Soooooooooo Disappointed

Rating: 4/10 (10 February 2016)

Let's start with the fact that I am a huge fan of the Cohen Brothers. I have seen all of their films in the theater, and I own a ton of their movies on Blu Ray. I also understand that they have an equally wide range of styles and genres in which they work as producers, writers, and directors.
However, after watching the trailers, I assumed we were in for something similar to their brilliant "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?," that to this day, remains one of my favorite movies and soundtracks of all time.
Nope. Not even close.
I am not going to "spoil" anything here regarding plot lines, because the "plot" was so disjointed, random, and disconnected, that to imply that there was an actual plot would be misleading.
You know you are in trouble when you have to rely on voice-over narration to try to hold something together. But even the narration seemed confusingly unhelpful. Three, or was it four, or maybe even five, sub-plots that had no real connection whatsoeverexcept that they were all set in the golden era of Hollywood.
The irony of having the whole "Commies in Hollywood" bitespecially with the ridiculous submarine scenein the year the "Trumbo" was released, was just too much to handle. There was a perceptive groan in the audience...no laughs.
This was, at best, an overblown, over-produced, over-cast mess.
Someone in the audience behind us said, "It's like they are trying to do homage to Wes Andersonbut don't seem to know what makes Wes Anderson movies work." I couldn't agree more.
The production value was entertaining in its bombastbut the cast was completely wasted on this.
Sorry guysI'll remember you for Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Oh Brother, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, and even Barton Fink. But this one? I am going to do my best to forget this one altogether.