Hail, Caesar!

Caught this at a screening the other night, and wasn't very impressed. The laughs are infrequent, and it's downright boring in stretches. It does have its moments, though: My favorite was Brolin trying to get reassurance from an array of religious leaders that his new biblical epic won't offend anyone. And Ehrenreich, who I'd never heard of, was great as the clueless but sincere rodeo expert who has somehow fallen into serious act-ting... much to Ralph Fiennes' chagrin. Who knew a line like "if only it were so simple?" could generate such hilarity? Such moments are few and far between, though.

Overall, this is a C+ flick - I think it's getting over-rated by critics just cuz of the Coens' name. It's one of their weaker efforts.

Review: I'm usually a fan of these type of quirky movies but this film was all over the place! There was so much stories going on at once, so it was pretty hard to follow and I wasn't that impressed with the different characters that kept on getting introduced throughout the movie. George Clooney's weird face expressions made me laugh in a few of the scenes and Tilda Swinton, who played the twins Thora Thacker/Thessaly Thacker, also was quite funny but I didn't really see the point of some of the characters. Jonah Hill (Joe Silverman) and Ralph Fiennes (Laurence Laurentz) are only in a couple of scenes, and the main character, Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) just seems to be running around, trying to keep everyone happy. The movie is based in a movie studio during the 1950's, and it follows Eddie Mannix, who is trying to find a big shot actor, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), who has been kidnapped by a bunch of writers. While he is on the hunt for Whitlock, who is being held for a ransom of $100,000, Mannix has to make sure that the big budget movies that are being filmed, are under control, and he has to handle the press who are constantly on his back for information. The period was portrayed quite well throughout the movie, and Josh Brolin played the lead quite well but it was hard to find a point to the whole project. There wasn't much of an ending to the various stories and no one seemed that bothered about Baird Whitlocks random disappearance. With all of that aside, it's a still a watchable movie, because you don't know what directed the plot is going to take from one scene to the next but I still expected something special, once I saw the cast. Its not the type of film that will go down as a classic but I have to commend it for it's originality and witty script. Watchable!

Round-Up: After watching many of the Coen Brothers work, I was really looking forward to this movie but it didn't live up to its expectations. There first movie came out in 1984, called Blood Simple, which was followed by Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink and the Hudsucker Proxy. They then hit the big time with Fargo, in 1996 and then came the brilliant, The Big Lebowski, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After that came O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, Paris, je t'aime, No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, True Grit and Inside Llewyn Davis, which all made a profit at the box office and established there name in Hollywood. All of the A-list stars want to work with them, mainly because of there unique style and approach to film making. I wouldn't say that this film is there best work but it won't damaged there reputation as great film makers.

Budget: $22million Worldwide Gross: $63million

I recommend this movie to people who are into their mystery/comedies, starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Ralph Riennes, Alden Ehrenreich, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Channing Tatum, Frances McDormand, Jonah Hill, Veronica Osorio, Alison Pill, Chrisopher Lambert and Clancy Brown. 5/10

It looks so good. Really, the feel of 1950s Hollywood has never been better, the photography is first rate with a stellar cast directed by the popular and very much held in esteem COEN BROTHERS. Trailer made it look like an fun Frank Capra kind of film. And when we walked out of it, given all the above, we missed something. A movie. There is none here. It is a great job made by talented people aplenty. It wants to be that fun film but never finds the movie. A few jokes. Not enough. Quirky fun characters, but not weird enough. Sublots aplenty, but they never run together and never are resolved. Good acting that goes nowhere. This fine film is just a bunch of dead end streets that are way too short with really interesting stuff on the side of the road but no intersection.

Neil Simon was given script advice once that all the characters have to meet in the play AT LEAST ONCE. Here, none meet at all. They have the subplot and that is it. Ending was weak too. Meh.

This film seemed to get quite a mixed response when it came out, and watching for myself I can understand why. On one hand it is a light bit of fun, which is professionally delivered in all aspects; however at the same time it always feels like it could easily have been more than this – and maybe could have delivered more along the lines of other Coen brother films. How strongly you feel about this will depend on the individual; for me I fell between the two stools.

As a comedy I enjoyed it. It had smart dialogue and characters, all with plenty of color and atmosphere. At the same time the film looked great from the cinematography through to the cast involved. This did work against it for me too then; mainly because it seemed to always harken back to other films such as Barton Fink, and other better films. This feeling is confirmed because Hail Caesar! is at its best in the moment, but doesn't really build or develop into something more satisfying. It is still funny, very well delivered, and enjoyable as part of the familiar Coen world, but they have done better, and it is hard not to think that while watching this.

I am a huge Coen Brothers Fan. Many of their films are hard core 10's in my ratings and I had an uneasy feeling going into this one. The trailer made me think of Intolerable Cruelty more than O Brother Where Art Thou or many of their other films.

It felt like a strung together series of little set pieces that didn't hang together as a whole. I won't mention the plot since there was virtually none and what there was was fairly flat and unimportant.

Normally the Brothers can overcome a weak plot (although strong plot-lines have driven several of their movies) with strong quirky performances and memorable cinematography.

Sadly, the dialog lacked snap, the film didn't pop off the screen looks wise, given that it's a period piece, and with such a strong cast, everyone looked tired - almost as if they had come in to film their parts after getting off their day jobs and they were just doing a favor to the Coen's.

Overall I've seen much worse but when you go to a Coen Brothers film, you just expect much more.