HAIL, CAESAR! (C+)

Buoyant with a bevy of boisterous performances – The Coen Brothers’ latest may boast some brilliantly staged shenanigans, but the rest is a rudderless, mixed-bag ship of unfocused energy and sporadically simplistic spirit.  In fact, the stop-go-stop-go, funny-to-flat ratio of the proceedings is the cinematic equivalent of your grandmother driving a car with one foot on the gas, while the other spastically taps the brake.  Brolin is terrific as an early 50’s studio executive who’s saddled with the task of making his contracted stars, despite their colorful private lives, shine bright in the public eye.  While he dutifully keeps these erratic plates spinning, his nincompoop troop of A-to-B-list marquee mavens (Clooney, Johansson, Fiennes, Tatum and Ehrenreich) all have singular moments to shine...  Only problem being that a handful of shining singular moments do not necessarily a great movie make.  There’s a lightweight, post-war cinema love affair at play that suits the characters and dialogue well – it’s a Golden Age ripe for ribbing, but the dull-edged snark on display is largely unbalanced and rarely ever embraces a singular tone.  Although the film will undoubtedly (and predictably) work for some, it still remains a slighter effort from this dynamic duo directing crew.  It’s an awkwardly erratic and wafer-thin effort with inspired flashes of greatness.  A film that – compared to the rest of the Coen catalog – might have been more aptly titled: Fail, Caesar.

Starring: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Frances McDormand and Jonah Hill

Directed by: Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Miller’s Crossing, No Country for Old Men and True Grit)
Rated: PG-13

Running time: 1hr. 45min.
Story: Hail, Caesar! follows a single day in the life of a Golden Age studio fixer who is presented with plenty of problems to fix...

Watch the Trailer: www.hailcaesarmovie.com