HAIL CAESAR! directed by Joel & Ethan Coen (USA,2016)
Friends, Romans,countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Hail Caesar!, not to praise it.
We all love the Coen Brothers, and not without cause, yet I am sad to report that this is one mess of a movie.
It’s as if the siblings decided to do a cut and paste job based on ideas left over from earlier films, then phoned round all their favorite actors to see who was available for a two hour love in.
There are some clever and amusing scenes but none of them lead anywhere because there is no coherent storyline to tie them together.
Along with the equally dire Burn After Reading from 2008, it is plain that what we have here is an ensemble cast that had more fun making a movie than the audience have watching it. Continue reading
Ever wondered what would happen if humans achieved the power to use 100% of their brains? No, me neither but Luc Besson has given the matter some thought and this overblown piece of cinematic nonsense is the consequence.
I remember when I first saw James Cameron’s Terminator 2:Judgement Day in 1991 I came out of the cinema thinking that there’s no way this can be topped for audacious effects and technical innovation. Obviously, I was wrong, as a spate of movies since, not least Cameron’s Titanic and Avator have pushed the boundaries still further.
I read and admired Tracy Chevalier’s novel when it was first published in 1999 but was never strongly drawn to the movie adaptation.
