Hail,
Caesar!
If only the movie was exciting enough to merit that exclamation point.
Set in 1951, George Clooney stars as Baird Whitlock – the
consummate Hollywood leading man working on a massive prestige film.
For reasons to be revealed, the star is kidnapped and held for ransom.
Like all of the problems the studio faces, it’s up to Eddie
Mannix (Josh Brolin) to get to the bottom of it, take care of it, and
make sure the press and the public never discover the truth.
Hail, Caesar! is boring.
Writers/directors Joel and Ethan Coen do a wonderful job recreating
that magical bygone Hollywood atmosphere in a way that hard core movie
history fans will appreciate, but they should have spent more time
finding interesting stories to tell within the pretty window dressing.
Instead, we have a movie where all of the actors get to roll out funny
accents. This helps prop up a series of pointless scenes, but it
doesn’t make for a good movie.
Hail, Caesar! needs more intrigue, more
twists, and more plot. Possibly, the movie is a character study about
Mannix or some view of a slice of his crazy life as he hops from set to
set and crisis to crisis, but viewers want something to follow and
invest in.
Aside from a delightful and double entendre packed song and dance
number from Channing Tatum, Hail, Caesar! drags from start to
finish without the crackling energy a comedy needs to deliver to make
us laugh.
Hail,
Caesar! is rated PG-13 for some
suggestive content and smoking.
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