Woody Allen's new romantic comedy, "Anything Else," which occupied the coveted position of opening-night selection at the 60th annual Venice International Film Festival, would be a lot funnier if the jokes hadn't been heard countless times before in the writer-director's earlier, better works. The film isn't terrible (which is always damning with faint praise), so commercial prospects fall within the usual limited Allen boxoffice range. The Allen persona has become a character in itself, a staple of the filmmaker's comedies even when he casts somebody else in the role, as he did with Kenneth Branagh in "Celebrity" and John Cusack in "Bullets."

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