A Slapdash Unfunny Affair

Rating: 5/10 (24 March 2016)

lavished 4.5 stars on Hail, Caesar! but it just didn't work for me. I love movies by the Coen brothers and they seldom ever missed its mark, but this one did. It is a satire of Hollywood filmmaking in the 1950s, complete with Astaire and Rogers tap dancing sequence, Esther Williams' synchronised swim-dance, the communist left wing insurgency, the Hollywood classic aspect ratio and even the gossip columnist of that bygone era. But everything feels so slapdash with little regard given to a already flimsy plot. The characters didn't lift off the screen and feel so dull. Sure, there are some surreal scenes with dry wit, but this is no The Grand Budapest Hotel. This all style and no substance, and mostly dull and uninspired. I struggled to keep awake but I was weak; I kept hoping something will happen and the whole movie will lift off. I should have left with a couple midway through the movie.