"An Alan Smithee Film — Burn, Hollywood, Burn" might have one of the worst titles ever thought up, but then it is fully in keeping with the movie's self-destructive tendencies.

Written by Joe Eszterhas, the junkyard dog of screenwriters, this movie is a Mad magazine parody of itself. It's as if, to circumvent criticism, the movie criticizes itself.

In some ways, the tactic works well. This Hollywood story is told through a series of documentary-like interviews with fictional characters, as well as stars Whoopi Goldberg, Sylvester Stallone and Jackie Chan playing themselves. They are discussing a film editor named Alan Smithee (Eric Idle, quirky as ever), who moved up to direct his first film, "Trio," a huge-budget Hollywood action extravaganza.

But when James Edmunds (Ryan O'Neal), the fast-talking veteran producer of "Trio," makes some high-pressure suggestions, rather than sacrifice what Eszterhas seems to laughingly regard as artistic integrity (as if there could be such a thing in Hollywood), Smithee steals the negative and goes into hiding.

The in-jokes fly, starting with the fact that when a director is so dissatisfied with a movie that he refuses to allow his name to run in the credits, the name the producers must substitute (according to Directors Guild rules) is Alan Smithee.

And of course, life imitates art, so not only is the "Trio" director named Alan Smithee (a poor fellow who will never be able to take his name off a picture), but when Arthur Hiller, who actually directed this film, wanted his name taken off the picture (no doubt over a question of artistic integrity), the producers had themselves a genuine Alan Smithee film.

Isn't Hollywood grand?