that multiple times is brought to a screeching halt by the inclusion of yet another cockamamie Howard Hughes scene – most of which feel more like Beatty's desire to be on screen rather than an extension of the story. These intrusions prevent any real flow to the film and actually bog down the most interesting aspects of the story. In fact, the disruptions cause us to spend more time "spotting the celeb" than caring about the characters. The list of familiar faces that pop up include: Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Taissa Farmiga, Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Chase Crawford, Martin Sheen (as Noah Dietrich), Oliver Platt, Steve Coogan, Dabney Coleman, Paul Sorvino, and even Candice Bergen (as Hughes' secretary).

It's easy to see the nostalgia and fond memories that Mr. Beatty has of this late 50's – early 60's era in Hollywood. It was all about glamour and the magic of what's on screen. The real Howard Hughes story is at least as interesting, if not more so, than the history of Hollywood, but the cartoonish aspects of the billionaire here don't hold up to such previous works as The Aviator, or even Melvin and Howard.

These days, the Howard Hughes Hollywood legacy is barely a blip – a few recall Jane Russell's close-up or the air battles of Hell's Angels, while fewer know the RKO Studios story. Warren Beatty's movie legacy is much more than a blip; however his latest adds little to the legend.

This goose never got off the ground

[Prismark10 · 2/10 · 17 February 2017]

I have a lot of time for Warren Beatty. He is one of the few people to be nominated for Oscars in the main four categories for a film twice. Best actor, screenplay, director and producer for the films Heaven Can Wait and Reds.

Rule Don't Apply is his first film since since 2001. It is set in 1958 Hollywood and follows the romantic relationship between a young aspiring actress who is a devout Christian and her driver. Both are employed by Howard Hughes and according to the rules, both are forbidden to enter a relationship but they do as they wait to meet Howard Hughes.

Beatty who can be notoriously slow has been developing this project for more than 40 years after seeing Howard Hughes in a hotel lobby in the early 1970s.

The film is billed as a romantic comedy but is just constipated and pallid. Empty as the real life Hughes in his later years when he was filled up with drugs.

The only stand out moment is the farcical plane scene in London when Steve Coogan pops up (I presume he took this as an opportunity to appear with a screen legend.) For film nerds it is amusing to see Alec Baldwin show up in another film on Howard Hughes as he also appeared in Scorsese's The Aviator.

The only positive I can find is that Beatty the Director used digital to seamlessly blend the vintage film of Hollywood and other places.

Uneven to Say the Least but It Was Entertaining

[Michael_Elliott · 1 December 2016]

Rules Don't Apply (2016)

*** (out of 4)

Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins) arrives in Hollywood as a contract player for the one and only Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty) but before long she realizes all the weird stories she's heard about him are true. She strikes up a friendship with her driver Alden (Frank Forbes), although they can't take it any further due to Hughes' rules about his workers dating his future stars. Before long the two young people grow closer to each other as well as Hughes.

Isn't it shocking that it's been nearly twenty-years since Beatty wrote and directed a movie? It's even more shocking that it's been fifteen-years since he acted in one. There have been rumors of Beatty doing a Howard Hughes bio-pic for decades and it was rather shocking when news broke that he was finally making it. In another shocking turn, what people got certainly wasn't what they expected. I saw the movie six days after its release and it's already bombed with critics and at the box office. Sadly the picture just wasn't what people expected or wanted and who knows if this is the last time we see the legend on the big screen.

I must admit that it's rather shocking to see Beatty basically making an old-fashioned romantic comedy. I mean, he could have done that but why waste his Hughes bio on that type of movie? I want to say that I did enjoy the movie and I found it to be quite charming but at the same time you just have to wonder what was going on with this thing. The picture is certainly uneven to say the least. The first hour is basically the romantic side of the two young characters with Hughes basically a supporting player. The second half of the picture kicks up the drama and darker elements as the romantic couple take a back seat and Hughes gets the attention. I'm really not sure why they done the story this way but it seems like one or the other would have made for something better. Did I mention the strange sex/religion stuff going on?

As I said, once you get over the fact that this isn't the type of movie you're expecting, once you set back into your seat, what we get here is pretty good. I thought the romance actually worked in an old-fashioned type of way and there were certainly some great performances here. Both Collins and Forbes are terrific together. Both of them nail their characters and they also share a terrific chemistry with each other. Collins is really the stand out as she perfectly captures the innocence of her character. Beatty is also terrific in his supporting role. The first portion of the film has him doing a lot of great comic timing but Beatty gets to show his dramatic side in the second half with the character's troubles come into play. It really makes you wonder what he could have done in a straight bio. The supporting players feature some very well-known actors and all of them do a fine job.

RULES DON'T APPLY has some great cinematography, nice music selection and for the most part it's just a charming and fun film. Until the drama starts and then the drama works just fine as well. I just don't think the two mixed all that well and that's why the film seems uneven. Sadly, RULES DON'T APPLY will probably become known as being a major flop, which is too bad because there's a good movie here. Most people probably won't see that because we expected more from Beatty.

Good Actors/Good Cameos/Bad Casting

[stevendbeard · 6/10 · 26 November 2016]

I saw "Rules Don't Apply", starring Warren Beatty-Bulworth, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis_tv; Alden Ehrenreich-Hail,Caesar!, Beautiful Creatures; Lily Collins-The Mortal Instruments:City of Bones, Priest, and Yep, she is Phil's daughter and Matthew Broderick-Trainwreck, Godzilla_1998.

This is a story about the life of Howard Hughes and it is written and directed by Warren Beatty-Oh yeah, he also stars in it. Warren plays Howard as most people remember him, as being just a tad eccentric. Some people might have even said, a little on the crazy side. Anyway, this story covers the late 1950's until the early 1960's which would make the real Howard to be somewhere in his late 50's at that time-he was born in 1905 and died in 1976 so he was 71 when he died. Warren is older than the real Howard was when he died-Warren is 79. As far as the look and feel of the movie being authentic, it looked fine. Lily plays a young girl that comes to Hollywood to become a star. Besides his aviation interests, Howard also had a movie production company that put out a few films and actresses would flock to his studio to be in one of them. If they were hired, they were called contract actresses because they would be under a contract to do so many movies at a certain price per film. Alden and Matthew are drivers that would chauffeur the young actresses- and Howard-when needed. Howard believed that each girl should have a driver to take care of her but no driver was ever allowed to fraternize with the girls, under penalty of being fired. Lily also sings-did I mention that her father is Phil Collins?-the title song a couple of times in the movie and it's kind of a catchy tune. There are several good cameos: I remember seeing Martin Sheen, Candice Bergen, Oliver Platt, Ed Harris, Annette Bening and Alec Baldwin. It's rated "PG-13" for language, drug use and sexual content-no nudity- and has a running time of 2 hours & 6 minutes. It's not one that I would buy on DVD-once was enough-but if you can get past a 79 year old playing a 55 year old, you might enjoy it more than I did-that wasn't the only reason, but a part of it. It would be alright as a rental.

Better only because it is "lighthearted" amongst other movie offerings

[nyccents · 6/10 · 27 November 2016]

In a sentence, this movie is more enjoyable and seemingly better because everything else in the theaters this Thanksgiving is so dire, emotionally wrenching, violent and/or sci-fi. This is a chic film, and not even a good one. One reviewer said it best, something to the effect that individual scenes work better than the whole movie put together.

Of course, given that it is essentially a rom-com, perhaps I am expecting too much. Which is a shame because really there was great potential to clean it up and go somewhere with this movie. The story is inane, too many subplots that go nowhere, Beatty as Howard Hughes doesn't hold a candle to Leonardo DiCaprio's brilliant portrayal, all the cameos are only distracting, and ultimately the ending is less than satisfying.

I went on Sunday, at 1:00, Thanksgiving weekend, and the theater was empty. Clearly the word is out that this movie isn't worth the money to attend. I concur.

79 year old Beatty as Howard Hughes in his prime. Ruined movie

[vato7959 · 2/10 · 25 November 2016]

79 year old Beatty as Howard Hughes in his prime. Ruined movie! Howard

Hughes was the biggest celebrity and biggest stud in the country. He was Errol Flynn and John Wayne mixed into one genius It is arrogant and selfish to think some senior citizen can play the most exciting man in the country.

Maybe we should have 86 year old Clint Eastwood star in a biography of Errol Flynn in his swash buckler prime.

Movies watcher only get a few movies each year not based on comic books so we are very excited to watch a grown up movie.

Unfortunately, this movie did not deliver. I hope Mr Beatty didn't spend all of his Social Security benefits on this movie production

An episode in the life of Howard Hughes ...

[thor2029 · 7/10 · 15 February 2017]

It must be said that I knew Warren Beatty as a magnificent actor and super director of very good movies: Reds, Bleuworth where even Heaven can wait ... Here with a story about a period in the life of Howard Hughes And on the many people taken in his game of the whimsical and a little crazy ... I can say that he did not choose a subject of the easiest and it nevertheless knew to underline all the eccentricities of the latter, even if the Scenario is not original, he knew how to treat him brilliantly, but personally and I found some scenes of the film too slow for my taste, nevertheless I was still a little seduced by Howard's life Hughes, he was undoubtedly a mysterious and entertaining figure on the screen, in life and those who rubbed shoulders, for them that was another story. Good movie is good, good achievement and a beautiful music from: Eddie Arkin. Now it's up to you to see.

Rules Don't Apply To This Film. And The Quality Shows

[rgkarim · 5/10 · 26 November 2016]

Today's review is on the film entitled Rules Don't Apply, a film that critics call the best movie of the year. Haven't heard of it? Don't worry, you aren't alone as this movie flew under the radar thanks to the blockbusters coming out this weekend. For those caring to know, it is a film portraying the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes and the many people caught up in his game of... craziness. Does this movie live up to the hype of the trailers? As always it's my job to share my thoughts and report on the latest film to hit the theater trenches.

LIKES: • The setting • The portrayal of Hollywood • Warren Beatty's performance

This weekend seems to involve taking trips into the past, as Rules Don't Apply drops you back into the mid 1960s and all the cultural trends of the era. This film has costumes and sets that recreate the time period, helping immerse you into environment that existed 50 years ago. All the promising hope and youthful energy are unleashed, trying to bring about the fun times Hollywood brought with it in the golden age of cinema. And if you could care less about the ambiance, then you will get a good laugh at some of the ridiculous trends the era fostered, especially when the film pokes fun at it. For you drama lovers though, a strong quality of this film is the portrayal of Hollywood and the obstacles it presents for our "heroes". Rules Don't Apply does a fine job of showing how Hollywood promises fame, fortune and excitement to the aspiring, only for the cold-hearted politics to rip that promise away in an instant. Be warned the tale is somewhat depressing, but I give props for a studio revealing the ugly face hidden behind the makeup and lights. Yet the main strength of this movie is Warren Beatty's performance as Howard Hughes. If you don't know much about the man, read Wikipedia and you'll find he had a generous and ambiguous allocation of funds and attention. Beatty portrays that unorganized way of thinking perfectly, showing the erratic pressured speech, the flight of thoughts, and troubled looks of a man with too much on his mind. And as time passes, and status' change, Beatty adapts his look and talents to portray more of the madness during Hughes downward spiral. He was dynamic, he was funny, and he sold me on how much struggle the man went through all those decades ago.

DISLIKES: • The actors' chemistry • The lost potential • Soap opera theatrics • Boring • The editing

It was hard to pick a starting point for my dislikes, but the actors' chemistry through me off in this movie. Our potential star crossed lovers were more awkward than romantic and it felt like the two leads were forced to work together (like we saw in Twilight and The Star Wars prequels). Our young actors felt stiff together, the ability to act off one another not quite as polished or believable as I had hoped. While I understand relationships can start out this way, the chemistry didn't move past this until near the end of the film. Instead, the relationship and acting continued to move into the overdramatic region, ascending to levels that soap operas make famous. Much of the theatrics were more eye-rolling annoying than appreciative, and I prayed for something to end the nonsensical love story they were trying to sell. Fortunately, the other relationships that main character Frank Forbes had to foster made up for the stiff romance story of this film. I can't just pin the poor relationship on the acting. No, the main dislike for me in this movie is the editing. Beatty may be a good actor, but his writing and directing need some work to help improve his storytelling ability. Rules Don't' Apply seemed to have difficulty determining what kind of movie it wanted to be. So instead they decided to mash everything together into a multi- genre menagerie that didn't work. Much of the film were snippets of Hughes' endeavors hastily crammed together to provide some entertainment. And while I laughed at times, the irrelevance to the plot became very irritating by the end of the film. And even worse, these interruptions destroyed the coherence of the plot and weakened the overall tale, especially in regards to the character development. If this is entertaining to you great, but if you are like me…you'll be bored by all the unnecessary components and the extended run time.

THE VERDICT:

Rules Don't Apply may be artistic and have one heck of a leading performance. However, past that this film's storytelling needs an overhaul/remake to get the job done. It's unfocused editing, overdramatic acting, and slow pace did not entertain me as much as I had hoped. You are better off waiting for this one to hit home folks, where you can at least nap through most of the movie if you get bored. But if you want a drama with lots of moving pieces…Rules Don't Apply is the film for you.

My scores: Comedy/Drama/Romance: 5.0 Movie Overall: 4.0

Another movie about Howard Hughes, but does enough to make it seem new and interesting and definitely worth your time.

[cosmo_tiger · 7/10 · 25 February 2017]

"Maybe your wealth isn't the best thing for your health." Marla Mabrey (Collins) finally gets the chance to live out her dream of becoming an actress. She signs a contract and is waiting for her screen test for a movie. The longer she waits the more anxious she becomes and attempts to finally meet her employer face to face, but Howard Hughes (Beatty) isn't known for being available. This is a movie that I had low expectations for. The cast in this is incredible but movies about the reclusiveness of Howard Hughes have been done over and over. I'm not sure if that played a part in my enjoyment or not but I actually liked this a lot more than I was expecting to. The acting is really good and Beatty does a great job playing Hughes as he slips further into madness. This is nothing to rush out and see but this is a movie that was much better than I expected and surprisingly do recommend. Overall, another movie about Howard Hughes, but does enough to make it seem new and interesting and definitely worth your time. I give this a B.

Thank God I didn't pay for this...

[xristinad · 2/10 · 18 July 2018]

Reaaally tiring movie....In the first 20 minutes you're like "ok it seems interesting..don't know what's going on here but I guess we'll find out soon...." I would mainly describe this movie as a pain in the a$$. The only way someone would possibly appreciate this movie, is by seeing it under the perspective of Mr Hughes disorder... Other than that...the movie is so NOT worth-watching, no matter some of the household names that play in it.

Candice Bergen

[fanaticusanonymous · 8/10 · 12 September 2017]

I love Warren Beatty, I always have. First time I saw him in a movie was in Bonnie and Clyde. For me his name had something magic. Splendor In The Grass, The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone, Lilith. The beauty of the man didn't seem to interfere with the character he was playing, remember All Fall Down? I waited for Rules Don't Apply with feverish anticipation, like I haven't waited for a movie since I was a kid. I sat through it for the first time, amused, surprised and delighted. But a few hours later the film started unreeling in my mind. Candice Bergen? Did I see Candice Bergen playing a secretary, handing papers, standing in the background, staring at the TV, on the phone? No, it couldn't be. Candice Bergen for goodness sake, an American icon. The thought muddled my memory of the film. I saw Rules Don't Apply again last night. Yes, it was Candice Bergen. Wow! What one will do for friends. On a second viewing I saw it as an unsentimental valentine to what it was, with a hopeful wonderous future beyond us way beyond us. I'll see it again soon and see what happens. Cheers Mr Beatty.

Technically excellent, as one would expect.

[steveo122 · 7/10 · 8 April 2017]

Starring the future 'Han Solo', Beatty has created a Hollywood fable about a Hollywood legend that allows him to indulge in some eccentric behavior, not unlike "Bullworth". I think Beatty has earned legend status and I think he entitled to a little self-indulgence. So it's not a big, important, 'Warren Beatty film' (who knows if he's got another one in him?), but it is a well made and 'affable' romance/comedy/drama. Lily Collins is very good, and the performances are worth seeing. I'm curious to find out if the use of what sounds like 1950's 'movie music' in the soundtrack correlates certain scenes with specific films from that era.

The problem with this film is not the film itself. It's the genre that's tagged to it!

[jseynopsis · 3/10 · 30 August 2020]

I hate it when a film is misjudged / misinterpreted.

When I watched this film, I was expecting it to be a romantic comedy, so halfway through the film, I almost wanted to switch it off. Because it was neither funny nor romantic. I was hoping to see more of Marla & Frank, but there was just too much focus on Howard Hughes.

But after I did a quick search on Howard Hughes, I realised that this film is more of a biography on him.

To be honest, if I were to rate this film as a biography, I'd give it an 8/10. But if I were to rate this film as a romantic comedy, I'd give it a 3/10. So in short, this film failed in its genre.