Big named cast, but just didn't deliver. Kinda boring actually.
I was really impressed by the cast, but in the end was really disappointed. I didn't fully understand the point of the story, so I was confused half of the time. I was really bored throughout the movie – waiting for it to get more interesting…
[7.4/10] It would be too much to call Hail, Caesar! a deconstruction of Old Hollywood glamour. It would also be too much to call it a tribute to that 1950s studio sparkle either. Instead, it’s a love letter written with a poison pen -- a movie about movies that both admires and recoils from the mercenary work necessary to make these dream factories run, while remaining amusingly ambivalent about the ribbons of reveries they create.
It is also a Coen Bros. movie, so grand plots and convoluted ploys nearly reach their ridiculous fruition, only to fall apart at the last minute. Scads of self-possessed personalities veer between the absurd, the self-important, and the unvarnished sweet. And in uproarious stretches that provoke guffaws and slower situational silliness that wins wry smiles, it is damn funny.
The film tells the story of a star who’s kidnapped by Communists, a simple but earnest hayseed tapped to portray an effete sophisticate, a foul-tempered starlet whose pregnancy threatens to puncture her shining public image, and any number of other fires that the studio’s fixer must put out to keep the trains running on time. That fixer, Eddie Mannix, is the spine of the film, smoothly trudging his way from one crisis to the next, avoiding derailments with his pocket watch, gumption, and effortless understanding of whom to lean on, whom to sweet talk, and whom to slap around to keep it all moving.
But he has a chance to step off the track. Mannix carries an offer from Lockheed Martin in his back pocket, one that would give him more regular hours, an in at a more professional sort of business, and a much easier life than the 27-hours-straight he has to put in to hack it as head of physical production for a Hollywood film studio.
Hail, Caesar! is neither quixotic nor cynical about what entails. It makes no bones about the absurd strictures and control that studios exert over the lives of their employees. Mannix and his confederates cook up phony adoptions, cover indiscretions with political pressure, treat their dunderheaded or demanding stars more like ornery pets than people. It touches on pay for writers, laws evaded as though they’re barely there in the first place, and a workaday mundaneness that belies all the supposed magic.
And yet, the movie also pays homage to the styles and output of that age of the cinema. From a Gene Kelly-esque sailor-filled dance number, to a series of Cowboy songs and stunts, the movie lovingly recreates the tints and tropes of the old days. Monologue-laden historical epics sit next to comedies of manners. Starlets emerge from beneath artificial waves in the same fashion as Russian subs. Hitchcockian pursuits and suspenseful car rides give ways to Capra-esque crane shots and that California glow. For however much the Coen Bros. seem poised to poke fun at, or at least acknowledge, the grim realities of celluloid shimmer, they’re just as apt to deploy it to their own, tribuative ends.
Meanwhile, they mine the insanity of this all for all the comic gold they can find. (Hello, Mr. Pocket!) A group of religious figures debate the depiction of God in the studio’s latest movie, and cosmology in general, in a scene that just drips with the Coens’ dry sense of humor. Ralph Fiennes and Alden Ehrenreich nearly blow the roof off the place in a scene where the former’s cultured director tries to coach the latter’s dopey cowboy to deliver his line with a layer of performance beyond “aw, shucks.” Empty-headed actors compare the dialectics of socialism and direct action to having to shave Danny Kaye’s back. There’s a constant strain of sly absurdity, the loonies who populate this lot and this town, that the writer/directors channel throughout for both their quiet chuckles and big laughs.
The catch is that, given the expansive cast of characters and deliberately overstuffed set of stories and conflicts and conspiracies for a harried (but never ruffled) Mannix to have to resolve, the movie feels a little too loose and aimless at times. Hail, Caesar!, contrary to the flicks it both spoofs and valorizes, doesn’t have much momentum from scene to scene. Instead, the Coens and their team are content to jump around from character to character, crisis to crisis, and conversation to conversation like a buzzed clapper boy stumbling home. Each (or at least most) of the pieces they put together are fun to watch or interesting to mull, but they rarely amount to more than the sum of their admittedly well-constructed parts.
Still, in its best moments and sequences, the film’s charms and the talents of its creatives are hard to deny. The film low-key satirizes a familiar moment in so many films about making one type of art or another. After Mannix has whacked some sense into his big star, the leading man heads to the set and delivers one of those grand oratories that defined so many of that era’s iconic films. Playing a Roman soldier whose heart is moved, he gazes upon Christ crucified (skeptically noted as a principal, rather than an extra by a P.A.), and delivers his lines with conviction and passion (not ardor). The crew looks on in admiration; the music swells, and in the climax of the speech the orator...forgets his lines.
The director yells cut. The lead grouses about how close he was. His co-star gripes about their uncomfortable Roman costumes. And the train keeps rolling. This isn’t magic or alchemy. It’s a bunch of idiots and working stiffs hacking out pleasantries in celluloid for a paycheck or at the behest of even more mercenary forces beyond their control.
But Hail, Caesar! contrasts that faux, unavailing scene of the good soldier seeking his direction before a man of god with a real one. When Mannix asks his Priest for forgiveness in the confessional, he implicitly asks him whether to take the Lockheed job, with all its ease and destruction, or to stay at this tougher racket and keep corralling these nudniks by only slightly less morally-questionable means. He walks out of that confessional reassured, ready to keep helping make those features a hard-won reality, by any means at his disposal.
That’s the optimistic cynicism of Hail, Caesar!. The movie, and by extension the Coens, don’t seem to harbor any illusions about the pure artistry of the cinematic output. The message of the film is not that all of this tricks and juggling and extra-legal measures are not somehow worth it for the beauty committed to film. But the work itself, the labor it takes, to just be a part of that machine, is its own kind of beautiful.
Movie-making, especially in the studio days, could be a slog and a grind and even a grift, in a way that belied the glitz and glamour that Tinseltown projected to the world. The Coens make no bones about that, but with decades in the business, and their tough-running fixer, they clearly still think that work is worth more than even the biggest frame could hold.
Kind of just a boring story. Coen Brothers do a good job creating interesting characters which kept me mildly engaged and the movie looks great but the story lacks plot and we do not get to spend enough time with nearly enough of the characters. Overall not a super interesting movie.
This has the typical Coen brothers quirkiness but doesn't live up to their other movies. There are some great scenes but most of it is kinda dull. I did pick up more on a rewatch but this is near the bottom of the Coen's filmography for me.
Hail, Caesar isn't the great Coen brothers movie that I wanted, but it's a one that I can enjoy and admire in some away.
This movie is both a love letter and almost an accurate look at old fashion film making. There's plenty to like here. The cinematography is excellent, the cast is superb, the humor is rich and hilarious.
But the real stand out in "Hail, Caesar" was Alden Ehrenreich. This guy was brilliant and stole every scene he's in. I'm looking forward seeing him in the Han Solo spin-off. I got faith in him. I mean, he made a convincing idiot with charm that made spaghetti as a cowboy rope- this guy can do it.
Not the Coen’s best work but it stands up to a second viewing pretty well and it’s funnier than I remembered. Although it’s easy to say Hail Caesar! lacks focus, getting on board with Eddie Mannix as he goes round fixing problems is a riot.
http://benoliver999.com/film/2016/06/17/hailcaesar/
The movie had no purpose, nothing on it actually deliver. Very boring, dull and boring again
Silly and joyful, and verging on the absurd. Which is great because Hollywood is sorely lacking in absurdism.
"Hail, Caesar!" is yet another in a long line of very entertaining Coen Brothers films. This time, it's a funny tale of a Hollywood studio kept afloat by Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin). Eddie is engaged in all sorts of chicanery, but he's grounded in morality and family. He is such a protector and so selfless. He's the kind of guy you want to be around and maybe even looking out for you.
I suppose there is a lot of truth to the bits about spoiled actors, deflected scandals, and hectic filming schedules, but that's stuff for those in the movie industry to chuckle over. What the Coen's do so well is weave in fun characters and precarious situations that even those of us in flyover country can appreciate. The conversations between characters is always great. It never tries to be overly clever and is almost always charming.
Their films always look fantastic and I appreciate their comedies more than anything else they do. It's so refreshing to be able to laugh at something other than poop and dick jokes.
The subject matter covered here isn't as interesting to me as most of their other films, but it still teeters on the brink of insanity (or reality).
Story: 8...rides the line between satire and homage
Script: 8...Coens always deliver the goods
Performances: 8...could've used one more scene with Feines, he was extraordinary
Misc.: 7
Influence: 6...took awhile to see and there really wasn't anything here I'd heard of before, which I guess means it didn't make a huge impact on the culture
Overall: 7
I think this is my favourite of the Coens' films..it's just great, that 'would that it were so simple scene ' is just hilarious
If you love Golden Age Hollywood like I do, you’ll marvel at Hail, Caesar! Great cast, great writing, and superb style as brought to you by Coen brothers.
The Channing Tatum choreography was both hillarious and very impressive
Big names but very boring. Terrible ending to boot.
Individual scenes of brilliance are better than the whole. Laugh out loud moments, great performances and a splendid evocation of old Hollywood. Its no classic but it is very enjoyable. Not the Coen's best work but still better than a lot of films out there. And hail Alden Ehrenreich , aka the new Han Solo, he has enormous talent. His scenes with Ralph Fiennes are hilarious.
I've always enjoyed the films I've seen of the Coen Brothers without ever really falling under the spell that some filmgoers do; I think part of the reason for this is that I still haven't seen a few of their films that are considered true classics. It will need to wait now that I've set myself a task of moving through cinema chronologically. Because of this, I come at 'Hail, Caesar!' from a strange angle - I haven't totally attuned myself to the films of the Coens and I'm not terribly familiar with the age of cinema that they're lampooning.
Fortunately, the film is clever enough to fill in most of the gaps and has enough forward momentum that I don't spend time wondering what reference I'm missing. The cast of characters is strong and all of the actors do a very creditable job - George Clooney and Alden Ehrenreich in particular do some really excellent work.
I think what I really liked about the film was the sense that the Coen Brothers have made a love letter to 1950s cinema without any compromising - even if I can't directly appreciate some of the references, I can appreciate the care and craft that's gone into the tribute. The musical numbers don't seem to exist for any other reason than to celebrate the excess and pomp of the films of the time and that's just fine.
I was also particularly delighted by the Communism subplot and all of Whitlock's scenes with the Communists - these were charming and funny and easily my favourite part of the film. Mannix's swift rebuttal of Whitlock's new found ideals at the end of the film raised a smile as well.
I feel as if I'll get a lot more from 'Hail, Caesar!' once I have a deeper appreciation of the cinema of the '50s. I'll rewatch it in the future but it's a perfectly good film in its own right until then.
Very boring and not a great story line. Acting was just ok too, even though the scenery and the "action" (dancing, etc.) were splendid. All in all I would not recommend this to anyone, great ideas but not put together very well and all the big name stars don't make it better.
Everything the critics blamed birdman to be, overzealous catering to hollywood (etc), behind the curtain comedy. I mean there are a lot of fun scenes, good actors and fun here and there, but it's mostly a disconnected mess of "writer/director fun" that really doesn't add up to a movie.
A lot of good elements, but I feel they didn't necessarily mesh together well. It felt like they had some ideas for great shots and scenarios and THEN tried to figure out how to squeeze them into ONE 100 minute film.
An absolute riot, with some truly exquisite photography. Whether or not one can enjoy it seems to be predicted by literacy.
Brolin is a solid anchor lead, and I actually found the cameos to be the weakest part of this. Clooney would have ideally been replaced with a true character actor; with Clooney it felt like an ironically meta, self-indulgent act of posturing self-effacement. Same with Tilda Swinton. Regarding the casting choice, it felt the same with Scarlett, and this is some of the best acting I've seen from her—I can't imagine Scarlett being self effacing, as I can't imagine her having a personality. Ralf Finennes and Alden Erenreich were straight out of the alternate reality, version: perfect of this film. I can't believe Howard/LF made that awful "Solo" film. Disney is a plague, whereas this film feels like something straight out of the mid-late 1990s golden age.
The Coen Brothers once again present us with a film of undeniable aesthetic beauty. The highlight lies with Roger Deakins and his cinematography, which never disappoints. Unfortunately, the rest of the film doesn't live up to this standard. Additionally, it's important to emphasize the impeccable sets, wardrobe, and characterization of the characters, which significantly contribute to the film's ambiance and atmosphere. The Coen Brothers have a unique ability to create a visually appealing and captivating universe, and "Hail Caesar" is no exception in this regard.
The narrative is weak and lacks a significant message. What is most disappointing is the total absence of any effort to deliver something more substantial. The plot relies on a talented cast, but they seem lost, and the Coen Brothers themselves don't seem to know how to make the most of it.
Josh Brolin delivers the film's richest character, but even so, it's not enough to make it memorable. He does his best with the material he has and gives a pleasing performance. Scarlett steals the spotlight in every scene she appears, providing the film's most memorable moment with her pool dance sequence. Clooney portrays a character lacking depth and charisma, which becomes a negative point. The same can be said for Channing. The appearances of Frances, Johan, Alden, and Ralph Fiennes are enjoyable.
In summary, the characters are too weak, which is surprising considering the standard the Coen Brothers have set throughout their careers. The story lacks a cohesive plot, but this could be forgiven if there were at least some significant content. I don't mind the quirkiness of the film, but rather the lack of substance in the story.
I continue to look forward to any film released by this incredibly creative duo, but this time, they disappointed with the flawed execution of a premise that already promised very little.
Good acting but not very interesting
Not enough Robert Picardo screen time.
Too much screen time for stuff that didn't drive the plot forward.
Just Bad ! I did like the cast, but please !
I think the Coen brothers are broken. Two consecutive duds (this and TBOBS). It's not funny and doesn't make you think. I also think it's trying to take the piss out of the movie business, but takes its self far too seriously to pull that off.
Definitely not a comedy for everyone. Not only you need to be prone to the Coen Brothers’ goofy sense of humor, you also need to be familiar with the personalities of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Despite not being that familiar with the subject matter, I found the film generally amusing. Even when the jokes don’t hit, the vignettes that both mock and pay a heartfelt tribute to the crappy movie genres of the 50s alone make the film worth watching.
A movie about moviemaking rife with quirky characters of Coen brothers and satire that's not misses the mark a few times. Works on many levels with multiple genre appetizers, an uncertain critique of filmmaking in the lens of capitalism, a self-conscious introspect of the industry and its agents and a visual palette to revel at.
From the Coen brothers comes the quirky, lighthearted satire Hail, Caesar! The story follows a 1950s movie studio exec as he attempts to keep several films on track while handling a number of problems that arise, including the kidnapping of a leading man, an unwed starlet getting pregnant, and a pair of twin investigative reporters snooping around the studio lot. Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, and Channing Tatum, the film features an impressive cast; their performances however, are rather lackluster. Also, the storytelling is weak and does a poor job at balancing the various character subplots. Still, the comedy is fairly well-written and has the typical Coen brothers flare that has come to be expected from their films. It has its problems, but overall Hail, Caesar! is an entertaining comedy.
Weird ..but then I watched it on a plane..
Hail, Caesar isn't the great Coen brothers movie that I wanted, but it's a one that I can enjoy and admire in some away.
This movie is both a love letter and almost an accurate look at old fashion film making. There's plenty to like here. The cinematography is excellent, the cast is superb, the humor is rich and hilarious.
But the real stand out in "Hail, Caesar" was Alden Ehrenreich. This guy was brilliant and stole every scene he's in. I'm looking forward seeing him in the Han Solo spin-off. I got faith in him. I mean, he made a convincing idiot with charm that made spaghetti as a cowboy rope- this guy can do it.
Wow what a snoozer. Not even worth my $1 I spent on it at the dollar store.
Waste of time, not worth your time
terrible lol to many great actors in it but
Shout by Milo123BlockedParent2016-07-23T10:40:10Z
Underrated and an excellent Coen Brothers film..